In a message dated 27/03/2009 12:44:47 GMT Standard Time, [email protected] writes: I am writing for direction as to the best type of letter to write to possible relatives (same surname, & county) that I have never met, but who I have located via the Ancestry UK phone directories I wish you the best of luck! Looking for relatives in Sunderland, I sent the following: Dear Mr./Ms. ------, I hope you don’t mind me contacting you out of the blue; I am writing to all the ------ I can find in the Sunderland area, to see if anybody can help me to piece together what happened to the family of my great-grandfather George -------. Then a lot of details that I knew about the family, followed by: If you think you are related to this family, I would be very pleased to hear from you; and if you should want to reply, I have enclosed a stamped envelope. Yours sincerely, The results depressed me. I sent out 17 letters with reply paid envelopes; I got back two from the Post Office saying the person had moved, got one saying they weren't related and another also saying that but in fact it turned out they were. That left 13 who presumably chucked them away after steaming off the stamp! I have good reason to think that at least one-third of the adressees were in fact related. I suppose one reply that turned out to be positive from 17 made it worth while. By the way, Ancestry phone books only go up to 1984. www.bt.com will give you current phone directories, but quite a large proportion of people keep their numbers out of the directories nowadays.. Adrian

I was going to say - don't assume your own country's stamps work all over the world Adrian and others! American stamps are useless in countries other than the US. International Reply paid coupons are available at post offices, but I saw a response saying they are not accepted in the UK. Here in Melbourne Australia I can go to the Genealogy library near me and buy UK postage stamps. (They must get them in bulk from a person in England.) Or at least we could - it is years ago that I tried it. I would always give my full address and all methods of contacting me - email, phone, mobile - you never know. Dawn (Melbourne Australia) -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Saturday, 28 March 2009 12:41 AM To: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Re: [DUR-NBL] Writing to possible relatives In a message dated 27/03/2009 12:44:47 GMT Standard Time, [email protected] writes: I am writing for direction as to the best type of letter to write to possible relatives (same surname, & county) that I have never met, but who I have located via the Ancestry UK phone directories , The results depressed me. I sent out 17 letters with reply paid envelopes; I got back two from the Post Office saying the person had moved, got one saying they weren't related and another also saying that but in fact it turned out they were. That left 13 who presumably chucked them away after steaming off the stamp! ==== DUR-NBL Mailing List ==== To Post a message to this list send it to, [email protected] ==== DUR-NBL Mailing List ==== List Web Page http://www.communigate.co.uk/ne/durhamgenealogy/index.phtml ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message __________ NOD32 3967 (20090326) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.eset.com

Hello all, International Reply Paid Coupons. I was surprised to hear that they are not accepted in the UK. I have bought them here in the UK on many occasions, and sent them to people in Sri Lanka and Singapore, to help with my enquiries. I've had some positive replies, and several pleas for money including photos of dishevelled children etc. Agh, the joys of carrying out family history research! Julian Lovegrove 21 Seafield Road Broadstairs Kent CT10 2DD England _________________________________________________________________ View your Twitter and Flickr updates from one place – Learn more! http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/137984870/direct/01/