Love comes in many shapes and sizes, and sometimes when we least expect it.

Romantic love, familial love, friend love, pet love … you get the idea. Which leads us to one year ago today, the day we posted this: 144 – A family genealogy reading. As far as I know, we did not time our blog response to land on the exact anniversary (August 31), yet it did.

There are no coincidences.

The followup began when I felt inclined to reach out to the reader a couple of weeks ago, who sent her questions to us last summer. She was a college friend of mine who follows our blog, and I wanted to know how her genealogy research was going.

She replied through Facebook:

“I was going to email you earlier this summer, but got distracted with a new job. Things are going well with the research. The woman, who was communicating with The Mystic Hairdresser, is named Susan. I researched obituary records and found a published notice, and then her bible among some boxes in the basement … she died during childbirth. Her son’s name was Emile. I visited her grave last month, there was no mention of her married name, nor was there any marker for Emile. I believe he is buried with her. There is not a record anywhere about him or his death other than in her bible. When I get some extra spending money, I plan on buying a little stone to have his name engraved so everyone will know. I think she is happy that I have these plans.”

When I told The Mystic Hairdresser I’d communicated with my friend about her project, she replied, “Oh, I was thinking about the ancestry lady last week.” (I did not share the above text with The Mystic.)

Then, the reader asked more questions …

“Why does she [the woman in the photo] want to share all this with me? Is what she is trying to share useful for some reason in this world? Was I part of her world in a past life? What is the best way for me to communicate with her?”

The Mystic Hairdresser answered …

I'm going to be my normal self here and say one of those things that will undoubtedly get the WTH? response from quite a few of our readers...

I don't know for sure why this woman has chosen you to research her story or why you have chosen to go along with it. There is one possibility that you haven't listed, though.... Maybe she's you. Perhaps this is you from another time and you're keeping your story alive across lifetimes.

What I do know is that this a love story very few ever experience. It's the sort of love that Hollywood tries to make movies about but never quite succeeds. (I was never convinced that Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore loved each other all that endlessly in Ghost.) Long and short, this is not a love or a story that ends when the people die.

As for your research, this is a puzzle that is not going to present itself in order. Texas came up the first time I wrote about this, but I didn't mention it because it was not time to go there yet. I think you have enough information to do a little research in Texas now, although I also think there is still more information to be discovered in southern Kentucky and just south of there. Texas will be about an earlier time, late 1830s through the mid 1840s. That may lead you to more of what's to be discovered in Kentucky.

There is a genealogy information “bank” in Texas that has information for you. I don't know the name of it, but I can see the building is light pinkish brick. You'll have to research places that keep these sorts of records. This place has gathered records specific to people who were in the trenches when Texas became a state. This information will be about this lady's paternal side of the family. Look at the men specifically. It's the beginning of the story. Perhaps a grandfather.

The best way to communicate with her is to just ask what you want to know then pay attention to things that you notice which are repetitive or a little out of step like a letter you see over and over or a number, date, etc. I am getting Rea.... as I'm typing this. It's part of a man's first name and he wears a uniform in Texas. Even I'm rolling my eyes at that one, but it's what I have.

Please stay in touch. You and I are going to meet at some point and I'm looking forward to it.

Thank you for writing in!