ANOTHER BIG IN-BETWEEN

Around the turn of the century, three of my Great Uncles left Sullivan County, NY and moved to the Cajun country of LA. They married three Cajun sisters and became what my Dad called "devout Catholics" - since they had a whole bunch of kids, and Dad always said when he saw a huge family, "They're either devout Catholics or Protestant sex fiends." Did I mention that these Great Uncles were on my Mother's side?

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 !

RECOVERING FROM MARDI GRAS

Ash Wednesday everybody hooked up and left the Lakefront Arena Park. After a really spectacular front moved through with drenching rains and winds that rocked the Airstreams. No damage and the rain had stopped by the time we started getting ready to leave.

I drove back to Irish Bayou. I had been worried about getting the Airstream back into my parking space at Vince's. There is only about 4 feet extra width between some poles and pilings that I have to fit into. I'm fairly competent when it comes to backing, as long as I can go slow and get out frequently to look and see where I'm going. But at the Bayou I'm blocking the highway while I back in. And those Cajuns can be impatient sometimes. About 30 minutes out Vince called on the cell and said Bill Stallworth would be meeting me there so he could leave his truck and utility trailer for a couple of weeks.

Another in-between; Bill directed me and backing in was a piece of cake. I'm sure I'm supposed to have figured it out by now and just stop worrying. But old paranoid habits are hard to break.

A week of rest and rehabilitation, then it was off to Mimosa Landing Campground for the weekend with Lesly; Lonnie and Vince (1959 Tradewind); Stanley and Joyce (2004 Bambi); and another Vince and his wife Bobbi (30'er that I think was a 1996). So we had four Airstreams ranging from 17' to 34' and 1959 to 2004.

OF COURSE the food was fantastic, every morning and every night. Friday we did some antique shopping and chilled. Saturday we took a tour of the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum at Camp Shelby. Vince was a helicopter pilot in Viet Nam. He and I spent some time outdoors looking at the Huey, Sky Crane, OH-6 and Cobra. Lots of interesting stuff inside, too. Starting with the War of 1812, exhibits covered all American conflicts through Desert Storm. We spent the better part of the afternoon there.

Sunday everybody except Lesly and I packed up and headed home. Lesly had President's Day off so we stayed another day. The morning rain ended about 1:00pm and we went for a 2 1/2 hour ride on the Honda. I didn't know Mississippi even had crooked hilly roads, but we found one ! HERE it is !

Monday we said, "Good By" and I headed toward Houston, with plans to look up some cousins in the Cajun country around Crowley, LA on the way.