SILVAN LEAVES CONTINUE TO GROW ~

It must be nearing spring because last night, our tree grew a new leaf! Out of the internet miracles, a man googled the SILVAN surname and my Spanish Pearls blog popped up for him. He looked it over, knew it was his family and called me. We had a wonderful conversation and we will connect all the dots. He, like many of us, had heard conflicting stories and he is anxious to finally see documentation through stories, pictures and documents.

He is my grandmother Manuela's nephew, Celestino Robert (Cel). His father was Manuela's brother, Celestino. We pieced together the family line and will be collaborating with an exchange of pictures and I (again) love feeling my family grow around me! My heart warmed up quickly when I realized it was his mother whom I fell for like a ton of bricks with just one conversation and then felt crushed when she died within six weeks after our one and only conversation - She was Uncle Celestino's wife, Mary Louise.

The past few weeks I have been filling in the family tree for many of our family lines ~ Mainly because I have papers, documents and loose pictures all over the place and the random files and information have given me a feeling of utter clutter... So, I have been able to attach pictures to www.ancestry.com so I can put the folders away and hope to FIND supporting information in Washington, D.C. in two weeks time. The enormity of such dizzying possibilities of finding more details of our family makes me wish time away. But then I get up Monday morning each week and drink my first cup of coffee and before I know it, it's already Thursday. Time is too precious to rush through but this genealogy is so addictive. I love sharing it with any and all family members who are just beginning or who have hit the proverbial brick wall. I have managed to jump over several but there are so many more waiting and some are VERY high walls!!