52 Ancestors Challenge Week 22: "Conflict" - 3rd great grandpa, Daniel Krantzel's elusive date of death.

For this theme of "Conflict" I'm writing about unresolved conflicting information for in records.

A lot of my genealogy students and clients get all bent about "misspelled" names. I try to explain spelling is a modern convention and that there are many reasons a name might not be spelled the way you expect it to be. You kind of have to let it go already and accept that spelling never counted.

Frequently I am then asked, "Well, how do you know it is the right person then if the name is not spelled correctly?" The answer to which is you corroborate the record with other details.

And then there are times when the records just leave you stumped. Welcome 3rd great grandpa, Heinrich Daniel Krantzel...or Daniel Heinrich...or is it just Daniel..oh, wait, occasionally you went by Henry. Oh but your birth registration says Johann Heinrich Daniel Kraenzel. Ah, were you a secret agent? Forget the spelling of the last name, when did you died exactly? I don't know. I'm not sure anyone knew. And burial location? Forget that. Look at this mess...

This is his German birth registration:

What? Can't read it? Yeah, me neither. Thus I am relying upon the index which states:

Name: Johann Daniel Heinrich Kraenzel
Event Type: Geburt (Birth)
Birth Date: 21. Mai 1825 (21 May 1825)
Birth Place: Worms, Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate), Deutschland (Germany)
Father: Heinrich Kraenzel
Mother: Anna Catharina Kraenzel

How do I know this is my guy? Well, I have multiple other documents that state he was born in Worms, Germany in 1825 including his U.S. Civil War Muster Roll Abstract which corroborates his place of birth and, with a little math, places his birth in 1825.

Other records, such as the one below, the U.S. Civil War Pension Index, led me to request his Civil War pension file.

Filed beginning in October 1889 by his widow, Elizabeth Goetz-Krantzel (February 12, 1833 - August 25, 1896), it tells me Ole Danny Boy - or whatever you want to call him - had died before October 1889. Can't have a widow without a dead husband, right? Maybe.

The pension file is thick. I see pages stamped by the government ranging in date from 1889 to 1897. Among them I see two potential dates of death for Daniel. On the Application for Widow's Pension form Elizabeth reports that she is "the widow of  Daniel Krantzel, who belonged to Company B, 8th Regiment, N.Y. Volunteers...died at Cincinnati, Ohio on the 8th day of April A.D. 1877..." "...of disease..."

Also among the documents is a death certificate from the City of New York prefaced by a letter written by E. Krantzel, son of Henry D. Krantzel. E. would have to be Ernest Krantzel (October 12, 1863 - October 7, 1921), the youngest son, #4 of the couple's 5 children.

Ernest writes:

Health Department,

Sanitary Bureau

No. 301 Mott Street

Division of Vital Statistics,

New York, ________189_

To the Hon. Board of Health:

I respectfully request that the accompanying "Corrected Certificate" of the death of Henry D. Krantzel, 59 years old, who died opposite 168 Front St., on Nov 2, 1884, be filed with the original Certificate of the death of an "Unknown Man", about 55 years old, who died opposite 168 Front St., on Nov 2, 1884, said unknown man being since identified as Henry D. Krantzel.

Yours respectfully,

E. Krantzel,

Son of Henry D. Krantzel

7 St. Mark's Place

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 21: "Yearbook" - A Collection of Graduation Photos

As a college librarian we get calls from time-to-time from alumni and descendants of alumni looking for yearbook photos. Sometimes it is the only photo one has of their loved one.

Very recently my father's high school wrestling coach passed away at the age of 96. This prompted me to go onto Ancestry and look through their U.S. yearbook collection. 

I had seen my father's yearbook before. He still has it. And my step-mother graduated with my mother and my paternal aunt, same year, same high school, same yearbook and she still has it.

However, I had never seen the ones from my father's junior year during which time he was on the wrestling team. As soon as he got a car, the motorhead that he is, he quit wrestling. 

Honestly, I couldn't pick him out of his wrestling team photo even though I have seen many photos of my dad from his youth. It made me wonder if I could pick out other family members in their yearbooks so I went trolling Ancestry.com's U.S. Yearbook Collection and made my own family yearbook. 

