One of the joys of genealogy has been connecting with cousins, close and distant, who share an interest in researching the family. Over the years, I have made a number of wonderful connections on both sides of my family, with relatives as well as non-relatives with whom I have joined forces to fill in gaps on a mutual tree. Thinking about some of the family associations I’ve made, one special person comes to mind, my cousin Blanche.
In 1994 I received my first letter from Blanche; I was referred to her as a Brown and Swisher relative by someone whose name I didn’t recognize. Blanche was descended from the Swisher and Brown families, and she was born and raised in North Mountain, the homestead of my paternal ancestors. Blanche mentioned she “had a lot of names but didn’t know where to put them”, and she was interested in corresponding about those family lines to try to place people into their proper families.
Over the next ten years we exchanged letters and cards, sharing what information we had, and I had the pleasure of visiting her several times in Lycoming County. I sent her my newsletter and we discovered we also shared ties to the Reese and Rider families, making us third cousins once removed on three lines and fourth cousins once removed on the other line. When a relative passed away, got married or had a baby, Blanche would inform me and indicate how they were related. Sometimes she would include a news clipping of the event as well. Her proximity to our ancestral roots where many of the family’s descendants still resided made it convenient to locate genealogical relevant happenings.
Blanche was acquainted with the Swishers who owned the Swisher store in North Mountain. These Swishers were in possession of the Swisher family bible and gave Blanche the opportunity to view it. Blanche diligently recorded the information written in the pages of births, marriages and deaths; since these events occurred in the 19th century, this bible is likely the only place this information is listed. In one of her letters, she kindly shared that information with me.
Although Blanche grew up in Lycoming County, she had moved to Michigan around 1942. Blanche was married and had a son. She worked for Fisher Body, a division of General Motors Corporation for 20 years and retired from that job in 1982. Blanche mentioned that in 1986 she returned back to the county where she grew up residing in Unityville and shortly after she delved into researching her family roots.
Blanche was an avid reader and was interested in identifying more than just her ancestor’s names. She studied the time period in which they lived and loved learning the history of an area to get a better idea of what our ancestors endured. They become living people in her eyes, not just a name on a piece of paper. She had many stories about relatives she remembered, family tales handed down to her as well as accounts she found in her investigations, such as historical biographies. I remember her talking about a saying her family had used, “a rose bush baby”. She speculated that this might refer to an infant child who died and the family buried the baby by the house with a rose bush to mark the grave.
From all the books she read, Blanche formed many ideas about the history of the family and places to look for additional clues. But she never jumped to conclusions. Instead she would wait until enough evidence was gathered before making any judgement as she was a stickler for getting the facts straight. Her motto was “if you’re going to do [family research], do it right.” I wholeheartedly agree.
Blanche suffered a tragedy in 1977 when her husband was killed. She spoke about an incident with her eyesight that occurred from the shock of his death. Later in the 1990s her ability to see was again affected with cataracts, glaucoma and some retinal problems that blurred her vision. Each year her sight continued to decline, but she forged ahead with researching and reading as much as she could. I remember my last visit with her when she struggled with a magnifying glass to read something she had in her family files. Although Blanche couldn’t see well, I continued to write to her, typing in large font on my computer in hopes she could read it. Then one holiday when I sent cards, hers came back as undeliverable. I tried to find a new address for her, but with no success.
It was only recently while online looking for family information that I stumbled upon Blanche’s obituary from December 2013 and learned that she had been living in Indianapolis, where her son resided. Last month marked what would have been her 95th birthday. Whenever I work on researching the Swisher family, I cannot help but think of Blanche. I am grateful to have known her, to have collaborated with her on our shared trees, but more importantly, to have made a personal connection and developed a friendship with a distant cousin.
Relatively Speaking Blog 