We’ve found my mother’s cousin Fred Gottlieb! She always spoke so warmly and lovingly of this tall handsome man who cut short his own honeymoon so he could walk her down the aisle. But we’d lost touch over the years and when I started doing the family tree research, I had no idea where he was. I’d posted a bunch of messages on genealogy.com and ancestry.com looking for info on the family but, until this week, hadn’t gotten any response.
But on Monday I got a response to a message asking about my great grandfather M.G. Cottrell from a woman asking if I knew anything about a Totsy Cottrell who was a member of that family. Do I!!! Totsy was my mother’s nickname! I shot back an immediate reply and asked the woman what her connection was with the family. Her reply was to ask if my mother had been married in Golden, Colorado, in the chapel of the Colorado School of Mines. (My father was an assistant professor there at the time.) By this point I was burning with curiosity and my cousin Paula and I went trolling for info. Turns out the woman — Karen Perce — had posted in the Gottlieb family forums, and I figured she had to be connected to cousin Fred. I was right! She’s a friend and Fred had asked her to see if she could find anything about the family.
We’re all delighted to have made the contact. Paula and I are printing out photos and info for Fred and exchanging info with Karen. And to show him just what he meant to my mother, I will be able to give him copies of the telegrams she kept for more than 50 years — his telegrams to her saying he would walk her down the aisle and to please make him a hotel reservation in Denver. Thanks, Karen…