This Past Week

This week has been an interesting genealogical week.

First, I was contacted by a first cousin once removed (first cousin's son). I've talked to my cousin Vincent on occasion but I wouldn't say that we have a close relationship. Perhaps searching for our ancestors will change that. To make a long story short, cousin Vincent is in Iraq, was bored and researched our family name and came across one of my post on Afrigenas.com and not realizing that it was me, although he says it thought it was, he responded to my post. I hope this leads us into getting to know each other better. Both Vincent and his dad bear my great-grandfather Cornelius' name. Rumor has it that my grandmother, Mary Pierce Hosch, suggested naming my first cousin Cornelius because he reminded her of her dad.

Second, I was going back through some of the items my second cousin, Roy Hosch (grandson of my great uncle Will Hosch), sent me back in 1998. Some of the items he sent were obituaries for some cousins in Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County. These were my grandfather's and great uncle's first cousins. Reading through the obituaries I decided to check Zabasearch.com and Whitepages.com to see if possibly some of their descendants may still be living in the Lawrenceville area. Much to my delight, I believe that I've located some of the descendants of my cousin Etta Mae Hosch.

Etta Mae's ancestry is as follows:
Etta Mae Hosch → Augustus (Gus) Hosch → Matilda Hosch

Matilda Hosch is my great-great-grandmother.

I plan to write two of the people that I belive are Etta's descendants next week and hopefully this will be a first step into helping me attain one of my most sought after goals, reclaiming the lost branches of the tree. My goal is to reestablish the family getting together since after all my Hosch ancestors / family were the originators of the family reunion that is now held on my mother's side of the family.

In closing out today's post, I must say that I'm ashamed that it has taken me all this time to thoroughly go through the packet that cousin Roy sent. I met cousin Roy in 1998 shortly after I had moved back home to North Carolina from Colorado. One of the first things I did after returning home was get connected to the Internet. From there, besides looking for a job, the first Internet activity was trying to to get into the slavery era. I don't even remember the site now but I remember posting about my Hosch ancestors. My cousin Roy responded. I didn't even know his name at this point but as as soon as he said he was from Salisbury, NC, I knew instantly he was one of my great uncles descendants. Unfortunately life took over shortly after Roy and I met. Within 3 months after moving back home I was 1) driving 60+ miles one way to work 4 days a week 2) driving to grad school (about 50 miles in the opposite direction) 1 day a week and 3) helping take care of an aunt who had Alzheimer's. Needless to say, genealogy was the furthest thing from my mind.


Until Next Time!