Yesterday, Saturday, was Spring-like for a February day, 40+º, melting, puddles, mud. I was actually home to enjoy it. I had plans. We stripped the two guest beds and our bed. Hung the quilts outside to freshen. Put in two loads of bedding right down to the bed pads.

We had gotten an early start, so after that I baked some oatmeal raisin cookies. My next planned project was cleaning the office. Then about 10:30am, the phone rang, our land line.  We had just sat down to put our feet up for a bit while the cookies finished baking. Norm answered and handed the phone to me. He said it is someone about the museum.

It was a young lady who was in the area taking pictures of Westfield for a 99-year-old lady who grew up here, and was in a nursing home in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Would there be any way that she could see the museum. We get those requests from time to time, and in my mind, I was going to see if Uncle Neil was available. Remember, I had projects in mind for the day.

I am not sure what made me ask, but I said, “Who is the lady who grew up here?”  Her response was “Martha Jost”. “Do you know who her father was?” I asked, “She may be related to my husband. His grandmother was a Jost.”

“Yes, her father was Ted,” Jessica, the young lady said. “Were there twins in the family?” I asked. “Yes,” she replied surprised, “Martha is one of them. Her sister Lydia was the other.” “Oh my gosh,” I replied, “That makes her a first cousin to my husband’s father.  We can show you lots of things to take pictures of that relate to Martha’s family.”

So we met in the afternoon, brought her the information that we had on that family including a pedigree chart to show Martha her parents, grandparents and great grandparents. We showed Jessica the museum and then took her to the cemetery, the old high school (we knew she would have graduated from that school building because she was in the same class as Aunt Vaudice Fuhrmann Mills), the farm area that Martha would have grown up on across from Cant Hill (it is no longer a farm), Cant Hill where Jessica knew Martha always went sledding, Thal Acres where Martha’s dad would have grown up (of course it was a farm then and not Thal Acres).

In my notes, it was Aunt Vaudice who had showed us the area of the Ted Jost farm. She remembered the twins as being very artistically talented and pretty.

We exchanged e-mails, phone numbers and hugs. Jessica is going to see if Martha can fill in any information on that particular family group, possibly scan me some pictures at least of Martha and her twin. Jessica was so excited. We were so excited.

This was not just a chance meeting. The Jost family was the line that we were working on when we went down to Farmington. It is the family that I have been entering information on into Family Search. Interestingly, when I was making up documents for Jessica to take to Martha, I realized that I had all kinds of information on her family in the Reunion program on my desktop that had not been entered into Family Search. I would have missed it entirely. It makes the hairs stand up on my arms to realize just how thin the veil is at times. What a great experience! Thanks to whoever up there was putting this meeting together. Family History is indeed Rad!