William S Dean's Blog – December 2009 Archive (2)

Have you ever had the experience of being contacted through some genealogy website by a cousin you've never met or even knew you had? It happens to me all the time and it's really a great experience to connect with someone with the same family roots that grew into you!



While some of these encounters develop into lifelong communication, others come and go; but cousins can be a wonderful source of genealogical data, stories, and most importantly photographs that you didn't even knew… Continue

While a lot of genealogical research can feel like you’re just slowly sifting your way through a soggy mountain of old data to occasionally discover a few tiny grains of precious family history, once in awhile your heart leaps with the thrill of finding those golden nuggets which add to the genuinely rich heritage that is the family saga.



As a direct descendant of some of California’s earliest European explorers and settlers, I am also related to most of the other early Spanish… Continue