Across the pond....... 108 years later

John and Emily had two boys together, William in 1874 and Peter in 1880.
They were a mining family originally from Staffordshire , but who moved to the Durham coal field presumably for work, before William was born. Fast forward to 2004 when Mr H's grandad Bill (another William) died, and in his wallet was found an old and fragile letter dated 1922 from St Charles in Michigan USA, from a relative called Peter. I spent some time researching the ancestors and discovered that Peter, the younger of the two brothers above had emigrated in 1909 to Saginaw, Michigan. 
Every now and again I would google our surname and Saginaw in the hope I might find something, and then in 2011 I found an obituary of what looked very likely to be a link. The funeral had been held that week, and donations were to Saginaw Children's zoo. I decided I had nothing to lose and emailed the zoo asking if they could pass my details on to the family. Within a couple of weeks contact had been made.  So fast forward again and we have three generations of the same family in the church in Crook in County Durham where Peter married Elizabeth in 1906, before emigrating. 

Here we have Ray, and his brother Peter (my father in law) who are both William's great granchildren, Timothy (from Michigan) who is Peter's grandson, and Ian (Mr H).

We have had a wonderful day, having all met for the first time. The  church wardens were truly wonderful, and seeing Tim's face when he walked in the church and saw where his grandad had been church organist and his grandparents had married was just amazing. 

I really can't believe the family resemblance.... with genes like these no wonder Miss H doesn't look like me!