Most of them went to different High Schools which I have not identified here for the sake of their privacy. You'll see I only list them by their relationship to me, their first name, and the year they graduated but here is my family's yearbook. Included her are my paternal grandmother, most of her siblings, my father, his siblings, some of his first cousins, my mother, and a few of her sisters.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 20: "Textile" - Grandpa Earle sends his mom a gift to me

Among the heirlooms given to my by my Grandma Earle there is a small box. 

The box is pretty beat up but it contained 2 handkerchiefs. One of the handkerchief is now missing. Well, not really missing; my sister took it sown inside her wedding gown as her "something old."

This box was sent by my grandfather, Edwin M. Earle (August 20, 1925 - June 21, 2000), to his mother, Ethel Losee-Earle (February 14, 1896 - May 27, 1960) in April 1944. 

At the time my grandfather was stationed in San Francisco as part of the U.S. Navy in a special CB detachment. CB is the abbreviation for Construction Battalion. 

Until my sister sowed one of the handkerchiefs inside her wedding gown, it appears as though they had never been used. Now the unused one remains in the box, in a bag, in a drawer, safe and sound.

I'm sure they are not worth much. I doubt my grandfather paid very much for them. But I suspect they meant an awful lot to Ethel, and they mean an awful lot to me and my sister. One memory I have of my grandfather is that he always carried a handkerchief.

In another box given to me, there is an Easter card, again sent by my grandpa sent to his mom, Ethel. 

On the inside is is simply signed by my grandpa, "Your Sailor Son."

On the back of the card my great grandmother, Ethel, recorded a bit of family history in her very legible, pretty penmanship. She provided me with dates of events that for many years I could not confirm with military documentation of any kind. These kinds of "journals" or "notes" about family history are incredibly valuable to a genealogy researcher and I thank her sincerely in my heart and my records.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 19: "Food & Drink" - Strange Favorites

This topic brings to mind a few things; my grandpa Earle's strange favorite foods, my family's bread stuffing recipe, liverwurst and jelly sandwiches, and poutine.

I know what you're thinking, how are you can you just sneak liverwurst and jelly sandwiches into a list like that and not start off with discussing that disgusting concoction first. Well, I can because it's my blog. You'll just have to wait for that monstrosity because first I have to tell you about my grandpa's weird meals.

Grandpa Earle's Strange Favorite Foods

Grandpa Earle enjoyed burning his bread over the gas stove. Oh, how awful. It must have tasted like gas, right? I don't know for sure. I am not brave enough to try it. He would take a fork, pierce a piece of white bread from the side and stand there toasting his bread over the stove. 

He also enjoyed himself a bowl of salt-less Saltines in milk. He'd eat it like serial. I thought, why on earth is he eating that when we have shredded wheat, corn flakes, and rice crispies for him to choose from. He loved it!

Bread Stuffing

Grandpa Earle also enjoyed a post-Thanksgiving bread stuffing sandwich. Yes, that is correct a bread stuffing sandwiches. Talk about carb overload. 

First I should say though that my family's bread stuffing is amazing. It is simple recipe of stale white bread moistened with plain old water, butter, onions, salt, pepper, and thyme. That's it. It is a recipe that has been passed down from my great-great grandmother, Agnes Frances Gray-Sauer (October 27, 1871 - December 30, 1941). She is the pretty lady in the center of this picture. 

Agnes was born in New York of Irish descent. Her husband, William George Sauer (February 11, 1870 - December 23, 1932)  was also born in New York but of German stock. I'm not sure if Agnes got this recipe from her mother or her mother-in-law but I have had two older women tell me that they have a similar recipe. One woman was Irish and the other's mother was from Germany. Either way, it is freaking delicious and I know my second cousin, Kelly, makes it for her Thanksgiving dinners as well. Cousin Kelly calls it her grandma's recipe. Her grandma and my grandma were sisters, dishing up the same recipe. Grandma told me it was the stuffing her grandma made so for Kelly and I that would be great-great grandma's recipe. Again, pretty Ms. Agnes above.

Grandpa Earle would cut off a thick slice of that stuffing and put in between two slices of bread, sometimes with turkey or cranberry sauce, but usually just on its own. Now that I could get on board with. Liverwurst sandwiches however, not my bag. 

Liverwurst & Grape Jelly Sandwiches

My dad loves liverwurst. I can't even bring myself to look at it. To each his own though. That is until we talk about Cousin Ernst. His real first name is Tom but my dad just calls him Ernst, which was his last name.

