Tracing one's family is very personal, and not something that just holds our friends and acquaintances spellbound, if we dwell on it too long in our conversations!!   This, along with seeking additional information, is why we search for connecting "cousins". We share a common interest, one that others do not. Before the Internet was so accessible, it was not as easy to find connections. Especially far away. We could send inquiries to historical societies and clubs, but I had little response doing that. If any, it was usually someone researching the same surname, but distant, if any connection at all. 

In March of 1981 my husband and I, and two teen-aged daughters took a trip during Spring Break to do some research in TN. The girls were resigned to a dull trip, but glad to get away from home regardless. They were troopers through one cemetery after another.  They wrote as fast as they could, and researched until closing with us at the Archives in Nashville. 

Then we traveled to Tullahoma TN . My husband, made a call to the first "Burt" in the small area phone book and asked where the "Burts" were mostly buried. He was told "Purkey Creek". We went off to find it, and remember asking out the window "Where's Purkey Creek?" to hear "You're in it." We found the cemetery in what we soon found was TURKEY Creek, visited with a wonderful Burt cousin there visiting the grave of her husband. She invited us to dinner, which we graciously declined - not wanting to impose on this wonderful little lady well into her 80's. She  (Lula Burt Edens) gave us the name of the local Burt genealogy expert, Edwin.

Edwin was a delight. In his late 70's, he was trying to learn "Swahili", and planning a trip to Africa. He had a broken leg, after being thrown off a horse. Sausage was cooking when we arrived, and almost burned the house down after we became engrossed in conversation. Ed was no slouch at the library. I found I had already made copies of some his contributions. He was a descendant of Frederick, brother of the Willis Burt I was researching. Ed didn't know what happened to Willis' descendants, but directed us to the local library which assisted us no end.

My husband took the county maps, directions and location information from the cemetery index of Hinkle Cemetery. We did find it. A nice, well kept cemetery out in the country. Nowhere near "Turkey Creek" where the Frederick Burts were buried. We had an index from the library, but scribbled down the names and dates anyway. We chalked the gravestones, then photographed them. We had found my gggrandfather!!! Just a couple of years before, no one in my family even knew his name - now we had FOUND him!! Nomatter he was long dead. We had been searching so diligently for such a length of time, this felt like a reunion! We went into town, and bought artificial flower decorations and brought them back. This is where my favorite story begins.... Here is the photo of the flower laden grave, and the note we attached, trying to preserve it in a plastic sleeve. The note reads

"3-20-81

We left these flowers on the graves of my great-great-great-grandparents, Willis and Rebecca Burt. My mother is Joy (Burt) Dupy. Her father is Paul Brazier Burt; his father was Asbury Brazier Burt; his father was Alfred Burt, who was the son of Willis Burt."

our daughters then both signed it and we put our names and full address on it.

Almost a year later, I received a letter in the mail. It explained how much difficulty she had trying to get the faded address from the weather beaten plastic sleeved paper we had left in that remote TN graveyard, so many miles from our home in Oklahoma. She used phone books from their library trying to assist putting the name and address together. Finally, she gave it a shot! It was from another descendant of the Willis Burt I was researching! the first, and only one (excepting one of her own cousins) I have ever made contact with . We exchanged information about our lineage, ourselves, and our families. We kept in touch. We have met three times. The photo below is from our first meeting around 1993. We also had dinner together just in the summer ('99). Then again in 2001. This was a real thrill for me. I would never have known this very special couple, or even of their existence. Our great-great-grandfather sort of introduced us........