Let's Try Another Branch

Next I turned my attention to the Marks family – my grandfather’s father and his ancestors. I found through the San Francisco Call Index that Mollie Raphael had married a Joseph Marks – now I knew another great grandparent! – Joseph, (which by the way is my father’s middle name – now I know why).

This is getting exciting! I found through the census Joseph’s brothers and his parents Louis Marks and wife Caroline and his brother’s families. Back to the San Francisco Call Index to find out their spouses and dates of their marriages. So now I had not only found a great grandfather and great grandmother (Joseph and Mollie) - but also a great great grandfather and grandmother - Louis and Caroline!

I thought it was time to take a breath and try to connect with some more people. I placed an item in both the ancestry.com or rootsweb.com forums and asked if anyone had any information about a Raphael family who had lived in the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1800s. A short time later, I received an email from a woman named Kit Crawford, a new name to me, EXCEPT that I remember a distant cousin from when I was a child who was named Kit. We emailed and voila – Kit the cousin was found. Through emails and phone calls we connected, and have been in touch since. I subsequently made a business trip to San Diego and stopped by to visit her and her husband, as well as her mother Elisabeth Repp, Stafford’s sister. Elisabeth was a hoot and Kit was very helpful as we shared notes. Sadly Elisabeth passed a few years later, but I was able to have her connect with my Uncle Merv (they were first cousins and hadn't talked in over 50 years!)

TIP – ASK QUESTIONS IN GENEALOGY FORUMS

You never know who will answer. Sometimes no one, sometimes relatives that you know of, sometimes new relatives, and many times “would be” relatives – people who think they might be related but turn out not to be.

This is getting cooler and cooler! I am actually finding people! Amazing!