Not-So-Distant Cousin

For some reason, I did not begin researching my mother's side of the family tree until much later in our lives. I think part of the problem was Mother's negative attitude toward genealogy. Her family was not very close and many were already dead when I finally persisted in getting a few names. To make matters worse, my grandfather and his siblings all had inexplicably different surnames. Then along comes the Internet and its message boards. I posted my brick-wall surname and went on with other lines.