> I feel the need to chime in here as I do have experience with this > issue. After emails back and forth between this very helpful person > regarding my father (he left us when I was very young) and his > family's genealogy, he told me he was also my father's child from a > previous marriage and there were more siblings. Although I am > thrilled to have this whole new family, later I learned that my > father had not divorced prior to marrying my mother. My mother is > elderly and I have great concerns that somehow she will find out > which would devistate her. Tough call on this one. Good luck to > you. > > mglory@hutchtel.net i think these are issues we all have to consider before attempting to contact someone or even responding to an inquiry. in my family, the current generation is the end of the line...three cousins...no kids between us...all of us late 40's to 50's, so little chance of that changing. except to satisfy our own questions, there's little point in disrupting other people's lives. we have pretty complete medical histories and such...there's really no compelling need. the methodology in the research is interesting, especially as our access to records reflects privacy issues for everyone, but unless there's a legal or medical reason or unless there has been some reliable third party confirmation that contact is desired on the other end, i'd avoid it and even then i'd be careful about how the whole thing is transacted. people walk away from their lives for a reason, be it a good or bad reason, and, to an extent, that should be respected. and, as you can see from the previous post, it can open up a whole new can of worms. just my opinion. good luck. fsuedu@hotmail.com (fsuedu)