I don't know where Cousin Ernst is or even if he is still with us but Cousin Ernst is my father's second cousin. Ernst's mother, Flora Lou Childres-Ernst (October 3, 1926 - March 14, 2010), lovingly called Aunt Sis, was my grandpa Earle's first cousin. Their mothers, Ethel Losee-Earle (February 14, 1896 - May 27, 1960) and Marion Losee-Childres (July 1900 - December 3, 1949) were the only sisters among their parents' six children.

There was a brief time when Cousin Ernst lived with my grandparents and my dad when dad was in his teens. One story that stands out, of course, is that Cousin Ernst like liverwurst and grape jelly sandwiches. Oh. My. God. I can't. Ugh. 

Poutine

Now, it's not a road trip unless Cousin Kelly and Cousin Pete and I are chowing down on some poutine. 

If you are not familiar with the dish, here on Long Island it is similar to what we call Disco Fries; French fries with cheese and gravy. Oh it's so good. Poutine emerged from Quebec and there they use cheese curds and brown gravy. The dish has really become a symbol of Québécois culture and the province of Quebec itself, but man, we have eaten it all over Canada. Some of the best I've had was at the Canadian Potato Museum & Antique Farm Machinery Museum in Prince Edward Island. Yeah, I've been to the Potato Museum. 

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 18: "Social" - Family in the Freeport Fire Department

I am not much of a joiner, that is to say that I don't belong to a lot of clubs or organizations. The few organizations I do belong to I do so just in name really. For the most part, I pay my dues for the benefit of receiving whatever publications the organization provides its members or to have access to some database or discounted service. In short, I'm not one looking to lead. I do enjoy attending a conference or two though. Such events provide opportunities to be social.

I don't find many records for my ancestors being active in clubs or organization either except my paternal grandmother's parents, Charles Henry (March 26, 1896 - June 14, 1949) and Anna Marie Sauer-Henry (July 19, 1899 - May 8, 1986) who were leaders in their Rabbit Club and Goat Club. I wrote about the goats a few times in my blog. 

But then there is my paternal grandfather's dad, Abram "Abe" Earle (January 13, 1891 - November 18, 1973), who, along with his brother-in-laws, was active the the Freeport (NY) Fire Department.

Amongst the family treasures that have been bestowed to me overtime, there are photos that once belonged to Abe and his wife, my great grandma, Ethel Mae Losee-Earle (February 14, 1896 - May 27, 1960), that show some organizational gatherings. Some of the photos show Ethel's brothers and Abe in their fire department dress uniforms gathered around the company's trucks.

This image was included in an Images of America book about Freeport, New York. It was written by Cynthia J. Krieg, who is affiliated with Freeport Historical Society, and Regina G. Feeney, a librarian at Freeport Memorial Library.  My grandfather's maternal uncle, Luman Losee (June 26, 1894 - January 13, 1954) is in the front row #4 from the right. I think her brothers, Fredrick Losee (About 1903 - May 5, 1926) and Forest Losee (August 11, 1897 - February 2, 1945) are also in this image but I can't pick them out. My grandpa knew his Uncle Forest but my father didn't; Forest died very young. Uncle Fred died even younger. He died in an accident, he fell off a roof. Again, though I suspect all 3 brothers, Luman, Fred, and Forest Losee are in this picture below.

For those of you unfamiliar with the series, Images of America, published by Arcadia Publishing, they are kind of like photo albums of a specific community. Each image is captioned though, however, there isn't a lot of text to these books. These aren't heavy history books. They're really kind of fun. They're a great way to introduce novices and young people to the history of their community. There might be one about your community, if not, think about creating one. I understand Arcadia is very easy to work with. 

There is also another book in which the above photo appears; An Illustrated History of the Freeport Fire Department, 1893-2008 by Miguel Bermudez and Donald Giordano published in 2008. I am not acknowledged in the book, nor is credit given to my family's photo collection but I did give digital images to one of the authors of all the Freeport Fire Department photos in my family's possession and they appear on pages 111 - 113. Including this one below of what my grandmother calls a ragamuffin parade. The image horrifies me as it shows several member in black face; a truly racist imagery. 

