My 'Superbad' Cousin Joe Lo Truglio

I confess, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of responses to my "which celebrity are you related to" post earlier this week. I got a total of three -- General Patton, Eric Stoltz and Billy Joe Shaver, all of whom were exactly the kind of wacky answers I was hoping for -- but I'm still sure there must be other fun ones waiting to be shared.

But one great thing did come from my climb up the family tree. I got in touch with my celebrity relation -- Joe Lo Truglio, who was part of Jon Stewart's "You Wrote It, You Watch It," MTV's "The State" and a slew of recent films -- and the outcome couldn't have been more delightful.

As I mentioned, his mom is my dad's cousin. And his grandmother -- my "Aunt Mary" -- is my grandfather's little sister. They're all from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, the land of anthracite coal, John O'Hara and Yuengling beer. Joe said he remembers much about his grandmother, whom he described as "an absolute incredible woman. Strong, physically and mentally" who "had devout faith, loved Irish music, made dynamite ham and bean soup" and who was "just terrific." (Mmm, ham and bean soup!) He said she was also the first woman to go down into a pressurized mining elevator (so cool!) and that her husband (my Great Uncle Cornelius) was a big labor leader who helped build the Holland Tunnel Queens-Midtown Tunnel. (I feel like a low-rent Countess and her connection to the Suez Canal!) He said there had been a big "Life"-type magazine article written about the whole clan back in the day, and that he would help me track it down.

Great-aunts Margaret and Anna, Mary's younger sisters

Some pretty remarkable stuff to learn about your people -- my sister-in-law does this incredible online family tree, and I can hardly wait to share it with her -- and it really got me thinking about how much I'd lost when my father was incapacitated when I was a young boy and we ceased having contact with his side of the family all those years. I have three great aunts on his side of the family, which is funny because my maternal great-aunts were the closest I ever came to having a grandmother -- I never met either of mine and only knew one grandfather briefly -- so perhaps these women would have been equally dear to me.

Joe said he was going to have his mother get in touch with me -- I'm dying to hear if she was close to my dad and his twin brother, Kenny, or any other special details she can share with me about the Walsh clan -- and the whole experience really warmed my heart.

Now if I could only get Lisa Kudrow to put me on "Who Do You Think You Are?" I would enjoy it sooooo much -- and the title is fitting in so many ways!

P.S. It's still not too late to reveal your celebrity relative.