I'm meeting my second cousin for the first time next Sunday and

[no_hypocrisy]

we're going to the grave of our great grandparents, the link to each other.

It's one thing to research your family history online. It's another thing to make a connection.

[3Hotdogs]

1. I found 238 first, second and third cousins. Most on my father's side.

Seems, at the end of the 19th century, a couple of them were quite frisky in quite a few beds in Newark, N.J.

[PJMcK]

2. You're not from the Giuliani family, are you?

Second cousins get special treatment in that family.

Sorry, I'm not very classy! Enjoy your connection to your ancestry. That's pretty cool.

[whathehell]

4. Did you know that 2nd cousin marriages are legal in all 50 states?

Just sayin'.

[The Genealogist]

3. Ive met a few relatives doing my research

One is a loyal democrat, so i get along well with her. But far more often it is correspondence only, rather than meeting in person. Most people I meet are far away from me. I've also corresponded with a few people j hope I never have to meet in person. Lol

[shanti]

5. How nice!

I found a second cousin too, but she turned out to be a dud. We never met, but she just stopped emailing out of the blue. Come to find out years later that she had an issue with my 'politics'. I have no idea how she even know of my politics, as I don't remember discussing it. Maybe I mentioned liking Obama? Dunno. She actually grew up around our mutual ggrandmother in another state, whereas I never met her, so she had a ton of pics.

[wnylib]

6. Several years ago, I met a 2nd cousin

on a surname message board. I recognized the couple he had posted a message about He was doubtful at first since his family was in OH and mine was from PA, so
he checked with his grandmother. She remembered a cousin who settled in my PA hometown and I recognized her cousin's name as my great aunt. He sent me a photo of our gg-grandparents which I fowarded to my uncle, who was delighted to see a resemblance to his mother (my grandmother).

I was surprised to see a strong resemblance between gg-grandpa and one of my brothers, who did not resemble the rest of us much.

But that correspondence was brief. We had nothing in common besides some genes

A couple years later, I met a couple more second cousins from the other side of my family, also at a message board. They did not know of my branch until I joined the conversation. I was able to send them photos of some relatives they knew and ones they did not know. They had more info than I did about the ancestry of our g-grandparents. I had the story of how and why our g-grandparents came to America. It's a nail-biting tale of escape from political persecution (for being liberals, of course), which fascinated them.

It was great fun to exchange info, but we never met in person and the conversations fizzled after a few months.

I put all the info I had, along with some stories I had discovered about some of our ancestors, and fowarded it on to my brother, who passed it on to his children and grandchildren.

[TuxedoKat]

7. Wonderful

I just met a second cousin through Ancestry and we've developed an online friendship. I even got my mother to reconnect with her mother and sister (first cousins all) to their mutual happiness.