Texas950 messaged back!

The previously elusive Ancestry.com cousin Texas950 messaged me back.

Readers will recognize her as the Ancestry.com user who is also my mother’s alleged 1st-2nd cousin. After initially reaching out to her in January, I did not get a reply back for a few months. 

Here’s that original message.

No big. I knew it was always going to be a gamble considering people don’t frequently check their messages obsessively like I do. Still, it was a little bit of a bummer after the first month and I didn’t hear anything back from her.

That is until a week ago, when I got an email from Ancestry.com telling me that Texas950 messaged me back.

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.

Her name was also included in the signiture line — but I omitted it for privacy’s sake…

…which is kind of silly the more I think about it. I mean, you guys can just look all this stuff up.

So a few things from her message:

• Texas950 confirms that she is from the Lone Star State — confirming our suspicions and adding credence to the research that Mrs. H and I did.
• She has not just one but TWO relatives who served in the Vietnam War — Keith Brown and Bill Howard (though that name might be something else…)
• Both those men are also dead — bummer. 

Using her first name I was able to find her as well as some other relatives via public records. I also confirmed a few relatives on the family tree that me and Mrs. H compiled.

After receiving the message I quickly messaged her back with my email and assured her that she was related to me via my mother’s side. I also asked her if her mom’s half-brother’s last name was something along the line of “Robinson.” 

If it DOES turn out to be a Robinson rather than a Howard, I dare say that we might have a solid lead on our hands here.

From here, I’m hoping that she messages me back soon and we can start working to solve this mystery together.

It’s weird having to rely on the willingness of others to work with you on ancestry. It’s not like I can get them excited about it or even properly convey how important finding my grandfather is to me and my family. I can sign up for all these ancestry programs but if the other person doesn’t actually care about connecting, I can’t force them to connect with me.

It’s pretty much joining any dating site in the world. Awesome.