Out Of The Blue

What Are The Odds?

My step-son Luke was moving to a new mobile home out in the country (about 6-7 miles from downtown) and he found out that he needed to have a front and back deck installed with steps on both. He also found out that the decks had to be inspected by the city health inspectors even though the mobile home was in the county and not in the city. There was a rule that said if you lived with a 3 mile radius of the city, then the decks had to be inspected.

I helped Luke build the decks, along with several family members. Now I am not anything like a carpenter - I am just good dumb labor. I spent most of my time just overseeing the construction and every now and then swinging a few hammers. Luke's girlfriend had a best friend's husband who was the brains behind the operation. Stephen was about 28 years old and he was an electrician for a firm in town. He was not a carpenter, but he knew enough to be dangerous - which was about 100 times more than any of the rest of us knew.

Stephen worked long and hard on the project and I came to admire his work ethic (hard to find in today's youngsters). As I typically do, I asked him his last name. I was expecting one of the usuals like Shuttlesworth, Townsend, Shirley, etc. I of course wanted to find out if I knew some of his family from my genealogy work. He said his last name was Cyr. He spelled it to make it clear to me. But I had seen this name before. I told him I knew that name. I asked him if he had any relatives in Maine and New Hampshire. He was surprised and he said yes. He said, "My father is from New Hampshire and my grandfather Cyr was from Maine. How did you know that?" I said, "Hey, there was a strongman named Louis Cyr who some claimed was the strongest man who ever lived. Have you ever heard of him?" He said that he hadn't heard of Louis Cyr. Then I told him how I knew about his family. My step-son told him about all of the work I do with genealogy and he was pretty much laughing about it because I end up knowing stuff that not many people could come up with.

My wife's ex-husband's Aunt Cookie had asked me to look into her background several months before. I probably would have gotten to it eventually, but she prompted me early. Yes, Kim is still close to her ex-in-law's which is not the usual thing. She said she had no reason to be upset with them and that they were good people. Some of her ex-husband's aunts, uncles and cousins even cooked for our wedding rehearsal dinner several years ago. But anyway, Aunt Cookie had an interesting story. Her mother was from here in Alabama, but her father was from Maine. He was hurt in World War II and was in a military hospital here in Alabama. Aunt Cookie's mother took care of her father and lo and behold, they married and had children. Aunt Cookie's father's last name was Bishop. She gave me pretty much his name and said he was from Maine and I pieced together his tree. Her father's mother was a Cyr from Maine. I found out that she died in a shooting in 1951. She and her husband ran a restaurant and someone came in one day and robbed the place - a horrible tragedy. I was excited when I saw that he name was Cyr because I had read about Louis Cyr, the strongman. I read about a lot of subjects, but strongmen fascinate me. I love that show World's Strongest Man. The things those guys can do are incredible. Well, this Louis Cyr had lifted 534 lbs with one finger. He had lifted a platform with 18 men (about 2400 lbs) using his back and legs. This was one strong character. He died in 1912 in Montreal. I couldn't prove it (because I don't have access to all of the Quebec historical records), but I know Aunt Cookie was related to Louis Cyr - probably 4rd cousins 2x removed or something like that. I loved finding things like this because it merges two of my loves - useless knowledge and genealogy.

Well anyway, I told Stephen that Aunt Cookie and him were related somehow. Later that day, I checked into Stephen's ancestry using my google and ancestry.com techniques. I followed Stephen's Cyr line back to Maine around 1900 and then it went back to Quebec and I lost the trail. I told him the next day that he and Aunt Cookie were probably 6th or 7th cousins but I couldn't prove it. I ran into Aunt Cookie about a month later and told her that a Cyr guy was living here about 3 miles away from her. She was amazed and said she wanted to meet him. She doesn't really have any family on her father's side because he left the family when she was about 3 or 4 years old. She said he got severely depressed and ended up leaving. I told her that it most likely was from hearing news of his mother dying in the shooting. Aunt Cookie said she had no knowledge of her grandmother's death, but that story made sense.

My wife said I need to compile some of Aunt Cookie's ancestry and print it out so she can see it. She is not tech-savvy and would want to keep it as hard-copy. I need to do that. I know Aunt Cookie would be very appreciative.