Week 39: Surprise

I had an amazing surprise three years ago when I got a reply back on Ancestry.com to a message I had sent a few days earlier.  I had a DNA match to a potential 3rd-4th cousin through my 2x great-grandfather Alfred Cartwright, a man who has always been a brick wall in my family tree. I asked my DNA match if I could please have access to their private tree.  

When I heard back from my match she didn't give me access but she did send a giant file via DropBox that held a book of history on the Nelson and McKibbin families in Indiana.  Alfred Cartwright had married Mary Ann Nelson so that was an exciting find.  But when I looked closer at the picture and name of my DNA match it suddenly dawned on me that I was communicating with CYNDI INGLE, the creator of Cyndi's List!  Cyndi's List has been a popular and incredibly useful genealogy tool for more than 25 years.  The following is taken from Cyndi's "about' page on the website:

What exactly is Cyndi's List?

A categorized & cross-referenced index to genealogical resources on the Internet.

A list of links that point you to genealogical research sites online.

A free jumping-off point for you to use in your online research.

A "card catalog" to the genealogical collection in the immense library that is the Internet.

Your genealogical research portal onto the Internet.

Each month the Cyndi's List web site gets approximately 250,000 unique visitors and 970,000 pages visited with more than 31,760,000 successful page requests.

On average I add 1,500 new links, update/correct 600 links, and delete 300 non-working links each month.

There are more than 180 categories on the list, as well as individual pages for each US state, US county, Canadian province, and UK county. Cyndi's List has been a trusted genealogy research site for more than 25 years. Cyndi's List is free for everyone to use and it is meant to be your starting point when researching online. 

I was thrilled to know that Cyndi and I share 22 cM of DNA through my maternal line!  My relationship to each of the people listed here is shown under their name.  

Cyndi didn't know much about our shared ancestor Alfred either.  She kindly sent me a file from the National Archives that detailed the process that my GG Walter Cartwright went through to apply for 160 acres of land in North Dakota under the Homestead Act, just like his brother Francis had done.  

I still haven't broken through the brick walls surrounding 2x GG Alfred Cartwright but I'll keep trying.  I'd love to have a breakthrough that I could share with Cyndi to repay her kind sharing.