On Fri, 30 Dec 2005 19:21:47 -0500, Huntersglenn <huntersglenn@cox.net> wrote: >Steve Hayes wrote: >> >> >> As a friend of mine said, when he introduced us to ancestor hunting, and came >> with me to see an aunt, "They always know more than they think they do." >> >> So sometimes it is necessary to pester relatives for the information that they >> either think they don't know, or think you must already know and don't bother >> to tell you. > >Or, they could be like my grandmother, who was confused as to why anyone >would care where her grandparents and great-grandparents came from and >what they did and all of that. The 'old days' were times that nobody >cared about, or bothered with, not when getting by day-by-day was nearly >all consuming. > >I've noticed with my aunts and uncles that if I rephrase questions, I'll >get better and more thorough answers, and sometimes reminding them of a >particular incident will trigger other memories about their older relatives. But even the ones who ARE interested can reveal, when you present a new genealogical discovery that has taken you years of effort to find out, that they knew that all along. In one case I wrote to a second cousin in England. Or rather, I wrote to people of fouind in British telephone directories, and one worked in a bank of which my second cousin was a customer, and passed the letter on. We've been corrsponding for 25 years now, and I met her this year for the first time. But in the first letter I mentioned that when my father went to England for a scout jamboree at the age of 14, he met a cousin with the rather unusual name of Herrick Hayes. And so I asked this newly found second cousin several times if she knew anything about this Herrick Hayes, and she never replied. Eventually I traced him by another route, and when I told her she said "I thought you knew that". She could have tyold me when i asked her the first time, or the second time, or the third time, and eventuallu I have up asking because I thought it was some dark family secret that she didn't want to reveal. >When I was google searching for you, I saw Roger Thwaites and wondered >if he was a relation. I didn't realize that Roger Thwaites the writer >was the same as the singer -- very interesting <g>. Has he written other things then -- other than the history of Araluen? -- Steve Hayes Web: http://www.geocities.com/hayesstw/stevesig.htm http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Methodius