A DNA confirmation

I was able to make a confirmation to my Brown/Guider family via a DNA match to Lena Rosalind White Keith.

She is descended of Catherine Brown Robertson Purple, my mtDNA ancestor.

This has been a suspicion for a while ever since my cousin Jeanne Mendes told me that Catherine Brown's daughter was called Grandma Purple. Jeanne supposed this was due to her always wearing purple, but she wasn't sure.

My experience with genealogy

I started studying genealogy around the time my grandmother died in 1991.  At that time I inherited a lot of photos from her and my siblings and I didn't know who many of them were.  My mother had died in 1985 and I didn't have any easy reference to answer my questions.

So I started working. I was able to make some progress with a few cousins, but soon I found that many of the cousins on my mother's side were not really the people I wanted to be associated with. They were strongly religious and opinionated and even before social media was popular, I found my inbox flooded with stuff I did not want to read. 

As was to be a pattern, I didn't take advantage of the close family I had to get their stories and their knowledge. I lived under the belief, I would have time to get to them when I was ready. 

In my immediate family, no one really has the desire like I do to do this kind of research. Though they will often listen to what research I am able to complete, they do not have any desire to get involved. 

So I began researching my grandmother's family. I assumed this would be pretty easy, because I knew they had been in the U.S. for quite a while. When I hit brickwalls, I often gave up, losing interest.  The Miller name was so common, I never thought I would be able to make progress on many of my questions. 

When my aunt died in 1995, I no longer had any connection to my mother's family that I was aware of besides of course, the people I did not want to talk to. 

Both of my maternal grandfather's parents were born outside of the United States. I did a little research and sent off some letters to my grandfather's family in Germany, and was greeted with one response, a newspaper article about my grandfather's grandfather. After that nothing. 

I had confusing information with regard to my grandfather's mother, and met many dead ends.  Perhaps I could have connected with people I discovered later, but this was before I was looking at genealogy they way I look at it today. 

In the past, I was mostly interested in genealogical information from me to the past. It wasn't until the popularity of DNA testing, did I really start thinking about living cousins. 

I missed an opportunity to get information my grandfather's nephew, and discovered later he died in 2011. He had stayed in close contact with my grandfather's step niece, Deanne. 

In 1998 my father passed away, his mother had passed away in 1987. This left me with no connections to either my father's or mother's family. This is when I truly started realizing my missed opportunities. 

I tried speaking with my step mother, but she really knew very little.  I knew my father had a cousin, but it wasn't until after he died I found out that he actually had a half sister and half brother. 

I inherited my father's collection of photos and memories and it opened even more questions. 

Now I have tons of cousins from all over. I have found many cousins who are as enthusicatic as I about tracing the roots.