Genealogy Serendipity Moments- The LeBlanc Family

This serendipity moment is about another of my husband's lines that I have done some work on in the past year.
The LeBlanc family ancestors were mostly unknown by his family. I had always said I had enough research on my own lines and would leave his to our children to do. Then for some random reason I started poking around for information, and the more I poked the more intriguing it became. The first record I sent for was the marriage record for Delphis LeBlanc and Roena Gates, his grandparents.

Through census work I determined that they were probably married in Great Falls, Montana. After calling the county to see if they had such a record, I requested a copy and a copy of the application. These records provided the parents for each of them and birthplaces. After looking in the Family History Catalog, I ordered the microfilm index for the parish records of St. Jacques, Montcalm, Quebec, Canada. After reviewing the index I had a lengthy list of records to look up on the 17 microfilms that cover these records. Just about that time familysearch.org posted these records in digital format. So, in my late night leisure, I worked through all of the records and found the families for his great grandparents Maximo LeBlanc and Elizabeth LeBlanc. Yes that is correct, they come from two completely different families, each with a father Pierre LeBlanc.
The real serendipity moment occurred as a result of further family inquiry. There are older relatives still living in Canyonville, Oregon where this family settled in 1903. We had some delightful telephone visits and I sent each of them a copy of the descendants of the families of both Pierres. A couple of months later I had a phone call from another distant cousin, unknown to my husband, who wanted to come for a visit. He had visited in Canyonville and they had given him a copy of the material I sent to them. While he was there he visited the homestead, the community and made copies of some of the pictures in the seven albums this family has.
When he came to our door I welcomed him and his wife with open arms. We spent some time visiting and then looked at each other's four-inch albums of research materials. Each of us had done a great deal of research, but we had utilized different resources. We decided to exchange notebooks for the night. That is something I absolutely never do.
It took me most of the night and the next day to get through his notebook. We gleaned a phenomenal amount of information. The next day we traded back our notebooks, had a short visit and went out to dinner. This is the way to do family research. It is so much nicer to share the work and the rewards.
My encouragement to you is to leave your calling card in many places. This time it was with older relatives. Another time will be a cemetery, genealogy society, or online querie. My next story is even better, so stay tuned.