Pauline, I have a similar story. However, what I did after being hung up on and dismissed was write a lovely letter about myself, and my family(picture of kids, also). I also included one or two PHOTOCOPIES of items I had found in research pertaining to a 'common ancestor'...and a photocopy of a photo of "our" ggf. I wouldn't say they opened their arms afterwards and we're having Sunday dinners, but they did respond. They are private people and not really interested in reminiscing. The funny thing is that I'm in my 30's and they're in their 70's and 80's. What a role reversal! They all still live in Chicago and the suburbs, as do I - - I would guess it would not be more than 1/2 hour of transportation time for us all to get together. Anyway, it might be worth a shot, to reach out again, but NOT in a pushy way that indicates to them that you want something.....that's an instant turn-off, you don't want to come across as a genealogy tele-marketer! Good luck! Ellen Treehouse <[email protected]> wrote: Why, OH, Why couldn't I be related to one of you guys?????????????? I just found two women in Chicago who are first cousins to my father. The first one was polite enough but not interested at all and the second one hung up on me. My grandfather and all his siblings (one of which is their mother) all went to the US in the early 1900's. My grandfather went back to Ireland and got married and had children (including my father). I have been doing my family tree for about 9 years and I have not found any trace of the US relatives. It probably didn't help that until about 2 months ago I thought that they were all in NY. I have things a little backwards from you all. I was born in Ireland and have lots, if not most of the Irish information (including the Holy Grail- the townlands) and I am looking for the US information. Most people are in the US and looking for where their Irish ancestors are from in Ireland. It is tons easier to find US information than it is Irish information. Not only were they not interested in helping me but weren't even interested in me sending them things like copies of the 1911 and 1901 Census of Ireland with their mother (and father) on it. I found their father in a ship list from the same area in Ireland going to America with another of my grandfathers siblings. Needless to say I was very disappointed. My Aunt, who still lives in Ireland, was wanting me to find some of her cousins in the US. What will I tell her? 70 million people in the US are decendant from the Irish, with a great many of them looking eastward for any information and here we are looking westward for them with the information at the ready and what do I get. HUNG UP ON! Why, oh Why couldn't I be related to one of you??????????????????????????? Thanks for listening. Pauline ==== IL-COOK-CHICAGO Mailing List ==== To unsubscribe: Send a message to [email protected] that contains (in the body of the message) the command unsubscribe ============================== Find your ancestors in the Birth, Marriage and Death Records. New content added every business day. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13964/rd.ashx Ellen Plourde http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~opindex/

Good thinking Ellen. There is also the possibility that there are skeletons in the closet that they want to keep hidden. If Ellen's sugar idea doesn't work, then maybe the implied use of a private eye to dig into their lives might loosen them up? How about detecting which church they go to? Send their addresses to your Aunt? Get Mollie Kennedy, the Irish Queen of Springfield, to help? ( [email protected] ) Best Wishes, Dave Witthans ----- Original Message ----- From: Ellen Plourde To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2005 6:42 AM Subject: Re: [IL-CHICAGO] You can't pick your relatives Pauline, I have a similar story. However, what I did after being hung up on and dismissed was write a lovely letter about myself, and my family(picture of kids, also). I also included one or two PHOTOCOPIES of items I had found in research pertaining to a 'common ancestor'...and a photocopy of a photo of "our" ggf. I wouldn't say they opened their arms afterwards and we're having Sunday dinners, but they did respond. They are private people and not really interested in reminiscing. The funny thing is that I'm in my 30's and they're in their 70's and 80's. What a role reversal! They all still live in Chicago and the suburbs, as do I - - I would guess it would not be more than 1/2 hour of transportation time for us all to get together. Anyway, it might be worth a shot, to reach out again, but NOT in a pushy way that indicates to them that you want something.....that's an instant turn-off, you don't want to come across as a genealogy tele-marketer! Good luck! Ellen Treehouse <[email protected]> wrote: Why, OH, Why couldn't I be related to one of you guys?????????????? I just found two women in Chicago who are first cousins to my father. The first one was polite enough but not interested at all and the second one hung up on me. My grandfather and all his siblings (one of which is their mother) all went to the US in the early 1900's. My grandfather went back to Ireland and got married and had children (including my father). I have been doing my family tree for about 9 years and I have not found any trace of the US relatives. It probably didn't help that until about 2 months ago I thought that they were all in NY. I have things a little backwards from you all. I was born in Ireland and have lots, if not most of the Irish information (including the Holy Grail- the townlands) and I am looking for the US information. Most people are in the US and looking for where their Irish ancestors are from in Ireland. It is tons easier to find US information than it is Irish information. Not only were they not interested in helping me but weren't even interested in me sending them things like copies of the 1911 and 1901 Census of Ireland with their mother (and father) on it. I found their father in a ship list from the same area in Ireland going to America with another of my grandfathers siblings. Needless to say I was very disappointed. My Aunt, who still lives in Ireland, was wanting me to find some of her cousins in the US. What will I tell her? 70 million people in the US are decendant from the Irish, with a great many of them looking eastward for any information and here we are looking westward for them with the information at the ready and what do I get. HUNG UP ON! Why, oh Why couldn't I be related to one of you??????????????????????????? Thanks for listening. Pauline ==== IL-COOK-CHICAGO Mailing List ==== To unsubscribe: Send a message to [email protected] that contains (in the body of the message) the command unsubscribe ============================== Find your ancestors in the Birth, Marriage and Death Records. New content added every business day. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13964/rd.ashx Ellen Plourde http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~opindex/ ==== IL-COOK-CHICAGO Mailing List ==== To unsubscribe: Send a message to [email protected] that contains (in the body of the message) the command unsubscribe ============================== Find your ancestors in the Birth, Marriage and Death Records. New content added every business day. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13964/rd.ashx

I had something similar happen with relatives of mine. These are the only known (at least to me) descendants of my great-grandmother. I wrote to them, told them who I was and that I was interested in finding out more about the family. Never heard a word - until, maybe a year later this couple walked into the bank where my husband was working (just by chance, they did not know who he was or where he worked) and asked if anyone there knew me. He called me up at home and I went and met with them. They did have some family information, and some photocopies of photographs of my great-great-grandparents! After they got back home I wrote them again, and asked it if would be possible to get an actual photograph copied from their copies, rather than the Xerox copy. The wrote back, about 6 months later, and said they did not know where the original photos were - their daughter was the one who had made the copies for me. Twice I have written and asked if they could either give me the daughters address, or if she could contact me - have never heard a peep from them! We are planning a trip to Wisconsin to their hometown next spring, so I will once again try contacting them and see if I can hook up with the daughter - or at least with the photo! These folks are both in their 80's and I suppose they are of the generation that just cannot figure out why somebody would want pictures and information about dead people. Bonnie -- Bonnie J. Selig, RAOGK Volunteer, JoDaviess Co. IL; Find A Grave contributor Researching B l a c k b u r n, D e p p m a n, G r o s s m a n, H e r b s t, S e l i g and G o d f r e y Visit my Genealogy Homepage: http://tinyurl.com/4zq7z