Tika & Family Ties

Sandy from Florida came to visit us and gained Tika's love and trust right away. Why not, since she is family?

Sandy is the ex-wife of the son of my husband's father and his first wife. (Can you figure that out?) So she is biologically aunt-by-marriage to my children and we are same to her son. Since all of our children share Phillips' ancestry, that makes us cousins!

After Sandy's visit I got to thinking about Collateral Research or some might call it Descendancy Research.  Whatever you term it, looking for the relatives-of-the-relatives-of-the-relatives, etc. is a worthwhile pursuit. The goal of any search is to find answers and/or new information. The goal of connecting up with a distant, shirt-tail, relative is the same: to find answers and/or new information. But the best part of this sort of research is that you often find "stuff and things" that you would never find elsewhere.

For instance, since Sandy's son comes from Chuck Phillips' first wife, Sandy could tell me more details about her life.... things I did not know. Things I had not looked for since "it's not my line"..... hubby comes from the second wife.

Another connection I've made this month with the descendants of the first wife was to get pictures that I would never have seen otherwise. It's sad but true that most of us only take the time to really dig into our own pedigree line and too often ignore those collateral folks, even close ones.

"Shape up!" Tika reminds us. "Think how great it was to spend time with a distant cousin and think what you both learned!" Tika is one smart little dachshund dogger.