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Author
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Topic: Making contact with strangers (Read 1701 times)
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tarnee
RootsChat Veteran
Posts: 722
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Hi all,
l sent an email to someone on the Chesire Society site who was searching the surname Graham from Birkenhead but have not heard back. When 192.com had a free week l found what l thought was my married cousin they had no phone number but gave the neighbours so l phoned and the chap said he would pass on the message. Well he did and this woman phoned me from England(l live in Australia) unfortunately wrong lady. l went back to 192.com to get another number but offer was closed  so missed the boat there. l
think some people just don't care about the past as we addicted  people do, l don't really know if l would have the guts to do it again.
tarnee
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Graham, Grundy, Wilson:- Birkenhead
Graham, Sharp, Hodgson, Sherwen:- Workington
Fulford,Braithwaite,Blanchard,Hackforth,Ward,White:- Lincolnshire
Seaby, Cockerill:- Northamptonshire.
Wiseman,Smith:- Warwickshire
Upton, Gentle:- Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire.
Wall, Curtis, Felts, Thoms:- Bedfordshire.
Davis, Smallman:- Shropshire.
Wilcox:- Worcestershire.
Young, Renwick:- Berwick upon Tweed.
Plante:- Stafford, Warwickshire.
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Michelle Kemp
RootsChat Extra
Posts: 24
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I have to say i dont mind contacting people , i go on the got northing to loose but loads to gain theory.
Most experiences have been positive , i recently found a distant cousin (we share the same great great grandparents) via a website that she had put a notice asking for info re my family, the names she had given were obviously my rellies only she did not leave her email address. I felt really frustrated but contacted the owners of the site and they managed to put a notice on there asking for her to get in touch and she did. Now we email almost every week, she is in Canada and i am in Scotland. We have shared loads of info and we go on the assumption two heads are better than one.
Also recently got in touch with a distant cousin on my mothers side who was really helpful.
My nan died in February and i have discovered she kept in touch with a cousin whom she had never met so i am going to have a bash at contacting her for info. She must be in her 80s but hopefully she will be helpful and wont mind me contacting her.
I did have one bad experience, i contacted a few rellies by getting there details from a phone book and they were prepared to see me. My aunt found out and was very upset claiming they were not nice people, she still maintains this. I decided that i did not want to upset anybody close to me so did not persue this but it did make me wonder what she was hiding.
Michelle
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Humphries -West Bromwich, Hamstead Birmingham
Wilkes - West Bromwich, Hamstead Birmingham
Roche -West Bromwich, Cheltenham
Pitt -West Bromwich
Sedgley -West Bromwich
Roberts- Dorset
Kitching- Yorkshire, County Durham
Knight -West Bromwich
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kerryb
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 11961
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I've had some really good contacts when I have emailed people on genes reuntied and various other websites in general but I have to say last week I emailed a lady who had her email for a surname I am interested in, on the Sussex surname interest site and I have had no response.
I know I need to be patient but what is the point of having a site to register surname interests if people are not going to reply when people send emails.
It was everso polite too!!!!!!! I have had several emails from other people from various websites and even when I know I cannot help I always reply - must have been my upbringing!!!!!
kerryb
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Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.ukSearching for my family - Baldwin - Sussex, Middlesex, Cork, Pilbeam - Sussex, Harmer - Sussex, Terry - Surrey, Kent, Rhoades - Lincs, Roffey - Surrey, Traies - Devon & Middlesex & many many more to be found on my website .... www.kerrysfamilyhistory.co.uk |
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Burrow Digger
RootsChat Aristocrat
Posts: 1235
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While I have had tremendous luck on one of my lines, I have others that have stayed very stubbornly silent.
My one successful contact online via Rootsweb (sorry but I've been there for the last 4 years), found one of my Scottish lines that had been a very frustrating brick wall.
My second Scottish line, and my Burrow line from Devon are both proving to be huge brickwalls.
I've left all my Burrow rellies at lostcousins, and I've had not one single response.
I'm sort of tired of doing this on my own, but it seems that none of my Burrow relatives in Devon have any interest in Genealogy at all. I so desperately would like to contact them, but have no names more recent than the 1901 census. I wouldnt know how to "connect the dots....". So I bravely soldier on.
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D ap D
RootsChat Aristocrat
Posts: 1133
Stuck with John Jones in Wales? Join the club!
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I've just finished putting a book together on my paternal line. Its not only names and dates, but info about the towns, and living conditions at the time, with a list of queries I'd like to have answered. As an appendix, I attached all the relevant census information, info from the NBI, Parish records etc. and finally the family tree.
I have a fair few names of people of my parents generation, mostly cousins of my dads, but all strangers to me and my dad.
I printed off the particular branch where their name crops up, wrote a letter introducing myself, what I'd done and asking them to have a look through the file. In an envelope and in the post.
Altogether I sent off 8 packages.
Within a week I'd had a phone call from all but one (and that one is excused, as he's dads uncle, nearly 90 and lives in Oz)
Since then I have been sent back the files I distributed, with corrections and amendments and have been inundated with photos, church orders of service, copies of certificates, but also with phone calls from other cousins wanting to get in on the action.
So all in all it has been very worthwhile. The responses have been excellent and I've doubled my Xmas card list.
D
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Stuck with: William Williams of Llanllyfni John Jones in Llanelli Evan Evans in Caio David Davies of Llansanffraid Evans: Caio/Carms Jones: CDG, DEN Census Information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk"Nor do I think that any other nation than this of Wales, or any other tongue, whatever may hereafter come to pass, shall on the day of the great reckoning before the Most High Judge, answer for this corner of the earth": The Old Man of Pencader to Henry II |
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kerryb
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 11961
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Michelle
Of course you are totally right, and I am trying to be patient, I'm just champing at the bit with this family line!
kerryb
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Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.ukSearching for my family - Baldwin - Sussex, Middlesex, Cork, Pilbeam - Sussex, Harmer - Sussex, Terry - Surrey, Kent, Rhoades - Lincs, Roffey - Surrey, Traies - Devon & Middlesex & many many more to be found on my website .... www.kerrysfamilyhistory.co.uk |
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scrattletrap
RootsChat Aristocrat
Posts: 1667
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I have no problem contacting people, recently I contacted a man in the States that was researching my husband's line, it turned out that he was also married into the family and that his wife was my husbands second cousin, it's a small world. We have share an awful lot of information and it was defiantly worth getting in contact.
I too have found that patience is a necessity when contacting people as some take a long time to respond and others never do. I often think that some genealogy emails go straight into the junk mail boxes (well that's what I'm going to keep telling myself  )
Sharon
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