I agree with Linda. Because I had researched all connections to my family tree and put them in my private online tree I was contacted by a person in England who informed me that both of the children of one of my couples were adopted and were actually members of his family tree. He also proved it by sending me clippings from our local papers telling of the deaths of the girls' parents, and that they were in the area visiting with my relatives, plus the English birth records of the girls. He also sent me photos of my people which also included the adopted girls and their adoptive parents (descendants of my ggrandfather's brother), photos that I had copies of but had been unable to id all the people in them. Between the two of us we were able to id all people in the photos, some of whom I had just recently found to be extended members of our family, descendants of my ggrandfather's brother, but who we had never seen pics of. If I had not spent years researching another family in the state of MN with the same surname name as my ggrandfather, who looked as though he could possibly be my ggrandfather's brother, I would have been without the knowledge and id'd pics that we now have. I had finally found the death record of that man just days before and found his listed parents to be my gggrandparents. Once I had all that proven out I added them to my online tree which brought them to the attention of the gentleman researching in England, and therefore the subsequent contact from him. Also, by finding the great uncle's burial place I found one of his sons from a first marriage in England buried with him, which confirmed another bit of info that I had been following, what looked like my great uncle in Canada in 1861, married to another woman, even though I had not found the death of his first wife yet. That confirmation enabled to me to connect with another unknown English cousin who had a letter from the great uncle to his father, from Canada in 1861, that was held by yet another brother of my ggrandfather. From that cousin I also obtained scanned copies of the first pages of the family bible of the father-in-law of the great uncle who died here, giving me a marriage date for his first marriage, the birth dates of his 4 kids by that wife, the marriage date and name of the husband of the only daughter, the names and birth dates of her children. As you can imagine, I was flying high for a month!!!! So, you are right, possibly someone with a closer connection can benefit from what you have, but you never know when you yourself will also reap the benefit of having those proven connections in your tree. Annie in Minnesota In a message dated 11/21/2011 2:15:54 P.M. Central Standard Time, lilacarlhg@amnet.co.cr writes: Some researchers believe in only researching the direct line, but to truly find everything on your ancestors it is better to research all family members and their connections. More than once I have connected to one of those distant relations who had photos and other items related to my family lines that have greatly helped my research. If I had not found those people I never would have had the good fortune to see what some of my ancestors looked like or what happened to one or another person in the family lines who seemed to just disappear. Follow your instincts - you are doing just what you should!