Dear Sallie:

I enjoyed your column in Wednesday's newspaper and felt compelled to share a short story with you. While growing up in a small town in Western Pennsylvania, my husband never met his first cousins from his father's line. His family was a small family, just my husband and his sister, who was 20 years his senior. In 1996 his father passed away and my husband began to start to reach out to his other living relations. We began with simple letters to his aunts, and first cousins to see if we could even come close to completing the first line of his family tree.

His aunts were prompt in returning short letters and kind words of encouragement thanking him for his time. Each letter we felt we were getting closing and closer to his roots. As a child he remembered his father often told him his great-grandfather owned a large hotel near a train station in Kentucky.

We did some research on the name on the Internet only to find his surname had Scottish roots (our address is just a coincidence). In an effort to learn more about his Scottish history, we decided to track off to the Scottish Games at Stone Mountain. What a blessing! While there, we were greeted with open arms by distant cousins and a wealth of information from other family members. Since the first Highland Games we have developed wonderful friendships and found the gathering to be inspirational to anyone with Scottish roots tracking their genealogy.

Last year we were invited to our first family reunion in Stanton, Ky. While there we tracked over grave sites, and analyzed census records at local libraries. We spoke with locals who produced photos of the old hotel and were eager to provide any information we requested.

I would like to encourage anyone who is tracking their family history, please do not give up. The rewards, friends and fun someday will exceed those costly phone and postage bills!

Sheryl Ewen

Tyrone

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