Blended families

Recently, contact was made by a distant relative of my husbands. The lady that wrote, is the half sister of the daughter of Mike's half brother. Half siblings are much more common today. There were many instances of this in early years of our country, when people often died as young parents. Mostly women died due to copmplications resulting from childbirth. An example would be, Mikes Great-Grandfather. John Franklin Niell married Mary Ann Davis and had 4 children. Shortly after the birth of their 4th child, Mary died. They were on the way to Texas from Georgia on a wagon train. Mary was buried by the wagon trail and the rest went on. Shortly after that, John married Mary's sister. He had 4 young children to care for and make a living and home for. It was common that a man would marry his deceased wife's sister to help with the family more that any love. Just as well, when a man died, usually due to hard work or accident, his widow would marry a male family member of the husband. This ensured the children would be raised by  a whole family. The blended families were out of necessity.
Now, it seems that the blended families are a result of divorce, if marriage ever took place. Too may single women are raising a blended family on her own without the help of the childrens fathers. In far too many cases, there may be many children with a single mother and several different fathers. The old stereotype of a family doesn't exist as much as it should. Too many people have children with no intent of ever marrying. Abuse by step parents seem to be commonplace and it should not be. I am sure there are many families with step-parents that are caring loving people. Publicity only brings the stories of abuse or deaths of children at the hands of those step parents or partners of the parents to light.
Back to the main story I wanted to convey. Mikes father had a family in Arkansas , wife , 2 sons and 2 daughters. He and the childrens mother divorced. He later married Mike's mother and had Mike and 2 sisters. Mike had 2 sisters, 2 half-sisters and 2 half-brothers. The only contact Mike kept was with one half brother until he died in the early 1990's. He and I attempted to, through the internet, make contact with some of the distant family members . Some through the geneaology websites and some by general searches.
We received a letter from a Canadian address inquiring about Mike veing related to certain people. The facts were there that this was in fact a relative. Now we hope to have phone conversations and even a visit. Mike had not seen this particular relative since about 1962. It is exciting for a geneaologist as myself to see these types of family connections made and relationships renewed.