Crate Family
For years I drove a vanpool from Woodbridge, Va. to Washington, D.C. My backup driver was Bob Crate. Bob was an "Army-brat" having lived in many places but I thought of him mostly as being from Utah. I paid no attention that he was a Crate and that my 3g-gm was Elizabeth Crate.
One day we were discussing Groundhog Day and he mentioned that he had been to Punxsutawney. That got me interested. Few people travel from northern Virginia to visit Punxsutawney without another reason. I soon discovered that his dad grew up in Clarion Co., Pa. and attended Clarion-Limestone H.S. -- the same school where my dad did his student teaching. I didn't share this with Bob right away but soon deduced that his Crate family was from Clarion Co. and my 3g-gm was from the same area as well.
It would be years before I unraveled one of my greatest family mysteries -- one very few have. It's a story of mistaken identities in official records and newspapers. But it is one that I have 100% confident in. Bob and I are fourth cousins, connecting at Phillip Crate.