Today's fun story and photos were shared with us by Kathleen Foley, IGSI member and past Education Chair: 

"As anyone reading this knows, there is a LOT of straw in the haystacks where we search for our one golden needle. However, at times the world can be really small.

My son and his family live in Portland, Oregon. He recently was at a neighborhood party and got to talking to a woman with an Irish accent. He was telling her that our family had gone to Ireland in August 2022 to celebrate our 50^th (actually by then it was our 52^nd) wedding anniversary. She asked if he had Irish heritage and he replied, “Yes, through my paternal grandfather (Foley) and both sides of my mom’s family (Shea and Clarkin).” She paused and said, “I’m a Clarkin!! Any connections to Prince Edward Island, Canada?” He then went on to tell her his maternal grandfather, my dad Jerry Clarkin, was born in PEI. Early the next day, my son emailed me a photo of his Clarkin neighbor plus a photo of her son and my granddaughter who are in the same class! I was lucky enough to have met three of my Clarkin ‘cousins’ last summer when I was in County Monaghan. After receiving my son’s email, I emailed those relatives (exact relationship not quite figured out yet but we tell ourselves we are 5^th cousins). One replied almost immediately that she was his niece! 

Small world, indeed. Since this chance encounter, I have corresponded several times with my newly found Clarkin relative. We plan to meet when we are in Portland for Christmas and have since shared Ancestry family trees."

Pictured below: 

At left are the newly found Clarkin 'cousin' and Kathleen's son in Portland. At right are Kathleen and her Clarkin 'cousin' in County Monaghan.