All along this path that I have been on, searching for our family, I have met some wonderful people.
People ready and willing to share their pictures, info, and stories about the family, trying to help one another.
I just was given a wonderful opportunity to return the favors that have been given to me. To "pay it forward", just a little, as they say. It sure does my soul good to be able to do that for someone! Someone else searching for their family, too.
I got an email from a girl that has a Correll connection to our Correll family that is buried up in Happy Valley, Isabell's family.
She forwarded an email that she had gotten, on to me.
He was a Correll, born in Happy Valley, that was long lost, and seeking where he came from.
I looked over what info he had given and checked my database for any connection. I found it. Big Grin!
His father was Kenneth Correll. Born and raised in Happy Valley, Tennessee.
I just KNEW at this point that I was going to be able to tie him into to our branch of Corrells!
His grandfather was Joe Thomas Correll. Joe Thomas was the son of William Correll.
William Correll was the brother of our Isabell.
This Correll is my third cousin. Second Cousin, Once removed , if you are from my Dad's generation.
He decided to try and find his family that he never really knew, the Correll side of his family.
His mother and father went separate ways, when he was just a toddler. Once, in his twenties, he and a brother contacted his Dad, Kenneth and they met briefly.
No other contact was made.
He had pretty much raised himself and became independent at a very young age.
He married young and started a family unit of his own. He had lived a wonderful life, so far, but there was always something missing. Something hard to explain, but something I can easily understand. "Family" was missing, and a big chunk of "I don't know" was in the way, of an otherwise full, happy, life.
Time had come for him to seek his roots and find out what he could. He located a gal that I had been in contact with, some time back and she had saved my email info..so she sent his email to me.
I replied back after I found the connection.
What an exciting moment that had to be for him!
He fired an email right back to me, elated.
There, on FindAGrave, a website for memorials, a man had entered his father's memorial.
He came instantly, face to face, with the picture of his father sitting beside his grandfather, Joe Thomas.
Imagine that moment. First glimpse of your grandfather's face at the age of 60.
We have been so blessed, folks! In our family, we have never known what it is like to not have a large family to turn to.
With the memorials pictures that I had entered into FindAGrave, of all those buried in Boone Cemetery, Happy Valley, he was able to see the graves of his father's family in a matter of moments.
His grandparents, his great-grands, all of them.
He wrote me back telling me how wonderful all this new found information was.
His daughter had been away on a weekend vacation. Gone to Cade's Cove. Now just guess where his Great grandmother was from?
Yep, Cades Cove. She was a Tipton, with deep roots in the Cades Cove area.
He wrote and told me that sometimes things just seem to be set into place, to happen, and somehow, I believe him.
You can follow life's path to just about anywhere, but when you get to where you're going, you always seem to get to a point, where you want to pause and look over your shoulder, back toward home.
No comments:
Post a Comment