In the Illustrated History, this image is captioned identifying Luman as the drum major and Forest as the tuba player as well as my great grandpa, Abe, as the clarinet player, kneeling # 3 from the right. Now I can pick Abe out based on other photos I have seen of him. I know his son, Allen, played clarinet, as did I in school. However, I didn't know Abe played clarinet as well. I believe the clarinet that belonged to his some, Allen Earle (March 17, 1916 - November 8, 1956), is still in the possession of my Uncle Thomas, now if that clarinet was also Abe's clarinet, pictured above, I have no idea. Anyway - - horrifying image, right?

These parades were an annual occurrence in many communities in the New York metropolitan area. Typically they were held around Halloween and featured children in their costumes, but obviously, this wasn't just a children's activity and I do not know when it took place because the photo is not labeled but it has to be after April 30, 1923 when the Russell Park section of Roosevelt, Long Island, New York was annexed into the town of Freeport. I can tell from the band's drum.

There were ragamuffin parades and then there was also Ragamuffin Day, which was something else entirely that my grandmother has told me about. Begun around 1870, Ragamuffin Day was once part of Thanksgiving celebrations which my grandmother recounted participating in to me on several occasions. Much like Halloween, it involved children going door-to-door dressed as beggars seeking candy and playing tricks on non-complaint homeowners; soaping windows, ringing doorbells and running away, and similar shenanigans. Grandma said that she and her siblings didn't just beg for candy but preformed little skits, sang songs, or did some dance for the neighbors who provided them with sugary treats or change.

The racist image of the ragamuffin parade in Freeport disturbs me, but it also reminds me a little bit of a much less scornful social practice that still takes place in Newfoundland, where my great grandpa Abe was born. There they have Mummers.

 

Creepy as all get out Mummers go mummering or mumming. It is a Christmas-time, house-visiting tradition in which groups of friends or family member dress in disguise and visit neighbors. If welcomed in, the mummers often do an informal performance followed by the homeowner having to correctly guess the mummers' identities. Once identified, the mummers remove their disguises and spend some time eating and drinking with the hosts before traveling on as an even bigger group to the next house.

One thing about that Russell Park section of Roosevelt/Freeport, that is where my family lived long before Lillian Russell for whom the section was named. Lillian Russell, an incredibly well-known actress of her time, lived in the area. She was born Helen Louise Leonard and the Illustrated History states Leonard Avenue in Freeport was named after her. I beg to differ. I am certain Leonard Ave is named after the man who originally owned the property, that would be my 4th great grandfather, Leonard Losee (January 21, 1817 - November 21, 1886). Let me show you.

Here is a map from 1914. The green box represents the original size of the property owned by my Losee family. The red box indicates the last bit of Losee Family property sold to local developer and politician, Albin Johnson, in 1912. The street highlighted in yellow shows Luman Street. Luman? Sound familiar? It no longer bears his name but prior to WWI and the family's sale of their property, the map shows the first 1500 feet of the western end of Independence Ave was called Luman Street after my grandpa's uncle. The blue boxes show two homes owned by Losee family members on Stevens Street, once known as Losee Place. The northern blue box was owned by F. Losee, could have been Forest Losee but might have been Frederick, and the lower blue box was owned by Georgianna Losee (July 19, 1866 - November 29, 1935), the sister of my great-great grandfather, John M. Losee Jr. (August 17, 1841 - February 10, 1918). 

Street naming business aside, all these aforementioned social practices give me a sense that my great grandparents generation, often referred to as the Lost Generation (those born from 1883 to 1900 who came of age during World War I and the Roaring Twenties), were involved in their communities and socialized with their neighbors in a way that I have not experienced in my lifetime. Sure I belonged to Girl Scouts as a kid and sold cookies door-to-door. I marched with the Junior High and High School bands on Memorial Day playing my own clarinet too, but I don't think I experience "community" quite like they did. And, honestly, I'm a bit jealous that I don't have that sort of natural inclination to be part of my community. 

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 17: "Document" - NYC Vital Records Free Online

Recently, on March 15, 2022, New York City's Municipal Archives finally made their vital records accessible online for free. For years and years and years I was either traipsing to Chambers Street in Manhattan or a Family History Center (FHC) in Plainview, Long Island to view these records. In either place you could view the image for free but very often I would order the certificate online rather than making the visit. It would cost about $20 online but if I knew I wanted a physical copy and I had a certificate number from one of the many databases that indexed the NYC Vital records, it was not worth the cost of a train ticket and/or parking and the price of gas to make the trek. In-person though, you could view the record for free or purchase it at a reduced cost. At the Archives I think it was $11 in-person and the FHC charged the cost of a photocopy, if their machine was working.

