When you’re researching your ancestors, you always come across a time period where there are people you have actually met and others you would have liked to have known. This month’s birthday celebrations are a mixture of such.

First up, happy birthday to my Maternal Grandmother, Louise! (Or as we called her, Grammy Vaughn.) There was so much behind this amazing person that I didn’t know existed until after she had passed away. I high school, she worked on the yearbook committee, school newspaper, was a theater geek, and softball captain. So many of my loves and passions parallel hers, and I had no idea until recently. Happy birthday, Grammy, I love and miss you so much.

The second birthday that I would like to acknowledged belongs to my Grammy’s grammy. Marguerite Goguen was born in New Brunswick, Canada, sometime in February. I haven’t been able to find the precise date. In some instances it’s recorded as the same day as her grand-daughter, Louise, but obviously in a different year; in others, it’s later in the month, but regardless, my 2nd great-grandmother was a February baby.

Perhaps the most surprising – to me – birthday that I would like to give a nod to is that of my 4th cousin, twice removed. For better or worse, this cousin is well known to me and someone who I really didn’t expect myself to be related to. However, when you live in a state like Maine, with a population niche like the Acadians still around, the concept of “everyone is related” is something that holds true. Shirley King, born in Orono, Maine, was a snowbird later in life, splitting her time between Maine and Florida. Her and I never really saw eye to eye, but for what it’s worth, there was some bad blood between her and other family members before I met her, and being tied to said other family members probably didn’t help me much. Here’s to hopefully getting to chat and know each other more amicably in the next life.