Again

Found another cousin!

So check out this twist of fate and series of events.

So I’ve been anxiously waiting for the chance to get on new familysearch, right? Every time we get messages about testing it etc. It won’t let me on, so I’ve pretty much given up thinking I’ll just have to wait until the rest of Utah comes on, right? We must only have access to the tests and I just keep missing the limited period of time or something, right?

So we had these business meetings last week, department wide, and they kept talking about us getting on to familytree (which requires a newfamilysearch log-in) and onto nfs, and encouraged us to get on if we haven’t. So I’m motivated to try and find someone who can help me get on. Success, but I have to wait 24-48 hours…this was Friday.

So it waits until Monday.

So, I interpreted at the missionary devotional Monday morning, right?

On my way out, I ran into a couple who used to serve with me, and have now returned for a second mission. Elder and Sister Jarvis. Between missions, they moved to Cedar City. We chatted for a while, good couple, absolutely adore them.

I get back to my desk and log-in to nfs for the first time. And I discover that many ‘contributions’ to my family line have been done so by this guy with the last name of Jarvis. Interestingly enough…its mostly on my Cedar City lines.

Had I not just seen them, I wouldn’t have even thought about this couple or at least not made the Cedar City connection. And again, I knew they were not originally from Cedar City, but I still couldn’t help but wonder, you know? But the possibility was so slim, I didn’t figure it was worth going out of my way to ask them about it, and I see them so rarely that I figured by the time I would see them again, I would have forgotten all about it.

So I had this meeting scheduled with this guy today. His office shared a wall with theirs.

He wasn’t there. But I didn’t want to just run off, in case he came just a few minutes late, right, so to kill time I ran over to chit-chat with them. And low and behold, she actually brought up something that sparked me to tell them about what had happened Monday.

Of course she got a big kick out of it. And said she’d have to pull up that history and see if they could find any connection. And then said it’s the strangest thing because this other guy that I worked with for years had just realized that they were “from” Cedar City and had been explaining that he has a lot of family down there, including one of my family names. Of course the name is Jones, so what are the chances?

But I go over to chat with him about it anyway, since his office wasn’t far away either and right next to someone else I needed to talk to.

“Sister Jarvis tells me, you have family in Cedar City.”
“Yeah, my Dad’s down there” me thinking: oh, too recent, probably not, then him again “My family were some of the earliest settlers down there”
“Mine too.” (I’m trying hard to suppress a grin at this point.)
Yadda yadda, words of amazement…
Then the name exchange starts. Surnames only of course, till I do hit “jones”

“yeah, I definitely have a few ‘Jones’ in my family. John Lee?” I about lost it at this point but he continued “John…” finally I couldn’t help it

“Hey Cuz!”

Yeah, he actually has a couple of books on our ancestors and knows all these other people, even some big shots, that we’re related to, and all. Major find. And way cool!

We actually come through different wives. My ancestor was the oldest from the first wife, his ancestor was the youngest from the second wife. There's something like 23 kids all together. So while my co-worker is much closer to my age, he's actually in the same 'generation' as my grandma. They would be 1/2 second cousins...right? So then if I have this figured out right, he and I would be 1/2 second cousins twice removed....or something like that. Gotta love it.