I can't even estimate how much money I have given to the New York City Municipal Archives over time, easily hundreds of dollars. So many of my ancestors were born, married, and/or died in the City of New York. Now to get these images online for free in the convenience of my living room. Woo-freakin'-hoo!

I am actively trying to download as many of them as I can now before, God forbid, the City decides that charging for access was making them revenue they need. Thus far I have converted 3 marriage records for all 3 sets of my great grandparents who were married in the City of New York to jpegs and uploaded them as images to Ancestry. 

Now, you ought to be aware that images uploaded to Ancestry become accessible to all Ancestry users. That means if you have an image you don't want someone to copy into their own tree, don't put it up. 

I am struggling to find some of the records that the City indicates should have already been digitized. Even with a certificate number, though, they don't come up. Hmm. Anyway...

Very often the cost of purchasing a document is prohibitive to the researcher. For example, my students in my summer genealogy course through St. John's University's Division of Library & Information Science often only have the resources to finance access to Ancestry.com for the month duration of the course. They come to rely on the index of these NYC vital records. I always explain to them, though, that the index is really no substitute for the document itself. You might not even have the right record if you don't look to see the other information on the record. Betcha there is more than one John Smith who died in the City of NY in the year and month that your John Smith did. How do you know it's your John Smith if the index doesn't show you his parents names and/or the burial location? Huh? Things like that.

In short, genealogists want the document.

There are all sorts of juicy tidbits that may appear in the margins on the document. Marginalia does not get indexed. For example, my favorite New York City Death Record is for my third great grandmother Mary Carillion-Henry. I know, only a genealogist would have a favorite death record. Kind of creepy, April. It is my favorite death record because of this little note, though. It was the gateway to discovering Mary's parents, siblings, and more accurate spelling of their surname. Look at this:

That is the signature of Mary's son, August Henry, the informant at the time of her death. It states that he "Could not ascertain  Mother's maiden name." 

Gorgeous! Because that tells me not to trust any instance of August recording his mother's maiden name. He doesn't know!

And that doesn't show up in any index. You have to see the document to see that. 

So go look for them, especially now if you have family members who passed through NYC! Stop looking at me. Go look! https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/ 

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 16: "Negatives" - Off Topic - How to spot an NPE

The objective of this 52 Ancestor Challenge is just to get one writing about their family history research. Nothing says I have to stick to the suggested topic. This week's theme is "Negatives" and there is just nothing from my own family history research that springs to mind. When I hear "Negatives" I think of film negatives, which shows my age I guess but I don't have any negatives in my collection. Then I think of blood types. And the only members of my family for whom I know their blood type is me and my dad. I'm O+ and dad is A+ so no negatives there.

Instead I'd like to write about the ways I have been helping other researchers lately. That is through analyzing DNA test results.

First, for those of you who do not know what an NPE is, it stands for a Non-Paternity Event or Not Parent Expected experience. No matter what the letters stand for, NPE is common parlance for finding out you are adopted or your father is not your biological father. Now this could be something you discovered about yourself, it could be something you know going into your DNA testing, or it could be some mysterious DNA match you have that is facing this predicament.

And trust me, this happens more than you think. It has happened all throughout history. Hanky-panky has existed as long as mankind. Let's not paint it all with the same brush, though. Sure, spouses cheat, teenagers have unprotected sex, but women also get assaulted, or chose to be single mothers and opt for artificial insemination, and people give up children for adoption for all sorts of reasons. Back in the day it was all much more secretive than it is now. Hell, now it is very common for the birth mother to select the adoptive family herself. Some parents communicate with the birth mother (and perhaps the bio father as well) through letters and pictures throughout the child's life. 

Again, my post is not meant to be negative at all. I am just bestowing my advice to you if you are thinking about taking a DNA test. If you can't handle the truth, don't take a DNA test. Everyone ought to be prepared to be shocked when you look closely at your gene pool. That's all I'm saying.

Here are the first few things you should do when analyzing your AncestryDNA results:

1. Don't take a DNA test until you have built yourself a substantial well-documented family tree. There are a few reasons I recommend this but the most obvious being you need to know some of the surnames that are going to pop up among your DNA matches. Try to know your great grandmothers' maiden names going into this and who her sisters might have married. Because in my experience very few of my DNA matches share my surname. And it helps to know if you have very large families in your family history. Was grandma one of 5 or 15? The bigger the family the more likely the more matches you'll have on that line.

