By Vicky House

Oxford Town/Village Historian

OXFORD – I am sharing this story because I am not only proud and excited that my sister has come back into my life, but that she is recovering from breast cancer. Even though I tried for years to find her, it was the sad news that she developed breast cancer that prompted her to try and find out about her family and medical background.

Any historian will tell you that researching ancestors for people who may or may not have lived in a particular town can be a long, tedious process which may or may not yield results. That ancestor may not have lived in the town you thought they lived in or the spelling of their last name changed. There are many factors that could make searching for ancestors a difficult one. The same could be said when searching for a loved one who was taken away many years ago. Searching for any female member of a family is always difficult because of the name change when they marry.

I knew I had a sister who was taken away almost 50 years ago and now, with today’s technology, that sister has been found. Cindy Dee and I were reunited this past Saturday at our aunt and uncle’s homestead in Afton. We have the same birth mother but different birth fathers and when the family split up, Cindy Dee went with her father. I was eleven years old at the time and given no explanations for Cindy or her father leaving and not coming back.

During the fifteen hour visit, I told Cindy that I remembered the last time I saw her. Cindy was three years old and just came from the kitchen to follow me to the door. With her hand in her mouth and running, she slipped and fell on the hardwood floor. I thought she bit her hand so I went back to see if she was okay – Cindy started to laugh and I turned and walked out the door. I never saw or heard from her again until Saturday. Cindy shared with me her understanding for our leaving and the mixed feelings she had about the split and a possible reunion.