it's a small world
Just now doing some family history research, I stumble upon this cousin who died in Montgomery, Alabama. Rather odd for my family of northerners. He was born a little bit south of Indianapolis. Perhaps met and married a southern girl at Indiana University where he graduated in 1939. Or maybe when he joined the Army in 1940, he was sent south for training.
His obituary does not say when he went to Alabama, or Montgomery, except that he joined the Alabama National Guard after serving in WWII.
So I am thinking, dang, here's this white relative of mine,probably living in Montgomery at the time of the bus boycott! And I wonder, did he play a part, for good or ill? Was he part of a white citizen's council? Was he a northerner urging de-segregation, or was he a yankee keeping his head down?
He's actually a fairly close relative, as these things go. A mere 3rd cousin of my paternal grandfather. Fairly close, but really most people do not even know their 2nd cousins, much less their 3rd. 3rd cousin means their grandparents were first cousins. However, given that one was living in Indiana and the other family in Wisconsin in the 1870s those first cousins may have never met. (Although grandpa's grandpa was a civil war vet, so he went through Indiana more than once).
Anyway, I thought that was rather amazing, and once again, family history brings other history closer to home.