1 file added to the album New Album Name

My 1st cousin, once removed -- and did she ever enjoy "fussing" at me when I used the once-removed label. Her father and my Grandpa Walter Bourbon were brothers, so the closest ancestors we shared were Francois "Francis, Frank" Bourbon and Mary Sansoucie. I met Louise in October of 2006, when I started discovering Missouri French roots that I never knew about when I was growing up across the Mississippi, in Granite City. Louise, her brother Jessie, and other Bourbon's and Valles I met in '06 started filling me in on a story I had never heard. (When Grandpa Bourbon moved his family to Illinois, they became the lost Bourbon tribe, so I got to repay everybody by telling stories that had never heard.) In July 2007, Louise organized a Bourbon Family Reunion. That was a huge job, and she drew people there from across the country, and even one from Canada. I was there, along with one of my 1st cousins. (That was where I took the photo showing Louise with the special cake she had made for the reunion.) On that trip, Louise had us to the house, for more stories. In October 2007, all three of my 1st cousins and I came to the fete. One more time, Louise had us all to the house, where she and her brother Jessie told us some more stories -- some of which we began to think probably really were "stories." All of us from the lost Bourbon tribe are grateful we found Louise as part of the family we never knew about when we were growing up. Tom Bourbon, in Texas