Connecting with Cousins

Cousin Janet, Jon, Ken and Jan in Alberta

What could make the experience of visiting the homestead property of your grandparents and birthplace of your mother more special? Sharing the experience with the cousin you grew up with whose mother was also born on the homestead!

Cousin Janet and her husband Jon had planned a trip to Montana during the time we were to be in Alberta for the RVICS project.  Their purpose was to visit and assist Jon's mother who has been dealing with serious health issues. However, Jon's son lives in Red Deer, AB about 40 Km from our project at Salem Acres Bible Camp so the possibility of a rendezvous in Alberta presented itself, but the circumstances encountered during the visit with Jon's mother would determine if this could happen.  Happily we received an email from J&J from Montana that they planned to cross the border into Canada, spend a day or so in the Banff area, and then head  to Red Deer to visit Jon's son.  We made plans to rendezvous at Salem Acres after the end of our project work week on a Thursday afternoon to plan the pilgrimage to Kinsella.  The stage was set for a joint search for our Canadian Roots.

We had lunch in Stetler and Jon and Janet had hotel reservations for the night in Camrose.  Ken had made contact with Ian Morken, the current owner of the homestead property, who had agreed to meet us on the property around 11:00a the next day.  The plan was to meet in Kinsella at 10:30a the next morning and then together go to the homestead location.  But, as it turned out there were discoveries about family history even before we made it to the homestead.