THAT'S A TOUGH ONE
On September 20, 2025, when my bff in Maine asked me to help him find his relatives, I jumped at the opportunity. But, with the family name Kelly, I thought, that’s about as tough as the names Cohen or Friedman from my family clans.
He understood. He wrote, “A frustrating effort, though. The name Edward J. Kelly is so common, there are hundreds of records - census, marriage, military, etc. - for that name.” He added, “Just curious. No big deal, really, although most interesting would be to know who my paternal grandparents were. There are many Kelly families out there from that time period, and many with Edwards and Kathryns as children.”
Well, maybe not so tough for a seasoned genealogist and consummate researcher. In a few hours, I had pertinent answers that could lead him to his paternal ancestry. He questioned, “How did you do that?” Jokingly, I said, “I’m not telling. Can’t give away all my money-making research secrets ;-)”
We had a lengthy email correspondence that day. I started with what he knew and branched out to add more details and more generations that he was seeking. Back and forth, we were writing what we knew, what we found, and what he was looking for. Some lines in the subject matter I sent included,
“Do these dates mesh?
“Did you know about Brett?
“Was this your sister-in-law?”
Such correspondence was reminiscent of when he first moved out of New Jersey, where he lived the first 31 years of his life, and where we met at work when he was 28 and I was 26. We would handwrite snail mail letters and record on them the time we started writing, and when we finished. I always beat him in terms of words per minute. I practically spit out the lines!
My friend has been following my genealogical research for decades, reading my blog posts weekly from the start, and commenting on them for nearly eight years. While he often said he had no overwhelming interest in his ancestry, it took him quite a while, but suddenly he sparked an interest in learning the names of his paternal grandparents.
What I found most interesting is that a while back, my friend said he didn’t save old family photos, but now says he has pictures to show his cousins, if and when he makes contact with them. The photos he has are of him with his cousins together as children.
I’ve offered to contact his cousins if he isn’t comfortable doing so. In the final email message on the subject, he said he plans to make contact soon. I may be more excited about it than he is, and I can’t wait for the reunion.
Possibly, his newfound interest stems from the email I sent to my followers, which included joyous photos:
“On Tue, Sep 16, 2025 at 6:38 AM Sharon Cohen <sharon.mark.cohen@gmail.com> wrote:
“Hi All,
“Here's the link to this Tuesday's blog post: SO CLOSE YET SO FAR — Sharon Mark Cohen”
In response to my email, my friend in Maine wrote:
“Tue, Sep 16, 2:19 PM
“That's quite a saga. Nice smiling pics, too.
“I tracked down my half-brother through Ancestry. Only an obit, but it confirmed my childhood memories, anyway.”
While doing additional research for my bff in Maine, I thought I found his brother’s family on a chart but it turned out that with more research, it was another brick wall. The chart showed yet another Edward Kelly and not the “right” one based on the marriage records of that Edward’s mother.
Although that chart ended up again to be the wrong Edward Kelly, I was able to find the whereabouts of his cousin Colleen in New Jersey.
“Now you know the ages of Irene 84 and her dtrs Kathleen 59 and Colleen 55. Call Collen in NJ,” I wrote.
He responded, “Calling would be too weird for me, but maybe an email with a photo of her mother and family? I have a few of Irene [his 1st cousin]. That might be interesting to her.”
With that, I said, “Absolutely!! I encourage you to do it.
“Remember to inquire about your mutual grandparent and find out if the stuff from your brother’s tree is correct!!
“So exciting!! Get to it!!”
We’ll see where that leads. Stay posted.