Making contact with strangers

[Matty]

In January  this year my husband & his brothers had a letter from Canada (sent to all people with our surname). To cut a long story short we have found a missing link in the family and a new set of "cousins" Galena & I exchanged information and she told me of this web site.   and we still keep in touch. 

Matty

[Minn]

I recently contacted someone on an English message board who I thought might have info on one of my ancestors & she emailed me back with details & it turned out that she has the same ggg grandfather as me & lives here in Oz -  down the road & round the corner a bit from me.  Talk about a small world...

Minn

[teddybear1843]

Yes indeed.

I did it twice with great results and hundreds of times with results that don't stick in my mind!

One name I am researching is Weasenham, a rare name and one person of that name was found in the telephone directories of the early 1980's.  She replied and turned out to be a very elderly lady with a fantastic memory and she filled in lots of info for me.

The other one that sticks out was in about 1980 I found a record in a Manor Court Book for 1909 giving an address in Hull as the home of a relation who inherited land in Norfolk.  I wrote to "The Occupier, or the local Vicar or local Library" on the envelope hoping to get a reply.  Who replied but the daughter of the man in question, she had been born in the house in 1904 (I think) and had lived there ever since.  (This lady went to live in France when she was about 85, the first time she had ever moved house!)

TeddyBear

[Jaki]

Hi

A couple of months ago I got the urge to find out more information on a great uncle. Wrote a letter, put in a sae and an outline of what i knew and what i would like to know and did not get a response. The person I wrote to is very likely who i am looking for as the initials in the phone book are correct and the area this person is in is right. My mother and one of my sisters have both confirmed that the person i wrote to was in the right area. He must not have been interested.

Oh well his loss. 

Jaki

[KathyM]

One day when visiting a village in Yorkshire - to try to find the house my gggrandmother had lived in, I got myself completely lost - yes!  tiny village - two streets - handful of houses - I must have turned round twice !

I stopped to talk to an elderly man walking a little dog and asked for directions.....which he helped me with.....then I fussed the dog and asked him if he lived in the village.........he said 'I've lived here all my life - my father & his father .....my great grandfather was the village blacksmith.....

Oh!.........Matthew Dixon ?  He was my ggggrandfather !


YES!  I know it is a small village - but the chances of me meeting a relative like that was amazing !  He gave me lots and lots of info.  I promised to visit him again when I was next in the area - sadly, I haven't managed to do that yet - maybe I should !

Moral of the story - talk to strangers ?

[Renee]

I have tried. And I have now made it a mandatory personal rule that I WON'T do it again. My skin is not that thick!

On the Internet,especially ROOTSCHAT, and especially ENGLAND and SCOTLAND I have found people tend to want to help and chat more, and seem to get less huffy about digging up the past. Since I joined this site I have the luxury of knowing for CERTAIN that if I need help----I can get it. This is the only way I will contact anyone again.

Renee

[Rebecca Steele]

I have written a letter to my mums cousin (admittedly they only exchange christmas cards) to ask about his mother and father and get birth/marriage/death dates etc. This was a couple of months ago now, and have heard nothing!I enclosed a SAE and I offered to give him a copy of the family tree once I had finished it.

As Jaki said, its his loss, but its still very annoying!

I have also (within the last few days) come across a possible cousin of my grandmothers (she didn't know who her parents were and was brought up by who she believed to be her Aunt and Grandparents).

I purchased a book on the village where she grew up, and was surprised to see a photo of my grandmothers 'Grandparents', one that she had treasured all her life, and that I now have in my family history album! I also found out that another 'Aunt' had married the villiage blacksmith, Arthur Davis.

I e-mailed the author of the book, just on the off chance that she might remember who gave her the photo. She e-mailed me back last weekend to say that she didn't remember who gave her the photo, but she knew that Arthur Davis' son and grandson still lived in the village!

All I have to do now is pluck up the courage and drop them a line!

Rebecca

[Fitty]

Oh! Do it Rebecca    You've got nothing to lose and seeing as they gave their permission for the photo to be used in the book i,m sure they would be happy to hear from you.

We'll all look forward to hearing how you got on....Go for it!!

[suey]

Oh Dear Renee - it sounds as though you have had a bad experience or two ?
Just keep telling yourself 'it's their loss', - it is upsetting and annoying though when you feel that someone may just hold a vital piece of information or may just have a clue to send you in the right direction..

At least you've now found Rootschat - it has to be 'the best' site of it's kind on the web 
Suey