Billy, I hardly knew ya

    I received email a couple of days ago about the death of my cousin, William Stinnett. Cousin William was truly a long-lost cousin. I tracked him down a few years ago through the 1972 obituary of his father. Fortunately for me, he still lived in the same town in which he resided in 1972. I searched online directories for that town and came up with a possibility. Not believing I would have any luck, I wrote a letter explaining who I was, how I found him and included contact information. He called within days of receiving my letter. After a few minutes of conversation, Cousin William decided that I was who I claimed to be and we began a years-long email and telephone correspondence that finally concluded with me making a trip to the midwest last year to meet him and his wife.

  We have a complicated family history and I wondered how I would be received. His line of the family had virtually disappeared in the late 1920s and was almost forgotten. Then one day my Aunt Ginny remembered that her father had taken her to visit relatives several hundred miles away from Parsons. Since my grandfather died in 1931 and Aunt Ginny was getting up in years, I didn't have much hope in locating descendants of this line. But her memory was on target. I searched census records in the town she remembered from her childhood and hit the jackpot. I found my grandfather's aunt and uncle and some of his cousins. That information lead me to the obituary that finally lead me to William.

    Since I was going to the midwest last summer, I decided to make the 4-hour drive to meet Cousin William. We had been comparing notes and sharing photos and documents over the years and I was excited to finally meet the man who laughingly called me "Cuz". William gave me a big teddy-bear hug and welcomed me into his home. We talked for hours and shared more photos and stories.

   And now he is gone. It is still difficult to absorb the news.

  Visit Cousin William here.