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 Quality
time with an expert (13)
By
their noses
shall they be recognized
Lidija
Sambunjak
professional
genealogist
11
October 2011 
Researching family trees and family histories is a
very special type of work. It takes lots of patience,
both with the deceased ones and with the living.
People
who want their family trees to be researched come
from all around the world and it's no wonder every
one of them is different. But as special as family
Sadar was, none were before them.
They contacted
me with a simple task - to find their ancestral families
and where their grandparents came from. Research was
not hard, vital books were well kept and all was fine
up until they decided to come to meet their living
relatives about a year after I did their initial research.
They asked
me to contact living relatives and ask them if they
could come by and meet them, to see where their grandparents
came from.
Suspicious
family
And so
I did - but their cousin was a real "doubtful
Thomas". When I introduced myself and told her
I was hired to find her and the rest of her family
the first thing she asked was "Are you serious"?
"You must be joking, right?". Eventually
she agreed on us meeting her in a few days, but I
could sense she was still suspicious. Little did I
know of how big the suspicion was.
So I met
with Sadars on a beautiful morning and when we sat
down for a while before leaving to go to Krka, their
ancestor's birth place, they expressed their doubt
in my research and wondered where the information
came from, if this was the correct data and if there
was absolutely no doubt that this family is theirs.
I explained the processes of research, after which
they were convinced enough to get in my car and off
we went.
The village
of Krıka vas was astounding - simple farm houses standing
by the river stream, flowers all so perfect in their
blossom and a cousin who, after she saw us said "Oh
my I didn't believe you were real, so I actually didn't
prepare anything for you!"
Hundreds
of pictures
She didn't
believe we were real, she thought I was a survey girl
who just wanted to get into her house under the pretense
of living relatives in America!
She laughed
aloud when they pulled their huge paper with family
tree out and when she saw names of her ancestors she
easily recognized.
Her mother
came by a little later and was surprised even more.
She and her son mocked the cousin when she first told
them that a genealogist called. They asked her if
she was crazy enough to believe it!
 But
after all the crying and the tears they pulled out
their family pictures and my clients got their proof.
There were, among hundreds of pictures they had two
pictures with family from America, with my clients
grandfather and an old house he lived in. There was
the proof that they were more than willing to believe
in, there was proof that bonded them together again,
this time forever.
I always
say that cases like this are why I do this work. Connecting
living relatives who dont know of each other, but
still share such a big part of their past without
which they cannot progress. Sadars had a great time
with their newly found family members, but discovered
one more thing during their visit - they all have
those special, funny noses and Mr. Sadar said jokingly,
although I believe it to be the truth, "if there
was nothing else to prove we were related, I would
most definitely believe it just by looking at our
noses".
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By
their noses shall they be recognized 
People who want their family trees to be researched come from all around the
world and it's no wonder every one of them is different. But as special as family
Sadar was, none were before them.(11 Oct 2010)
A
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Wars produce negative consequences on today's genealogical research, because,
during wars, vital records are in a threat of destruction. (28 Feb 2010)
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For a family picture to be preserved for a century or longer takes a small miracle.
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(29 Dec 2009)
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