HOW I BECAME ADDICTED TO GENEALOGY

I became interested in genealogy in the spring of 1994 when we started planning a reunion of "The Cousins".

At the wedding of one of my first cousins, in the summer of 1993, the subject of having a reunion of all the cousins came up. This seemed like a pretty good idea! Since a brother and a cousin both lived in CO in the same city, they thought it would be a good idea to have a reunion there. It was a central location from ND and MN and CA where we all lived.

As the months went by several of us started getting pretty excited about the possibility of actually doing it. We wrote letters, called each other, and brainstormed about how we could pull this off.

Eventually it became a reality. We all agreed that the best place to have the reunion was at my uncles farm, where we all spent the most time together as children. We grew up together there and had so many memories of the fun we had together. The farm is the original homestead of my great grandfather.

We planned to have a camp out on the farm. Get together for a potluck BBQ, a bonfire, and some fun. Of course we had to get permission from my aunt and uncle who live there. They were thrilled about it. From that point on my Aunt pretty much took over the planning. She put together the most impressive menu you have ever seen for a camp out. None of us even had to bring a thing except our own beverages.

And she started sending us this material on family history, that my uncle had gotten from one of his cousins who has been into genealogy for 20 years. I caught the fever and decided to gather all the recent history on the Hopkins family and put together a book tracing our roots.

The reunion was a total success. We included our parents and Dad's cousin the genealogy buff. Only one cousin didn't make it to the reunion. She was pregnant at the time and was advised not to travel from CA to ND so close to her due date. She died of cancer in November, 1995.

After the success of this reunion, my mother wanted to do the same thing on her side of the family. A reunion of her brothers and sister and their children. Again, I started researching family history. This time I didn't have the advantage of Cousin Ralph's vast knowledge. I had to start from scratch and work my way back.

Ironically, I found out much more about my mother's ancestors and managed to find every living member of my mother's family for several generations. Every aunt uncle and cousin and all of their children. I researched and wrote the Robbins-Linnertz book in 3 months. It encompasses 15 generations. Several branches of the family are traced back to my 4th and 5th great grandparents. I have always known that my Mom and Dad were distant cousins to each other. I found the link and therefore traced both sides of the family back to 9th and 10th great grandparents. According to the genealogy program that I use, my parents, all of my brothers and sisters, and all of my aunts and uncles are also my cousins. Even my son and grand daughter are my cousins.

My granddaughter,Kayla, became the first member of the 16th generation when she was born on April 15, 1996.

After I wrote the above, I started using the internet to search for family members. My database grows constantly. I wouldn't be able to get it all into the book in the format I used originally. I am back to 17th and 18th great grandparents in several branches of my family. I may do another book for the next reunion, but it will be 10 times bigger than the original, and will probably be missing the most recent discovery, because I will not have had time to enter the data. At any rate, I will be forever searching for new and exciting information on my ancestors.

I have met so many distant cousins in my searches. It is fun to try to figure out just exactly what the relationship is and how we are tied together in this huge world that seems to get smaller and smaller everyday.