JOE BARBER’S COLUMN

Winter is past, new spring life is appearing in lawns and shrubs and I believe I have my income tax finished, all of which are good signs.

Research continues on with some good results and other results, which were less exciting. Last fall our faithful contributing editor, Doreen Dolleman, led me to a family of Olmstead cousins that I didn’t know about before and who are living right in my hometown of Regina. One goes to my church and I have known this person as a fellow church member for a number of years, but not before as a distant cousin. I guess this is further proof of how small a world we live in.

I have mentioned before some of our cousins who have reached or exceeded their 100 birthday. One of my first cousins once removed, Verbena Burton, now living at Pasco, WA reached that milestone March 1, 2005. Up to last year Verbena lived in her own home in Vancouver, BC before moving to Pasco to live with a nephew and his wife. A couple of e-mails provided a phone number for her and I was able to call her the day after her birthday.

On a sadder note I just learned that Ariel Crowley died on April 13, 2005 a few months short of his 100^th birthday. Ariel was a descendant of Moses, son of Jabez, and he was a great researcher of the Jabez family in years gone by. Information on his life and his many accomplishments can be found in the May 2002 issue of our newsletter.

I believe Carl will be mentioning DNA testing which some of our Jabez cousins as well as other Olmste(a)ds have participated in. At the risk of being repetitive, DNA can be used to verify the lineage of males (Olmste(a)d in our case) as it compares the Y-chromosome of a male’s makeup that is passed from father to son to grandson and thus down through the generations. Unless a male has the Olmste(a)d name there is no point in them participating directly in a test of Olmste(a)ds. However males without the Olmstead name as well as females can participate indirectly in this testing by sponsoring a male Olmste(a)d cousin. If anyone is interested in exploring this further they can contact Carl or myself.

I leave you with this thought to ponder which I saw in a seniors publication “Don’t count your years, make your years count”

Joe Barber.