Playing with Dead People.....

While growing up, Cathy and I were not particularly close. Being that I was 6 years older than she was, I didn't want to interact with my "baby sister" too much. However, about 20 years ago, we started developing our friendship at a new level. I had started documenting our family tree in high school and she wanted to work on it. That was the start of a hobby that would become a life-long obsession for both of us. Cathy affectionately dubbed it, "playing with our dead people". She and I shared a love of history, mystery and playing detective. Genealogy afforded us the chance to indulge all three. We spent countless hours - no, days - on the internet and in libraries and courthouses across America.

In October of 2006, while still undergoing chemo, but feeling good, she proposed that we take our dream trip to Pittsburgh, PA, to look up Dad's ancestors. We were stumped on several people, and needed to be on-site to research. When we got to Pittsburgh, we struck gold!! We not only found our ancestors in the records, but stayed in the neighborhood where they lived, and even found the house they live in!! What a surprise that it was still standing!! We have a picture of our great grandmother in front of that house, and we were thrilled to be able to take pictures of ourselves in front of the same house - 70 years later. The next day we traced the deed for it and found that our 3rd great grandfather bought that land in 1852. A genealogist's "cloud nine", to say the least! Cathy and I were so blessed to have taken that trip together before her cancer became unmanageable. It was the last of so many memories we shared playing with our beloved "dead people". My goal is to pull all of our research into a book, dedicated to Cathy~ my fellow researcher...my motivator...my sister...my best friend.

-Pam Hundal