Have you received a real geneological bonus?

[Rishile]

I have had a few unexpected surprises during my research. 

Today I have logged on to FB and was instantly confronted with a photo of my mum and grandfather on my mum's wedding day.  I have never seen this photo before so was totally overwhelmed.  You really don't expect that.

A few years ago I put a request on Billiongraves.com for someone to take a photo of my grand-parent's grave.  I completely forgot about it.  A couple of weeks ago I was checking my spam emails and saw a message from Billiongraves that someone had responded that day.  They had taken a lovely photo of the grave - again totally overwhelming.

About a year ago a cousin that I found during my research contacted me and said someone was trying to contact me and should he give them my email address.  I said that would be OK.  It turned out to be another cousin who I had never previously met or known about.  We emailed a few times and he suddenly sent me a photo of my father's family including my great-grandparents, all their children and spouses and all their grand-children and spouses.  As I had never seen a photo of my great-grandfather nor grandfather it was really unexpected.

Another totally amazing experience was a few years ago.  My half-brother's wife owns a shop and she had a customer go in there one day and ask if she was Mrs ...  She said she was.  The lady told her she had some information for her.  She said she didn't really want to know but it was kind to offer.  The lady returned a couple of days later with a lot of information, including a photo, of my great-uncle who died during WW1.  My SIL passed it all to me.  This was even more amazing as it was only a few months after I had found my half-brother.

Has anyone else had any amazing bonuses?

Rishile

[3sillydogs]

I too have had a few unexpected surprises during my research.

When I first started I saw a post on a site looking for my family, intrigued I responded to the poster and found that she was a cousin I had not known about. 

Then last year someone contacted me via Facebook and said someone was trying to contact me, again curiosity got the better of  me and found yet another cousin I hadn't known about.  A whole side of the family I grew up not knowing about.  She sent me a photo of her dad at a family gathering and there to my surprise were my parents and uncle along with my grandmother.

We are in regular contact and share the same quirky sense of humour and like of mischief.  Turns out these were secrets dear old granny had kept and probably would never have seen the light but for us 3 amateur genealogists.

[Chilternbirder]

I never knew why but my late father didn't keep in touch with his extended family at all meaning that I ended up with a family photo showing 4 generations of the family at my gg grandparents golden wedding in 1951. There were very few names that I could put to it.

I was contacted by a second cousin through Ancestry who was able to put names to all the people and also pass on anecdotes about our g grandparents that he had gleaned from his grandmother (my grandgather's sister).

[Nick_Ips]

I was surfing the internet one day and found a site called Rootschat.com - that was as good as finding my still 'missing' great-grandfather might be one day

[dowdstree]

I posted here I think about a year ago about meeting up with a young x times removed cousin who was interested in genealogy (through Ancestry originally).

We have met a few times and exchanged family information. There have been a couple of exciting finds.

1.   He was able to give me a photograph of my Great Grandmother - Mary Malcolm - I had never seen a photograph of her before. She is my Avator.

2.    He went through the Dundee phone book and found two cousins 1 x removed to me and we all went to Dundee to meet them and of course exchanged more information and photographs. We keep in touch regularly and another meeting is planned soon.

3.   Today I got a very excited phone call from him " I have been going through my Nana's drawers  and I have found a letter dated 1964 from Ethel who went to New Zealand" Another piece of our family jigsaw falls into place as we now have a married name for Ethel. He has emailed it to me and I must go and read it.

His Nana is in her late 80's and a lovely lady who unfortunately suffers from Dementia so her memory is not what it used to be.

When I met her and her younger sister last year she was in good form that day and we exchanged lots of family gossip and memories.

As we were leaving,  her younger sister mentioned a cousin who had been very good to her mother, my great aunt,  (who had been ostrocised by the family for marrying a Catholic ) His name was Alec I think and he had something to do with dentistry. That made me want to cry because Alec was my late father.

Must go and read that email.

Dorrie

[coombs]

I met up with distant cousins and looked at a huge fact file of documents, photos and notes on our shared ancestors, including handwritten transcripts from the family bible.

[philipsearching]

Apart from finding Rootschat and previously unknown cousins on Rootschat, my greatet bonus was to find out that there was a photo in existence of my late father's mother.  I was utterly amazed when the lady who had the photo (who I have never met!) offered to send it to me.

Now that's what I call genearosity!

Philip

[groom]

I think my biggest bonus so far was to get in contact with someone on Ancestry who was the granddaughter of one of my grandmother's brothers. Her mother remembered my grandparents and how my grandfather always slipped her some money when they visited - he did the same for us. She also sent me some photos of my father when he was about 5, I'd never seen any of him as a child. Then she was contacted by another relative who had researched my great grandmother's family, as she was a Smith I was finding that line hard! Not only had he been to all the record offices, but he had transcribed all the family wills and sent me copies. A great bonus.   

[KGarrad]

In the early days of my research, I found a lady based in Norwich, whose maiden name was Garrad.
The Garrad family originate in Suffolk & Essex.

On exchanging a few emails, and confirming that my line was the "lost" West Country line, she provided me with a wealth of information, which enabled me to trace back to the mid-1500s

Of course, over the years I have double-checked a lot of her information.
Not all, because a lot of she gleaned from Archives, Record Offices and Parish Chests all over East Anglia.

We have since corresponded a few times over the years.