| Long lost family members are just as likely a | | | | Ancestry and genealogy records can aid you in |
| kissing cousins just hired by your company, or the | | | | making the link with your long lost family |
| ex-offender who moved in down the street. Most | | | | members as well as new family you never knew |
| people wonder about their ancestors or other | | | | you had. I became a fan of family records, when |
| relatives who they do not know. After all, you | | | | it became known to me, I had $618,000 just |
| never know if you are a distant cousin of | | | | waiting for me to prove my Dad's brother once |
| someone famous unless you bother to take a | | | | lived in Alcoa Tenn. I would have liked to get my |
| look at your family history. | | | | hands on just $1,000 at the time. (smile) How |
| Years ago, families would keep family trees in the | | | | money can change things, and change people. |
| family bible. They would write in the births, deaths | | | | I had to visit Nashville, TN. to make claim on the |
| and marriages of all of the members of the | | | | money, but it was an easy choice once I found |
| family. There was a special person who kept | | | | out the $618,000 was tax free. If you are like |
| these records, and all too often the phone rang | | | | me, you wonder about your relatives and |
| asking Aunty "when is cousin Barbs birthday?" | | | | ancestors and want to know more about them, |
| Only to find out she passed. Very few families, if | | | | especially when finding them, may put you in |
| any, keep family records today. | | | | touch with family fortunes. |
| Most people have no idea who their | | | | After the book "Roots" came out, it got people |
| great-great-grandparents are, or any history | | | | into learning about their family history. Alex Haley's |
| about them. But that does not keep them from | | | | journey was truly remarkable. Mr. Haley wrote |
| wondering and dreaming about the fortune in gold | | | | the book "Roots" over a period of years. But |
| that's buried somewhere on the family plot. It's | | | | thanks to the internet, finding your long lost family |
| there you know, because you've heard the story | | | | members may become fun. Secrets how to |
| from birth, how the pirate ship came aground in a | | | | trace ancestors is no longer a three year task. |
| wintry storm, and your family helped two of the | | | | Take the time to look up a long lost family |
| survivors, who buried a treasure of jewelry and | | | | member today, it just may be the holiday |
| gold nuggets deep within the well on the Barnette | | | | present your entire family will need. Maybe even |
| plantation. | | | | your long lost kissing cousin. |