R I T O L A (Homecoming)

I have this facination with finding out something about relatives/family history...roots. My father was a very quiet person so I don't have a lot of information about his family. Every once in a while he would surprise us by disclosing the fact that the great finnish athlete Ville Ritola was an uncle or cousin to him. Did he know anything about any of his relatives that may still be in Finland (or the Anderson side for that matter)? Unfortunately, the answer is no. So, when I have time to while away at the computer, like now for instance, I google search his name but really don't find anything. (A lot of Finnish web-sites that I cannot understand as they are in Finnish, as well as people I wouldn't know how to determine would be related to me or not.)

This is sort of frustrating as well as sad. I guess I am a person in search of connections to big families and holidays and a sense of belonging, or 'homecoming'. I do have family...my mom, two brothers, their wives and kids, and a sister, her husband and son...but I look/hear about families that have extended aunts/uncles/cousins and I feel cheated. The only cousins I have (who I love very much) that I know of are four other people and their children and spouses (oh, and a wonderful uncle as well). Now, have they got an extended family! Their mother has, I believe, four or five sisters and two brothers who all had children and then those children had children and it is unreal. When we were little and would go to parties at my cousin's home it was wild! When we had parties and the family came to our house, well, it was always very roomy.

I probably should not be complaining because I do have a wonderful family. Perhaps if I was still married I would have my spouses family as my extended family, but I believe I would still wonder about those European/Scandinavian relatives I might have out there. Oh well, perhaps one day I will take a long trip and search this out. For right now, however, I can daydream about a part of me that will finally experience that 'homecoming' I am searching for.

(Okay, Clare, so I have finally updated...are you satisfied?)