Thank you for asking. Family Tree data is maintained on multiple platforms to reach as many relatives as possible. Online, you can find the tree at Ancestry.com, MyHeritage, and FamilySearch.com. After that, it is kept offline on flash drives in multiple locations. To encourage offline storage, we will be sponsoring a time capsule project. Contact us for details on how family history can be kept safe for centuries.
The MyCousins.org website is broader in scope than building the family tree. For instance, it seeks to help our cousins share family history regardless of format: books, DNA, obituary, photos, poetry, stories, or the tree. All are welcome.
We began the website to publish stories regarding John Elcik’s surname and Pam’s maiden surname McClanahan. Similarly, we added other surnames: Adams, Brekke, Byras, DeRosa, Gamache, Lucas, Skillin, and Strand.
Out of hundreds of family surnames, these 29 have been focused on the most. Pam has asked, and you might too, why are there so few McClanahan’s. Pam, the numbers are what they are. We use sources. To quote a famous but anonymous genealogist, “Genealogy without sources is Mythology.” – John, IV
MyCousins by the Numbers
The current version of MyCousins includes information on the number of individuals (see tree), obituaries, and gravesite photos. We do this to show the site seeks to accommodate a wide spectrum of relatives. Those of us that are curious have asked, what is my relationship to John? Follow the link as we have answered that for subscribers.
| Surname | Individuals¹ | Obituaries² | Gravesites³ |
| Akerley | 9 | – | – |
| Adams* | 144 | 5 | 13 |
| Ballas | 1 | – | 1 |
| Brekke* | 36 | 3 | 22 |
| Brown | 157 | – | 5 |
| Byras* | 32 | 1 | 36 |
| Currier | 1 | – | – |
| Danielson | 5 | – | – |
| Del Moral | 9 | – | – |
| De Rosa* | 15 | – | 9 |
| Duryea | 3 | – | – |
| Elcik, Ilcik, Ilycsik* | 79, 4, 3 = 86 | 35 | 66 |
| Flickinger | 21 | – | 1 |
| Gamache* | 68 | 5 | 16 |
| Grap | 19 | 2 | – |
| Gruhl | 9 | 1 | – |
| Hendrickson | 18 | – | – |
| Karkos | 112 | 4 | 21 |
| Kashmer | 17 | 1 | – |
| Kinney | 46? | 1 | 27 |
| Lucas* | 43 | 4 | 12 |
| McClanahan* | 11 | 3 | 14 |
| McMahon | 4? | 2 | – |
| Pelcarsky | 3 | – | 1 |
| Portell | 2 | – | – |
| Plourde | 28 | 2 | 1 |
| Prosser | 10? | 3 | 3 |
| Pruitt | 8 | – | 3 |
| Purington, Purrington, Purinton | 16 | 1 | 1 |
| Skillin, Skillins, Skilling* | 331, 17, 175 = 523 | 10 | 49 |
| Strand* | 47 | 3 | 4 |
| Welch | 3 | – | – |
| Wolcott | 7 | – | – |
* These ten surnames are those publically identified on the About Us and Contact Us webpages. After that, the other 19 are of interest but have not had the same focus.
¹ Individual numbers are accurate as of 25 FEB 2022.
² Obituary numbers are accurate as of 5 APR 2021.
³ Gravesite numbers (# photos) are accurate as of 31 MAR 2021.
