Sentimental Sunday: A Small Family Reunion

So very happy - I met my cousin John yesterday.  He is visiting the UK from Australia, and for the first time in over 100 years our two branches of the family met.  Sentimental - you better believe it!

John's grandfather was my grandfather's eldest brother.  Joseph emigrated to Australia not long after the turn of the last century and gradually lost touch with the family back home in Bristol.  Two years ago, after a lot of internet sleuthing, poring over cemetery records and a couple of phone calls, I found one of Joseph's other grandchildren.  I was quickly acquainted with the other members of the family and we keep in contact via email,  Facebook and telephone.  However, nothing can beat a face-to-face meeting.

John turned out to be the model cousin - charming and funny (runs in the family, according to my father!) and his lovely wife is interested in family history too.  We compared notes on family traits, talked about our respective grandparents and generally reminisced.  Our time together whizzed by, but it has renewed my determination to keep cousin hunting - maybe one day we can have a really big family reunion.