Genealogy Chat

Thankyou for your suggestion Slartibarfash. It is so very exciting to find these ladies. That is espiecally one of them who I have know of but have not been able to find for about 20 years.

Thankyou for your suggestion Slartibarfash. It is so very exciting to find these ladies. That is espiecally one of them who I have know of but have not been able to find for about 20 years.

Send them a copy of your tree and ask them to have a good look at it and fill in any of the blanks.
If these ladies have children or other near relatives, see if you can give them a call on the phone and arrange a time to call them while they are with them.

Thankyou Shirley adn Piglets-Pal

I have written chatty letters to both of them telling about myself and how we are related. I also enclosed photos of myself and my family. I did send and recieve Christmas cards from them both wich was nice although totally unexpected. Both have promised to write to me but so far I haven't recieved anything. I do appreciate they are both elderly.

Thankyou for your tips.

For some reason it is harder to write a letter on paper than to send emails. Shame really as letters are so much nicer I think.

Thank you again you have helped my brain to start working on this.

Pat

A good thing to do is to enclose or make a photo (s) part of the letter, especially if the photo is of someone they may have known.

All you need do is ask them for any memories that they may have of growing up in ......... during the ......... and do they remember ..............

Never ask about family 'scandals' as they may as said before clam up. If however, they do mention something in passing you can bring that up at a later date.

Do either of these ladies have family members who you could also contact such as sons/daughters or neices/nephews. Who could act as a go between, especially if they have a computer.

My g/aunt was contacted some years ago by a daughter of her late husband. Which would have been fine if she had know about her. She knew he had been married before and had 1 daughter. What he had not told her about was the two other marriages and the 3 other daughters. Needless to say she was more than a little shocked.

So do be very careful.

Good luck :-D

I would keep it light hearted not on a probing level cos sometimes older folk can clam up if they think someone is being nosy.

How much have you already told them about your side of the family. You can maybe pass on some funny stories or things you may have been told and they may then come back with more info.

I think its slowly slowly to keep the momentum going . keep the letters chatty rather than probing for info. You need to come across that its them your interested in rather than the info they can give you.

Have you told them of each others existence? they may like to be in contact with each other too.

:-D

Hello, I have recently made contact with two cousins who are elderly ladies living in England while I live in Australia. As they do not use computers I need to write to them by letter. Can anyone suggest any guide lines I should use? I have written one letter each to these ladies to introduce myself and I know they have been recieved and that they are happy . Could anyone sugest How I should write probing questions etc. These ladies are unknown to one another.

Thankyou in anticipation :-D