family tree project

i have always been intrigued by my family history and just last night helped a long-lost cousin complete my mother's father's family tree....

we found so much information and are so exited!

my great-great grandmother and her sons in illinois taken about 1930

we can trace our family back to the 1600s in england, 

with immigration to virginia 

and have found we have some danish and irish blood, too!

my great-great grandfather (right) as part of wild bill hickock's wild west show

there was wealth, poverty, entertainers, a murder, orphans, scandal, prison....

everything you could possibly think of 

(as i'm sure most families have if you trace them back far enough!)

the old pictures intrigue me the most,

as does one story about a little girl named sunshine 

sunshine, renamed josephine, and her husband about 1940

sunshine was my great-grandfather's half sister 

and following her mother and father's deaths 

(they were both very young when they died) 

she was given up for adoption and her name was changed.

just this very week, my mother's aunt found out she was living AROUND.THE.CORNER. from sunshine's daughter, 

and has been for over 20 years! 

They are FIRST COUSINS! 

my grandfather (right) with his brother and their pet goat in 1932

this has truly been an amazing experience 

and has made me want to find out even more about my other branches!

do you know who YOU are?!?