More from "The Works of Uncle David"

Above is a picture of my Uncle David's dog, Ralph, who is listed as "son of " David and Carol and "brother of " Melissa in our family tree. And, below follows a recent correspondence between a long lost, distant relative looking for some help with the family tree and my très funny uncle:

Hello there,

I am trying to contact David Cully who is developing the Stephen's Glen project. I think we may be related. Can you either send me his email address or forward the following? Thanks so much.

-Rolando.

Hey there. Got your message [sic] yes, I am the son of Dorothy Gibson Cully, RIP.

But I need to tell you right up front - if you’re after a piece of the family fortune, you’re a day late and many dollars short. My sister Barbara ran off with just about all of the inheritance money, bought a fancy place in Zihuatanejo, and left the rest of here to freeze through the winters while she dances the Mariachi with her Mexican lover, Frostito. I think he sells drugs. Otherwise we’re all fine.

Now tell me again how we’re related. If Jeremiah and Catherine were siblings, how did they come to be married and have great grandchildren? And what’s with the de Aguiar name? Everyone knows that Carews, Cullys and Gibsons only marry Irish, or at least hard drinking Scots. Very suspicious.

Of course I am not the suspicious type, but my sister Carol is – what with all of this talk about money and you showing up suddenly with a weird last name; well, she’s kind of like Jessica Fletcher – picks up on all of these clues, if you know what I mean..

Anyway, please tell me how you tracked me down and more about the family tree as you know it. Hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,
DPC

Ha! Now I know who wrote that obit!

I assure you that I'm not searching for anything, though I might need a
hideout in Zihuatanejo, so if you could send me Frostito's (sounds like some
sort of horrible flavored margarita) number, that would be helpful.

About a year ago I started an online family tree. I knew my mom had 35 first
cousins but I'd never met one. A few letters (paper!) later, I had one
contact, my mother's cousin Kathy Smith in Virginia. Well, this lady knew
all of her cousins, and pretty sure I had more names and ancestry than I
knew what to do with. And it turns out that I was pretty good with Google.
So when one third cousin linked me up with a list of Catherine Carew's
grandchildren, I dutifully popped their names into Google, and out came your
mom's obituary.

Six months later, I google "David Cully Raleigh" and, well, it's not that
common a name.

So, to answer your question, my great grandfather was Jeremiah (father of
Robert, father of Diane, mother of me). Jeremiah's sister was Catherine, who
married Robert Heard, had a daughter Kathleen, who had a daughter Dorothy
(your mom). I'll send you an invitation to the online tree. Of course my
grandfather was thrilled when his daughter married a Cuban.

I'll send you an invitation to the online tree so you can check it out.

-Rolando.

Key:

"Frostito" - my maiden name is Frost

Reference to Zihuatanejo - my parents have a home in Mexico

"sells drugs" - pharmaceuticals

"sister Carol" - of Belgian loafer bogarting fame

Looks as though the tongue-in-cheek trait is a dominate gene...