A Whim on a Summer Day

by Darlene Almer

My e-mail address is DarleneA@aol.com
and I live in Longview, WA.

I started doing genealogy in 1982, took a pause of a couple of years and decided to go back to it in 1997 because of a cousin taking up the hobby and asking me questions about what I already had done.

I went to the LDS Family History Center here in Longview one day last summer and on a whim, went into the IGI and pulled up all the John Dobbins I could find with the intention of printing them off and checking them later, since that is a very common name in the Dobbins family.

As the printer stopped and I was tearing the sheets off, I noticed the name Johnnie Dobbins with parents listed as John D. Dobbins and Minnie Whitaker (my known great grandparents) -- I was absolutely floored as I stared at the printout and the staff was as excited as I was.

Here was the clue I needed to contact the submitter of this info who indeed turned out to be family -- all I had known previously was that my Grandfather's name was Johnnie Dobbins and his father was also John Dobbins and that his mother was Minnie Whitaker.

Now I have siblings of my Grandfather and other family connections, including the Civil War record of my Great-Grandfather -- all because I had a whim to print off the names from the IGI that day.

Submitted:  Sun Dec 21 15:47:23 1997

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