2. Connect your DNA to your family tree. This will also help to trigger any alarm bells that might need to be heard. AncestryDNA has a feature called ThruLines. This feature is no more reliable than using someone else's tree as a source. And, as you probably know, there are a lot of bad family trees out there. By "bad" I mean wrong. Just wrong. Someone has my grandfather's WWII Draft Registration attached to their great uncle. Dude is just wrong. 

Typically you can suspect a bad tree when no sources are attached to any people in the tree. That's a sure giveaway that the person has not done the research. Don't copy anyone's tree. Look at the sources they use before adding anyone to your tree. So don't "trust" ThruLines. It is, after all, based on the family trees of your DNA matches. However, if you link your DNA to your tree and then look at ThruLines and see you have absolutely no DNA matches who have the same people in their family trees, well, then you, my friend, may be looking at an NPE.

3. Look at the pie chart (a.k.a. ethnicity estimates): I wish people would stop caring about this feature so much. You know these estimate are just that - estimates. And surprise, surprise, they are going to change over time. Oh yeah. Every time the company updates it's algorithms you get more Irish or Jewish or maybe like me, your Central European disappears. Nice, huh? Stop caring about this so much. I only mention it in case the estimates are overwhelmingly not what you expected. Maybe you are like me, kind of a WASPy American mutt. I've got a little bit of everything going on in my tree. I expected Irish, English, French, German, Czech. But I don't have any known Italian ancestors for example. If my pie chart had come back 50% Italian, that should set off alarm bells. I had a client who took her DNA test expecting to be 100% Italian. She came back 50% Jewish. What does that tell you? Maybe her father isn't her biological father? BINGO!

If no alarm bells have gone off for you yet, try this...

4. Apply the Leeds Method: The Leeds Method is a technique developed by genealogist Dana Leeds in which you examine your shared matches with those in your second cousin range (400 cMs - 90 cMs) which will result in about 4 DNA groups; each group will align with one of your 4 grandparents. Now this doesn't always work out for people for a variety of reasons but for most people it is a wonderful tool. Let's assume you get 4 groups.

Now, cMs or centimorgans are how DNA is measured. The amount of DNA you have in common with someone forecasts the relationship you might have with that person. For example, 1600 cMs is likely a half-sibling or an aunt/uncle. A half sibling or an aunt/uncle will have 2 grandparents in common with you. So the Leeds Method will color code these people into 2 groups and they will align with either your paternal grandparents or you maternal grandparents. Now you will likely know these people. If you don't, you ought to. Do you hear that ringing noise? You should be able to identify your aunts, uncles, and half-siblings without research. They should have shown up at some family function at some point in time.

Additionally, this method will help you group together distant cousins who only connect to one of your grandparents. So where as cMs help one to determine the potential relationship, the Leeds groups helps you to place those relationships on the correct branch of your tree.

Again, it doesn't work for everyone but it is one of the first techniques I use to help sort out someone's matches.

Now, I have a DNA match at 183 cMs which puts him in a range likely to be a half 2nd cousin, or a 2nd cousin once removed (my mom's 2nd cousin), or a half 1st cousin twice removed (my grandma Gardner's 1/2 cousin - meaning they share 1 grandparent), or a 1st cousin 3-times removed (one of my great grandparents' 1st cousins on my grandma Gardner's line). It is hard to say for sure because the man has no tree up, no profile describing his age or where he lives, and he has not replied to any of my Ancestry messages. Ordinarily I'd go looking for him on social media but he has a really common name, Daniel Clark. Don't be afraid to reach out to a match. These people took a DNA test. Some part of them wanted to find connections to other people. Connect!

I'd love to know how I'm related to Danny, so if you know him, please send him my way. I suspect he might not know who his bio father is. I don't either but I can certainly help him narrow it down.

That's my advice for if you spot an NPE in your life by any of the above described steps - COMMUNICATE! People are so afraid these days to call someone up or contact someone they match. There are so many scammers out there, sure, people are going to be suspicious but you're never going to know more if you don't ask. "Well, I don't want to upset anyone" And what if the information you share is what they have been looking for their whole life? What if what you have to share brings them joy or closure? Just reach out and ask.

Not everything has to be so negative. (See what I did there?)