Genealogy Chat

How many distant relatives have you found? I've only discovered about 15 (12 were from the same line!) and I'm wondering if that's about average?

Hi Lisa, do you mean living relatives?? If yes then only a handful from offshoots and not my directline. If you mean how many ancestors then you can tell how many people a person has in their tree by clicking on their name. Suzanne

Hi Suzanne. Sorry, I meant living. So I'm not too far off with finding living people, compared to how many you've found. Thank you for your answer. :)

I have found a lot, but that's because of doing this for a long time. Some have only been contacts for short durations......others I am in regular contact with.....and a lot more somewhere in between. I can't easily say how many, maybe around 15-20 that I am still in contact with, and another 30 (probably many more) who I swapped info with, spoke to for a few weeks, but that was about it! Then there are all hubby's connections too...... For some reason nearly all the ones I'm in contact with regularly are 6th cousins (ie share 5xg-grandparents). Alot of the short duration contacts are those I sought out who are not really interested in their trees, but were willing to tell me about their immediate past (stories about their parents and grandparents who might be siblings of my great-grandparents etc)......all the oldies on my own lines have passed away, but finding the likes of my grandparents cousins in their 90's has been really productive for info on how the older generations lived........... Merry

Hi Merry. I've also been searching a long time (but only a few years on the internet). I just don't seem to find any distant relations. Happy to hear you've been successful, though. :)

Lisa, yes, I've found living relatives including descendants of two members of the family who disappeared 100 years ago. In fact one of those was living just a couple of miles from me and our families met up for a delightful Sunday lunch. The conversation between her and my mother was fascinating as they revealed family characteristics common to both sides.

Ooooooh.....I wish I had marked all the people on my tree who I have either met, or had written contact with......... Maybe it's something I could start? Plus a reminder on whether I liked them or not!! LOL I've often had contact through GR from people saying, ''I see you have my grandparents on your tree, how are we connected?'' and when I look, I find they are already on my Christmas card list!! A lot of my contacts are from the same distant lines. They tend to be the ones with more unusual names.....hence I have no distant rellies for my Clark line and only one for my Smith line but lots for my Crane line and a few for my Horniman line and Maynard line. Hubby has a lot for his Renyard line. Some names are just easier to research than others! Merry

Hi Paul. Isn't it wonderful to meet people? I was lucky enough to meet up with a 3rd or 4th cousin and we shared a family tale -- which makes us both wonder if it could be true (our families hadn't been in touch with each other for at least 125 years). Thank you for your reply. Merry, :) ... I, too have one line where all of the relations have been found, and I also have a lot of common names. Thank you as well for your replies.

Hi, I have found about ten distant cousins, three of whom I have become very close and we E-mail each other most weeks, often helping each other out with problems in our trees. My favourite story regarding one of them has to be when she E-Mailed excitedly saying that she had this person in her Hot Matches that matched loads of our branch of the tree, had I had this Fuzzy contact me....she knew me as Karen, I had to fess up that I WAS Fuzzy!!

Hi Fuzzy. :) You're lucky to have found so many, and to have become friends as well. Perhaps it is easier to find people, living in the same part of the world? Thank you for your reply. Off to sleep now, as it is rather late over here. :)

i havent found any living or dead ones yet,been on this site for 18 months,i am just a failure!

I have only been searching for just over 6 months but only just started to have the time to put a lot of time and attention into it bu have already found my mums cousin which is great and fingers crossed may of found her other cousin. Jennie

Hi I have found a living relative she is the daughter of my Grandfathers brother, lives in Australia (through Gr) her sister and family also live out there.She has brothers and sisters who are alive and living here in England. We have become friends and email most days and she is into Genealogy so it is great to chat with her. We have found simularites with the familes which is amazing there is also likeness between some members of the family as we have exchanged photo's. We both still have to pinch ourselves that we have found each other, but regret that we did not know each other when she lived in England as we discovered we only lived a few miles apart. Gwen

I haven't counted up but probably in the low twenties.

'Perhaps it is easier to find people, living in the same part of the world?' No, I've found living relatives in Australia, Canada and the USA, mostly through this site, mainly 3rd and 4th cousins.

Completely off topic, how does the cousin thing work? How do you know if their 5th cousin or 6th cousin etc?

Have a look at this chart: http://www.chrishobbs*com/chart.htm (replace asterisk with dot)

Not so distant in my case. Found three first cousins, last seen c1944, plus their families. Haven't had face-to-face meetings yet, but have exchanged correspondence, photos and telephone calls. Reg