Genealogy should come with a warning that a lot of people are really members of some secret society - Haven't you noticed? You try and help somebody doing the same 'tree' as you, obviously half the time they must be some distance/3 times removed/related to Fred's dog/relative, but instead of getting 'Oh thanks for your help' - it's the Spanish Inquisition and not the Monty Phython type either!!!!!
My classic case was - I was sent some old photo's of some very distance relatives, that I forwarded on to 'my relatives'- I thought they would be really pleased. Oh how wrong I was. If a spot light could have been shone down the PC it would have!!! 2 hours of torturous e-mails. Where did you get these from? Who sent them to you? Why have you got them? and the icing on the cake was - Did you get any money from the 'will' - Since then they're never spoken to me - actually I think that might be a blessing!!!
What I do like about genealogy is the fact that non- relatives couldn't be more helpful, friendly and really go out of their way to help. So the moral of the story - well its got to be the old saying really - You can chose your friends but not your family - How true!!!
