Anne Chambers wrote: > Sapphyre wrote: > SNIP > >> >> How do you go about introducing yourself as a long lost family member, >> and has anyone done this before? Approximately 7 years ago I made some >> calls around England to track some cousins, but I found that the >> English were quite friendly and helpful in telling me whether or not I >> had the right household when I made my calls. Somehow I was able to >> muster up the courage to make those calls, and now I'm not so sure I >> can do that anymore. Another thing is, with my Canadian accent my >> story of "I'm your cousin in Canada" holds a lot of water, but in the >> US where telemarketers are abundant and menacing, I'm not so sure I >> could convince people to talk to me south of the border. >> >> What do you think? > > > I was born with a fairly unusual surname, and whenever I am in a new > place I always look in the phone book to see if there are any others > with that name. If there are, I write to them, explain who I am; give > the names of a few ancestors and offer to send them the family tree. > Without fail, they have responded, many with phone numbers and other > contact addresses, which I then follow up. I prefer to write as I can > then explain concisely who I am and what I am doing, whereas a 'cold > call' is so easily hung up on. I also Google the surname periodically > to see if anything new has come up. > > Go for it - what have you got to lose ? and put your data on line easiest is world connect http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=lapham plus a blog - or 2 or 3 http://lapham36.blogspot.com/ with pictures http://lapham2005.blogspot.com/ some sources http://kilmington.blogspot.com/ I use http://www.flickr.com/photos/hughw36/ as an image server too people google themselves and send me corrections and updates and enthuisiastic thank you emails Hugh W -- For genealogy and help with family and local history in Bristol and district http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Brycgstow/ http://snaps4.blogspot.com/ photographs and walks GENEALOGE http://hughw36.blogspot.com/ MAIN BLOG