Casey's grandmother, Marie Madden Brown and my grandfather, Bill Madden, were brother and sister. It was yet another cousin, Marla Madden of Boca Raton, FL, who is the granddaughter of yet another Madden sibling, Leo Madden, who did the genealogical research and who ferreted out the existence of Casey Brown and me. Amazingly, while I was growing up in Squirrel Hill, Casey was growing up in Swissvale, not even ten miles apart.
Bill Madden was my mother's father, and, for whatever the reason, I knew very little of the background or history of the Madden branch of my own particular family tree. So, I am grateful to Marla for finding us, and I am grateful to have had the chance to meet Casey. We spent a delightful couple of hours together learning about our heretofore unknown shared pasts.
Kind of like something you'd see in a movie.
Indeed, it WAS like something you'd see in a movie!
ReplyDeleteBut we need to create more scenes for this movie, featuring encounters with more newly discovered cousins!
I met up with Marla's sister, Cheryl, in a coffee shop when she passed through Pittsburgh a few weeks ago. Now to meet the other descendents of Leo Madden - Marcie, Janice and the family-tree-researching Marla herself! (Worth a trip to Florida!)
Dorothy Madden, whose grandfather James was a sibling of Marie, Bill and Leo, grew up in Swissvale -walking distance from my house. But I never knew about her or her clan. Thanks to Marla and ancestry.com and Facebook, we now know of each other's existence and I hope to meet her and her family soon.
Why did our parents not stay in contact with their cousins? Was everyone of that generation too busy struggling through the Depression, WWII and making new lives to make time for extended family ?