Reading through Mike's obituary, I stopped in shock when I saw the name of his sister - Gayle Christison. I couldn't believe there was another Gayle Christison, spelled the same as my name, and we are 2nd cousins. Unbelievable.
So, I looked up her phone number and called. I'll be honest, I probably wouldn't have called any of the other family members. But I couldn't pass up talking to Gayle Christison. The phone rang and rang. I left a message explaining who I was and hung up wondering if she would have any interest in calling back. Well, she called back while I was at the library and she talked to John. Gayle and I finally talked yesterday after a couple of days of playing phone tag.
Gayle was as excited as I was to talk! I learned that her father, my Dad's 1st cousin, is still alive. Gayle's dad remembers seeing his father (Ted) only twice - once when he was 5 and again at 7. So he really didn't have any information about his family. I really don't have much information about Ted, either, but I could tell her lots about the Christison family in Colorado!
Gayle and her dad live in South Carolina. My family is planning a trip in May to visit my parents in North Carolina. We are hoping to arrange a visit. And we are planning many more phone conversations!
There must be something about these genealogy workshops. In 2007 I discovered that a co-worker in the library district was my third cousin, once removed. You can read about that experience in this post - You Never Know...
