In mid August of 2009, I received a rather strange email. It was from a woman, named Evelyn Huey; her name was not even remotely familiar. The letter stated that she was from a volunteer for an organization called “RAOGK.” I had never heard this acronym before receipt of the cryptic letter. The letter stated that Mrs. Huey was beginning research on my family’s genealogy. It went on, stating she was trying to find information on a nephew of my great-great grandparents. While, a few tiny pieces of the information fit, as our family genealogist I knew much of it was just slightly off. So, I rudely just disregarded the letter. A few weeks later an email arrived detailing the same information. Again, I rudely ignored it. Then a third letter arrived.

The third letter made me feel obligated to respond but I was very skeptical. I was not about to relay a ton of family information without learning more. Researching the “RAOGK” acronym, was decided as my first course of action. I turned to my search engine and typed the unfamiliar initials. The top result contained the information I needed. I clicked on “RAOGK’s” site www.raogk.org and quickly learned that the letters stood for, Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness.  Turns out, this volunteer organization was established in 1999. According to their site, they “link researchers who need genealogy documents from a distant location, with others able to obtain them.” They boast that they, “have volunteers in every single state as well as many International locations that will look up records, or take photos of headstones in distant grave yards.”

Wow, I thought, I wished I had known about this service in the early days of my genealogy search. Back when I got to pay a Public library $15 per hour for record searches. This organization had my curiosity in full swing. I was now wondering who in our lineage was searching for family. I responded with trepidation and only provided information about my great-great grandparents who are long deceased. My letter included a ton of questions. I wanted to know who was seeking this information, why were they seeking it, as well as several questions about why they thought this person was related to me. Shamefully, I will admit I was a bit snotty about the early portions of this, because of my skepticism.

Evelyn responded gleefully to all of my questions. I learned that my 4th cousin Lorraine was seeking information on my family for an article she was writing. She had started her genealogy search for a work project and knew little more than my grandparent’s names. Mrs. Evelyn Huey began a volunteer search for my cousin, and found me because of some early genealogy work I had completed.

Even as a seasoned genealogist, Mrs. Huey was stunned to find there were so many living members of our family. After both of us posed enough questions to verify that I was the person she was searching for, Evelyn provided my cousin Lorraine and I with each other’s contact information.

I was foolishly very nervous about the first call. But, it turns out my cousin and I have had an intense connection from the first moment of our contact. By some odd turns of fate, we so much in common, we are both authors, we both have given birth to a stillborn child, and we both have an immense respect for each other and our shared genes. My cousin ended up filling a huge hole in my heart, which I didn’t even realize was there. After much discussion, we were able to piece together some of the reasons, that our two particular braches of a shared family tree had been split to the point that we didn’t know about each other.

Since, our initial contact my cousin and I have shared numerous emails and phone calls. It is a precious connection to our family history and we have, Mrs. Evelyn Huey from Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness, to thank for bringing us together. RAOGK is an amazing volunteer organization that helps people track the missing pieces of their family tree and history. Amazingly, they are also directly responsible for connecting living family members. When asked about reconnecting my cousin and I, Mrs. Huey stated, “I'm so glad that you have "met" each other. I feel great about this and feel I've accomplished something wonderful.”

Piecing together your family genealogy can be a tedious but immensely rewarding process. It can provide names and sometimes faces to our ancestors. It tells us who we are and where we come from.  Sometimes, it can provide living meaning full connections, as well as realizations of why our ancestors, were the way they were.

On a closing note, I feel it critical to share a quote, by a now passed family genealogist, John McGill.

“The single most depressing thing I’ve encountered in my genealogy work is family members getting mad and staying mad."

“It apparently affects most families and is something that should be guarded against constantly. It costs us and more importantly our descendants their heritage.” Mr. McGill’s wise words should be heeded.