MORE FAMILY CONNECTIONS

Recently I received the following message from Bill Smyer of Fancy Gap, VA. He's a distant relative of ours on the Michael side. His great great-grandfather, William Mastin Michael, was a brother to Larkin Michael, father of Greene Michael. That would make him my generation's 4th cousin, and my father's generation's 3rd cousin. See the message he sent me below. He also has contact with Bianca Stout, a former student of Aunt Mildred's and a relative (by marriage) to Gertrude Potter Shook. It's a small world! I hope Bill will be able to attend our July, 2011 reunion.

Bill's message:

To: Ms. Tanya Shook Wilder

Hello, I'm Bill Smyer in Fancy Gap, VA. My GG-grandfather was William Mastin Michael, a brother of your GG-grandfather Larkin Michael. So we're fourth cousins, I believe.A few days ago Bianca Stout gave me the link to your blog about your Watauga County reunion last month. You have done an outstanding job with it! I wanted to make contact with you to tell you how much I have enjoyed reading it to learn more about my distant Michael cousins. I found you through your comment about Nash Shook and Facebook, then your sister Myra told me about your FB handle of "Senora Wilder."

I have already made a couple of comments on your blog. (Grace Shook's middle name was Virginia according to the North Carolina Death Collection), and I have entered into my genealogy file several facts from your blog, sourcing you as:Reunion in the Mountains, Tanya Shook Wilder, http://matneygathering2009.blogspot.com/

I keep my file on-line at rootsweb.com, except that data on the living are masked to protect privacy. My file is here:http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=wns

I always want to give proper credit to others for their research, and if you have any changes you wish me to make in how I have sourced you, or if you prefer I not even use your blog as a source, please let me know.

Just wanted to let you know I'm out here. ;-) if you or anyone else in the Larkin Michael branch is interested in sharing data, I can be contacted outside FB at: tree@summit366.net

Again, fine job on your blog.

Thanks and best wishes,Bill

PS: I admired your tribute to your grandmother Ruth, and added a link to it in the Notes section of my page for her:http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=wns&id=I17791

(Posted by Tanya Shook Wilder)