Are They My Cousins Too, Or Just Yours?

Where do you go on vacation when you want to visit relatives, do some genealogy work and pay your respects to your ancestors?🤔🤔🤔

With these temperatures, I wish I could tell you Hawaii or Florida! 🌡⛄🌊   Lol

But, this coming week, I am heading up north to Kendall County, Illinois to do just that. 🚗🚗🚗

By now, you are asking what does this have to do with the title of  my blog post, right? Why in the world would I pick that title?  ❓❓❓

The title of this post actually comes from conversations I have had over the years from my relatives in Oswego and Yorkville in Kendall County, Illinois.

I have three different sides of my family tree all represented here in these towns where my mom grew up,...but my dad had never lived.

Let's climb aboard a time machine 🚀, and jump back to where these trees started growing in Kendall County.

First stop ~ My maternal grandfather, Gerald Pearce, was born in 

                     Oswego where his great-grandfather, Daniel Pearce, was

                     one of the first settlers. Gerald had been married with a 

                     daughter, and widowed, before meeting my 

                     grandmother. His one daughter had 12 children.

Gerald and Tillie Pearce

Second stop ~ My maternal grandmother, Mathilda Steffen, and her 

                     younger sister, Alice, moved from Iowa to Kendall 

                     County. Grandma "Tillie" married Grandpa Gerald and     
                     raised my mother and uncle in Yorkville. The 12       

                     children above (their half-neices/nephews), were     
                     approximately their age range and went to school with
                     them.

Third stop ~ My paternal grandmother, Ethel, was born and raised
                    southeastern Indiana along with her eight siblings. One
                    of her sisters, Clara, married and moved to Kendall
                    County. Clara and Tillie became good friends. When my
                    Grandma Ethel and family would visit, my mother got to
                    got to meet my father.

(L-R) Clara, Ethel Gladys and Loren Haessig

I truly hope that I haven't completely confused you yet! It was honestly has made for some interesting conversations with relatives over the years.

I am related to the Goins families in Kendall County, because my Great-aunt Clara moved from southeastern Indiana and raised her family there.

But the rest of my Illinois relatives are related to them in any way.

My Grandma Tillie Steffen married Grandpa Pearce, so I am related to all the Pearces in the area.

My Great-aunt, Alice, had moved from Iowa with big sister, Tillie. She stayed and raised a family in Kendall County, also. I am related to her children here. But, only my immediate family and closest Pearce cousins are related to them, also.

What makes all of this quite interesting is the fact that Yorkville and Oswego are small towns. They know each other as neighbors and classmates.

We, however, are in a unique position to call everyone: FAMILY!!!