In the last few weeks, I’ve connected with two distant cousins who have helped me update the family tree to 2008 on a few extended lines.

Have established contact with my 3rd cousin, twice removed, a Terry BULGER of Nashville, Tn. Our common ancestors are Thomas Carson BULGER (born 1826 Co. Wicklow, Ireland) and Ann FITZSIMMONS (born 1824 Co. Cavan, Ireland), who both died in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada in the early 1900’s. I come through their daughter Catherine born 1856 Cobourg; he through their son James born 1858 Cobourg.

Also made contact with – interestingly – another 3rd cousin, twice removed, Mark HILBURGER of the Washington, D.C. area. Our common ancestors are Tobias HILBURGER (born 1819 Kaimling, Germany) and Anna MESSER (born 1828 Kaimling, Germany), who both died in Buffalo, New York in the early 1900’s. I come through their son John born 1854 Buffalo; he comes through their son Martin born 1856 Buffalo.

The power of the Internet is just amazing because I wouldn’t have found them without it. I found Terry, while Mark actually contacted me after seeing some of my HILBURGER posts on the Web.

In other genealogy news, I’m thinking of writing a book on my GRUNDTISCH family. I have a wealth of data on this line, back to about 1530 in Saanen, Switzerland, a small village in the Alps Mountains. I believe all GRUNDTISCHs and GRUNDISHs in the United States are related and I’m nearing closer to my goal of linking them all together (at least all of them in the phone book). Once I do that, it may become a book after all. Among other things, I could write about the origins of each line (the Buffalo GRUNDTISCHs, the Findlay GRUNDTISCHs, the Pittsburgh GRUNDISHs, the Dayton GRUNDISHs, etc. – all of which are related by the way). Just an idea; we’ll see where that goes!