Another Year Ends!

An awful lot of things have happened to me over the last year!  Some were happy and some were sad.

The happiest were when my wife and I completed our 51st year with each other and, when I survived another year to reach my 71st.  Another came when I was reunited with cousins from both of my mother's sisters.  We had not seen each other in close to 40 years!

One of the saddest came when I lost a younger - by 10 years - first cousin to the ravages of cancer.  He learned of the disease and was deceased within about six weeks.  This was the cousin who was responsible for the reunion.  I suspect he knew then something was not right with his health but did not reveal it until virtually the last few days of his life.  I think his wife and family were as surprised by his diagnosis as the rest of us were.

But, even in this sad time came some joy:  I was able to re-unite with all of his sisters who had not attended the reunion. We are now in almost daily contact and I can't help but wonder what the hell took so long for us to find one another again.

Another happy moment occurred with I was able to connect with a cousin who resides in Alaska.  She descends from the second marriage of our GGG-grandfather Coffee.  The sad part of that is contact came a few months too late to talk to her father.  He would likely have known much more about his own father, grandfather and perhaps GGG, than he had previously shared with his children!  I find it interesting that this cousin's family has always spelled their name Coffey instead of Coffee as mine did.

The 2010 blog year was somewhat productive.  I wrote 132 this year and readers increased from a tad over 30,000 at the end of 2009 to over 44,000 at the end of this year.  Admittedly, the counter includes "transients" who page through blogs without reading them and, that makes it nearly impossible for me to tell how many were dedicated readers.  But, as I look through counter stats, I find many readers who dwell on the site and read for some hours.  Google has introduced a way for us to more closely track what visitors are looking for and are actually reading.  I am hopeful this will make it a tad easier for me to understand what families I should concentrate on.

Many readers again contributed photos and research data, most of which found its way into the blog.  I invite more Coffey/Coffee researchers to participate. 

I hope also that many of you will be able to attend the Coffey Cousins' Reunion in April, 2011 at Independence, MO.  See the appropriate tab at the top of this blog for more info about that!

If you are not already a subscriber to the Coffey Cousins' newsletter edited by Bonnie Culley, you are missing out on a great resource.  For details, contact Bonnie via e-mail or, write to her at 4012 Cambridge Circle, Jefferson City, MO 65109.  She has been the editor of the quarterly since Jan., 1989.

Happy New Year.  I hope that it will be a blessed one for each of you!

Jack