Family Traits, Resemblances and Cousins Fun.
The other day my cousin sent me a photo of her daughter and a man. They met and she could not
get over how he looked like her Dad. dcd.
Well I knew without doubt, yes with out doubt he had to be kin.
Let me tell you a story.
1993, I flew to Pittsburg, PA and went to Greene Co. PA, to meet Mom's distant relatives, that her Dad used to talk to me about when I was younger, much younger.
(Since small when Grandad would lift me onto the hay bailer, he shared family stories with Richard, Hartley and I. Richard was a few months older than I. Hartley was the youngest and he said he remembers the incidents but not the stories cause he would get bored and jump down and run around while Grandad talked. He did this each trip to Wheatland, Wyo.. Even the last time in 1958, but no hay bailer then we used the kitchen table. As a teen we walked the corn fields and soy bean fields, changed water in the ditches, while he shared his life with us.
I so wanted to ask Rich about two of Grandad's stories, alas it did not happen. I did go to Wyoming to his Memorial service and see family I had not seen since about 1998-9, last fall.
Grandad's directive to me was, if I ever got a chance to go to Greene Co. PA and meet his kin we would never regret it. His Dad took him when he was 5 years before he started school. I actually was contacted by one of those relatives that remember Grandad being there.
That is why all this is happening. Or at least a great deal of it is, of course Dad's side was just as intriguing. More on that side later.)
Back to story, I was met by distant cousin, at airport drove to her home. (Helen Durbin) Spent day then next day drove into Waynesburg from West Alexander where her home was. O let me tell you, no road signs, NO ROAD Signs. I had to use the car phone to reach my distant cousin in Waynesburg on how to wander around these gorgeous hills and trees and valleys and rills. I made it took me 3 hours to go 30 mins of distance. Fortunately we had spoke on the phone for about 5 months prior to my going east, generally at least once a week.
When I met this cousin, I was like wow, you look like my Aunt Mae, so wanted her to see picture of her. Then later I went to another cousins, her sis and she looked exactly like Aunt Ruth, later in the week I met their brother. NO Kidding, he was spitting image of my Uncle Dick in Wheatland, Wyo.
He wore cowboy boots, talked and sounded so much like him I as almost speechless.
On another day I met two more relatives and they all could match to kin I grew up with. Violet and her daughter Zennia Gilbert. They were from the oldest child in the family and the resemblance again was startling. Another looked like my Mom. It was very intriguing to see the family resemblances.
Very strong resemblances. Many of their traits were the same and as strong.
Dad said that all Huffman/Hoffman's of Mom's family had a specific walk. So I asked Eva Patterson if when we walked down to the hair saloon to let me tell her if I could pick out my Huffman/Hoffman cousins. I met 7 more relatives walking about 10 blocks down to the main part of town and went in and met another male cousin with his store. Eva said I picked up on each one we spoke to and passed and then she told me their names. She had invited them to her home for one evening of sharing.
Of course we have those funky fingers and toes. I have used them to find kin for 40 + years long before DNA. But it is a DNA thing. People who did not know they had Hoffman/Huffman lineage would later learn it was true. Of course many years later DNA proved it true all over again.
We would ask kin in the unknown status about Cowlicks, and dimples and ears and all kinds of traits we see in our family. Can you bend your fingers backwards on your hand, double jointed? The list is many when one thinks about it.
So today my cousin in Kansas wrote and said yes that Richard Hoffman is family and then I realized I had spoke to one of his relatives in the past but never kept track of their children.
Back to filling in my collateral cousins trees, much I have just never put it in, was digging to go back another generation to verify if some of the family stories were true. So far most of them are, sometimes off a generation but mostly more factual than not. Sometimes it is a different place but not totally crazy off the chart wrong.
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