I’m sure I’m not the only person who has reached out to a close DNA cousin match or the owner of a tree that seems to include your family, and waited and waited for a response that never came. How about government records that take years to arrive? Sometimes patience pays off – the record arrives, someone answers an email. Definitely makes the wait worthwhile. About 10 (or more) years ago I posted a description about research I am (still) doing into the passengers of a particular sailing in 1949 of the SS Marine Jumper that landed in Boston. Occasionally I still receive notes about passengers.

In October 2020 my daughter-in-law asked me if I could find descendants of the owner of what looked like a family heirloom – not something that belonged to her family or mine. This was an object purchased in an antique store decades earlier, and its only identifier was an inscription – a woman’s name and the year – 1893. The antique store was in California, and after much searching I concluded that the family was originally in New York and perhaps Canada, and moved to California sometime in the 1920s. I identified the woman whose name was on the platter, found her maiden name, who she married, who her children were, and possibly some living descendants. I sent a message to several people, and when I didn’t hear anything, I forgot about it and moved on to the next mystery. Then, to my surprise, in July 2023 I received an answer to my message from 2 1/2 years earlier! The platter is now being reunited with its original family. Remember genealogy is sometimes a waiting game.