Hi Everyone! First of all, let me give you a couple of statistics. The KISSINGCOUSINS-L mailing list was created at RootsWeb on May 30th, 1999 at 1 minute before 4 pm in the afternoon EST. Due to my getting ready for this list, I advertised it in several places and had a group of people who had visited this website and E-mailed me asking to let them know when the list had been created.
At about 15 minutes after the list was created, I sent out the first letters to the 40 odd people (not that you guys are odd, but it was roughly 40 people) and within minutes, everyone started to subscribe.
At the end of the first night, we had about 30 subscribers. By the next day at 4:00 in the afternoon, 24 hours after the list had started, we had about 45. Currently, we have almost 60 (as of this writing on June 3, 1999).
With those numbers in mind, think of the odds. Here's the news that prompts this writing:
Late Tuesday night/Early Wednesday morning (6/1/99-6/2/99), 2 people in our group found the first match of Cousins.
Jerrian D. Barsness and Chet Feathers found they had the names Thomas Oldham and Hannah McCreary in common. To Jerrian, they are 3rd great grandparents. As it turns out, Hannah McCreary is also Chet's 4th Great GrandAunt. Less than three days after the list started, the first match was made. We all wish Jerrian and Chet much luck and continued success in collaborating and finding the rest of their families ties to each other, if any exist.
Betsy Hale KISSINGCOUSINS-L (Former Listowner)
