Saturday, September 18, 2010

Family From New Zealand Visits

We had an unexpected treat this week when one of my relatives dropped in to visit while travelling from Kentucky to Minnesota to visit other relatives.

Arnold Parr lives in Akaroa, New Zealand which is not far from Christchurch. He was born in Canada but traveled to the south pacific many years ago to teach. He is just retired from his position of Senior Lecturer at the School of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch.

Arnold is deeply into genealogy and has traveled all around the U. S. and internationally to research our family tree. His database includes over 3,000 family members........totally impressive. Arnold comes to the U. S. to visit family and do research almost every year. He has a son with family and many other relatives spread across Canada and the Midwest.

As for our exact relationship, Arnold's Great-Great Grandmother is my Great Grandmother. All our family on this branch is from Finland and immigrated to the U. S. (Minnesota) and Canada. It was taxing our brains too much to decide what the proper name for our relationship was, so we just agreed to be cousins.

We hope to see Arnold when we cruise to New Zealand in November this year and then again whenever he is passing though the Midwest.

6 comments:

  1. Looks like a very nice human.... yes, I think you are cousins...

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    1. I roomed with Arnold at The Ohio State University in 1966 - Shepherd Moore - statdoctor@aol.com

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  2. Would Arnold have brother named marvin? I have been removed from the parr side of my family tree.

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  3. I would like to ask Arnold Parr about an article he wrote entitled Leaving the Cooneyites: Analysis of the Leaving Process for Long-term Members of a Sect - Volume 11 Number 1 (1998) . In particular, I would like to know if he conducted further research on the Cooneyites sect. Please advise - thank you

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    1. Arnold asked me to share his reply with you....."Sorry, I have not done any further research in this area. The research was done in collaboration with a student who had access to a number of leavers. Thank you for your interest."

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