I had not visited down here since I was 16. And since a large number of the early descendants were girls, the Bossley name wasn't as common as you would think with all those kids. I wasn't sure if I could find anybody I had even met before.
When I Googled "Bossley", I found a lot of people in Australia and an author in Banff didn't sound like a cousin. Then, on the fourth of fifth page, there was a reference to a Ludger Bossley on the Army Air Forces forum. Since that name sounded vaguely familiar, I clicked through. The post was actually from someone unrelated, trying to find information about his Great Grandfather who had been a WWII Bomber pilot shot down over Italy. He listed the crew members of the airplane and "Ludger Bossley" was a gunner on that plane. Two people had written saying that they thought it was a relative of theirs, did the original posting person have any information about Bossley. He didn't and the posting ended. But both people left their email addresses.
Neither was named Bossley, so I would not have found them were it not for this one link.
I emailed them both saying, "My Grandfather was one of the Bossley brothers who did not move South. The only name I definitely remember is a cousin about my age nicknamed "Robbie". She lived in Crowley, LA. I think her Mom's nickname was "Monk." She visited us in NY with her parents in the summer of 1963. Do you know her?"
The first response was from Judy Schick from Michigan who said,
"Yes, I sure can help you!! My mother was Bessie Mary Bossley, born April 05, 1908, and was your mother's cousin. My mother's father was Albert. Attachment with this E-mail includes a picture of your grandmother with her son Clifford, and two other pictures taken in 1955, when we visited you and your family in New York. One of your grandmother, and one of your mother, dad and you, with my younger brother, Ed, sitting on the porch of your store. I remember it so well. We walked down the road and went swimming."
Judy and her brother have been doing genealogical research for several years and Judy kidded, "How many cousins do you want to find?"
Here's the picture she mentions - with me at age 9
The second response came an hour or so later from Shane Zentner, now living in Colorado.
"Well, Thomas, you have looked in the correct place. Robbie Bossley Guidry is my mother and Mary Margret 'Monk' Bossley was my grandmother. Ludger Bossley is my grandfather who lives near my mother in Fort Collins, CO."
So a link to a Forum that really had nothing to do with my family led me to the exact people I was looking for.
PS - I just tried to go back and confirm the info but the link has been taken down. So if I'd searched 60 days later than I did, I'd have found nothing.
Judy and I talked on the phone several times, remembering her visit and talking about people I might contact while in LA. I'll definitely stay in touch with her.
One of the people she named that I remembered was Floyd Trahan. When I was about 12 he and his wife visited us in NY and we all took a trip to Quebec and Nova Scotia so he could find his Cajun roots. He passed away 12 years ago but I found his son, Floyd Jr who still lived in Crowley.
So on the way to Houston, I spent the night in a Wal-Mart parking lot and had dinner with Floyd and his wonderful wife, Valerie. They were gracious hosts, OF COURSE- they ARE Cajun, after all ! I had what may be my last crawfish before heading north. And a delightful, "catching up" talk with my cousins.
Life - and family - is good !
