When I first started getting into family history, I found most of my success finding cousins.  I had a grandmother from my mom's side and a grandfather from my dad's side that had done a lot of family history work on my direct grandparents.  When I moved to Pennsylvania and discovered that Pottstown, the very town we moved too, was also founded by my great great…grandfather's brother's son…well the flood gates to my family tree opened.  It was a journey I will never forget.  It was in Pennsylvania where I learned how to find my cousins.  In the process, I even found a hand-full of living and distant Pott's cousins.  What a blessing!  One is serving a mission in Brazil right now.

Today's task is to go back about 4 or 5 generations on your family tree and click on one of your ancestors.  Then change your family tree view to "Descendancy."  Use the icons on the right to help you find records and other information.  From there, explore your cousins and see if you can't discover an ancestor that was overlooked.  Here are a few of the many cousins that I found in Pennsylvania.  I not only stood at their gravesites, but I also found their original portraits at the Historical Society.  The one on the right, I have yet to find out who she is or how she connects to the family.  I have a 4×6 image of her in this portrait on my wall with other ancestor portraits to remind me of all those that are missing and that I still need to find in my family tree.  

Here's a fun music video about our cousins to inspire you today.  More information about finding your cousins can be found here.