I'm in touch with a relative I didn't know I had. She is the great-great-grand-daughter of my great-great-great-grandfather. My great-great-grandmother was her great-grandfather's sister. Our shared relative (who worked on the railways) went by the fabulous name of Frederick George Rumble Olley (Rumble was his mother's maiden name). He died in 1912. His first wife, we believe, died in childbirth and his son later died in infancy. He married again and his second wife bore seven children, still managing to live until the ripe age of 90 years (no mean feat in that day and age). Anyway, my new relative (second cousin, much removed?) lives in the US and has for years been searching for someone who can visit Frederick George Rumble Olley's grave in Wolverton, to take flowers (and photos). She told me today that I would make her the happiest woman in the world if I could make that pilgramage. I have since emailed the church via their extremely useful website asking for confirmation of the burial and location of the plot. It's less than an hour and half's drive away from me, so I'll be going.
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3 comments:
God bless you, Sarah.
The world needs more acts of small kindnesses,such as yours.
Gosh, what a great story. How did you find this cousin? I have a number of cousins who are pretty much those kinds of cousins, also in the US, and it was such a thrill discovering them, they are lovely, much nicer than some of the closer relatives. And how great that you can make her so happy with something that is only an hour and a half's drive from you. Family can be a wonderful thing, when done right.
Hi KC and Tania, I was glad to find such a simple way to make this new-found relative happy.
Tania, to answer your question, she'd posted on all sorts of genealogy fora, with our mutual ancestor's full name. When I came to google him recently, I found her posts immediately. Interestingly, we both had different parents listed for the gentleman, which is proving facinating. A friend of my mother's is composing a biography for my Great-Uncle, who is my oldest living relative. The family tree she produced as part of this showed Frederick's name and I thought - that looks google-friendly. I'm glad you have found lots of these distant cousins, too.
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