I don't think it was too hard to keep in touch. They just wrote letters to each other. My Aunty always tells me what she remembers which isn't much now & she's only 20yrs older than me. Her Aunty used to talk too before she died but I wasn't doing this then was I. My brother has all her papers in his garage but never 'gets around' to sending them to me, eh. She was the last of my mum's family & should have all the documents. Just wait till we get down there in Dec!!.... And my dad's family ....well that's another story. Cheers. Anne from Cairns, Aus. > Diane Apel <dianeapel@comcast.net> wrote: > > Alanna, I found your comment about people who would not talk about > family > history interesting as this has > also been my experience and I'm wondering if it was just an "Irish" > thing, a > generational problem, personalities, or what? > > When my oldest uncle was 87 I asked him some family history and he said > at > age 10 my grandmother told him not to ask any more personal questions > about > her family, so he could not answer anything I asked him and she was long > > dead. My research did find quite a few skeltons in her closet, so > perhaps > that was the problem. > > I spoke last week to an 80-something surviving family member I recently > located in Quebec and he said he couldn't tell me much because his > father > never would talk about his family when he asked questions (there were 16 > > children in it and other branches have the same problem). > > This has pretty much been my experience with anyone who would have been > born > before 1920. Was everyone mad at each other as appears to be the > problem in > with my ancestors, or was it because families just didn't keep in touch > because it was much more difficult than it is today? I'd be interested > to > know what other researchers have encountered. > > Diane > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Alanna Scanlon" <alannal@prodigy.net> > To: "Irl-Clare-Proj" <IRL-CLARE-PROJECTS@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2007 4:02 PM > Subject: [IRL-CLARE-PROJECTS] Unaligned generations question. > > > > > > Dear List, > > > > My mother's father was married twice. My mother was at the end of > the > > second family. Her oldest 1/2 brother was 30 years older than my > mother. > > He had a daughter who was born within days of my mother. When they > were > > in school together, they just said that they were cousins. > > > > I am the youngest of both sides of my family and everyone has died > off. > > Everyone who knew anything either would not talk or was dead by the > time I > > could ask questions. I remember starting to ask questions when I was > 12 > > and even then it was too late. > > > > Alanna > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > IRL-CLARE-PROJECTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message