Long Lost Cousins...A Bridge to the Past

Rev. Harold Lewis embracing a lost cousin 1979. His sister Mabel Lewis Carawan on right.  
Photo courtesy Lewis Family Collection (C)

     It has been well over a year ago since I began work on my family tree and other projects concerning the people, places, and events of Goose Creek Island.  Posting pictures in the Goose Creek Island Album on Facebook has been a wonderful resource to connect families and discover pieces of family history that otherwise I would have considered lost.  It's amazing how ALL of us on the Island is connected in so many different ways.
     My roots stem from Goose Creek Island and North Creek, "over the river" in Beaufort County.  Even my Beaufort County roots are on this Island as well.  The Lewis', Potter's, Howerin's, Sadler's, Carawan's, Williamson's, and Foreman's are well rooted here.  Most of my ancestors can be traced back to Hyde County.  On the Lewis side, I have traced my paternal heritage all the way to Shackleford Banks and the Colonial Albemarle region.  On the maternal side, I have traced them to Jamestown, Isle of Wight County, VA and to Cornwall, England.
     Of all the people and personalities who make up my family tree, I have found a wealth of information from the Facebook Album.  In my family tree research, I had come to a stop on my great great great grandmother Melissa O'Neal Carawan, wife of Bernard Carawan.  Most recently, a long lost cousin Paul Watson, posted a comment on the Album that finally shed some light on my research.  Melissa died in December 1882 from an epidemic sweeping the southside of Pamlico River. She, along with her son-in-law John Thomas Campen, were buried up the Pamlico River at Ragged Point, known today as Goose Creek State Park. Without Paul's generous knowledge, I don't think I would have found this information.
    Long lost cousins, whether you reconnect with them in person or through social networks like Facebook, can provide a bridge to our past.  During homecoming weekend, it was good to talk with some older cousins that I had not seen in long time and to meet new ones that I had never met before.  What was evident, regardless how the interaction occurred, once I began to converse and reminisce with my lost cousins, the more it felt like we had known each other forever.  Richard Lewis of Elizabeth City, son of Marcus Lewis, emailed me this morning and those were his exact words, "I feel I have known you all my life!"  Even though his father and my grandfather Mike Lewis were the closest of cousins, finding my cousin Richard will open up a whole new chapter in our family history.
    All of my genealogical and Island research has provided me with a well rounded picture of my family and the Island.  But pouring over numerous papers and family trees has also provided a disappointment - I will never meet my ancestors who I feel I have come to know through my research.  But despite that disappointment, meeting long lost cousins has provided me with something far greater than I will have ever known.
     These long lost cousins can shed more light on my research, fill in gaps, possibly provide unseen photo's and documents.  I hope they too begin to share a passion of our family and Island history.  I feel lucky that I have been able to find them and hope my research continues to find more.
     If you are looking for long lost cousins, I would like to prepare you of what you may find.  You may find a long lost cousin who "knows they are lost" and are blissfully aware of their predicament.  Then you will find a cousin who has been looking for you (although they might not know it is you they have been looking for, do you follow?).  But either way, your long lost cousins can become a family historian to your search through the past.
     I am proud to say that I have always had in interest in people, family and friends.  I have found that the closer we can get to our ancestors, the more we can enrich our family history.  But most importantly, I have learned this, no matter where you start from or where life takes you, choose to be happy; choose to know where your roots are from. Because you never know, one day knowing your roots can provide you the greatest joy in your life.