I thought it might be nice to have a place where you can quickly figure out how people in my family are related!

First, I’m Elizabeth Bulfer, and I’m married to the most wonderful guy named Daniel Bulfer… but I usually refer to him as Dan.

---

My family:

• Mom (Gayle), Dad (John), Christine (my sister, 1.5 years younger than me)
• Grama & Grampa : these are Dad’s parents, and have been married for over 50 years
• Aunt Karen, Uncle Dave, Brett, Kelly : Karen is Dad’s sister; Brett and Kelly are my cousins, both are younger than me, Brett and Christine are the same age for a few months (Christine is the older one though), Kelly is younger than Brett (I think she is about 4 years younger than me)
• Uncle Jeff : this is Dad’s brother, I’ve really never spent much time with him and his family, so he won’t come up much
• Gram & Grampa Jack : these are Mom’s parents; unfortunately, Gram died the week before my wedding (June 2013); Grampa Jack died when I was 9 months old
• Aunt Nancy, Bruce, Eric, CJ : Nancy is Mom’s sister; Bruce is Nancy’s boyfriend (they simply aren’t legally married, but they are functionally so); Eric and CJ are my cousins, both are younger than me, Eric is four years younger than me, CJ is eight years younger than me. Eric’s and CJ’s father is divorced from my aunt, it’s not pretty… the boys live with him, but I never really spent any time with him.

Dan’s family:

• Becky (mom), Dan (dad), Dave (brother), Shelby (sister)
  • Becky and Dan are divorced, Becky lives in Wyoming, Dan lives in Colorado
  • Dave is 2.5 years younger than my Dan (he is Christine’s age), he lives in Chicago
  • Shelby is 5 years younger than my Dan, she lives in Colorado
• Becky’s siblings: Laurie, Steven, Debbie, Billy (deceased)
• Becky’s parents: Grandma Frances, Grandpa Ralph (deceased)
• Dan’s siblings: Pat, Susan, Bill, Jim
• Dan’s parents: Grandma Evelyn (deceased), Grandpa Bill (deceased)

---

As you can see, my husband’s family is quite large. Yes, my husband and his dad have the same first name, and no they don’t have “senior” or “junior” as part of them… his family calls his dad Dan, and calls him Daniel. It can get a little confusing for me.

Daniel and his siblings are some of the youngest of the cousins, but a decent amount. He also has so many cousins I didn’t feel that I could easily list them, and many of them are married and have their own children now… plus I’ve only met four of them (two on each side). I’ve met two of Aunt Pat’s daughters, Jackie and Katie, and I’ve met Uncle Steven’s son Zeb and Laurie’s son Ashley. All of them are older than us by at least ten years (pretty sure).

Daniel’s extended family live all over the country, and a few of them even live overseas… really cool, but I can’t even begin to remember where everyone lives, so yeah.

---

I always joke that because my family is so small, Dan has no excuse for forgetting anyone! 😛 He’s met all of my family (well, except Jeff and his family). I’m the oldest of all the kids in my family, and the only one that is married. Oh, and we call my cousin Brett by his middle name… his first name is also David, which he’s recently started going by again, but Christine and I have told him that we will always call him Brett (he didn’t switch to David until he was at least in high school). Since all of us cousins are similarly aged, and we’ve spent tons of time together, we’re all pretty close.

Oh right, I didn’t mention where my cousins live. Aunt Nancy and family live in Wisconsin. Aunt Karen and Uncle Dave live in Central California, Brett and Kelly are living in different cities in the Bay Area.

---

We’re all completely bonkers, but let me tell you something, all the best people are 😉