Do you contact people on Social Media?

[Feliss]

I have. What I tend to do instead is to post messages on fb groups for the areas where family members used to live.

For example, my mum's family comes from the Crookwell-Goulburn area in NSW and both places have fb history groups. So I posted a photo of my 3xg-grandfather with a bit of a story and had several family members contact me.

FB looks at your surname and at your friends in order to throw up people you might like to "friend". It also looks at things you might have in common like the school you went to.

Felicity

[oldfashionedgirl]

I have never contacted anyone on social media but I have by letter.

I found a known of but never met cousin of my husbands through research and 192.com.
She was well into her 70s s I decided to write to her to give her time to absorb the information.

I was 99% sure I had the right person but didn’t want to spook her as her family had been
estranged from my OHs for 60 years.

I asked if she was A nee B daughter of C and D and
I explained who I was and who my OH was and how we were related.

I put all my contact details and left it at that. 3 weeks later she phoned me, I had just about given up but she said she needed time to process the info.

She vaguely knew she may have a cousin but her dad had died when she was 10 and she moved away with her mum who died young too. She had no siblings and no children and thought she didn’t have any known blood relatives.

Long story short we met up and I gave her her complete family history and more importantly photos of her dad as she only ever had one.

My point being we are all keen genealogists champing at the bit but when others are contacted out of the blue it may be a bit unsettling ??  Most people are intrigued once they have had a bit of time to process it.

[LizzieL]

I have. What I tend to do instead is to post messages on fb groups for the areas where family members used to live.

That's a really good idea, much less "in your face" than directly contacting a single person. No-one could complain they were being "stalked" then.

[coombs]

A third cousin contacted me and we got on at first, and conversed through email, and when I mentioned how I was going further back, she then asked why do I keep trying to get further back, and that I should be finding out more about the more recent ancestors, and not worry about the ones born before 1850. I told her genealogy is about trying to get back as far as possible. We cut off contact after that.

[Gallicrow]

I've attempted to contact about thirty relatives (2nd or 3rd cousins, sometimes once removed) via Facebook messages. About ten replied, most saying "I'm not interested in my family tree, or you, please go away and never bother me again" but three were very interested and made up for the rest! One of these, my Dad's cousin, who he has never met, and I exchange emails every couple of weeks or so and I'm hoping to meet up with her once all this Covid-19 nonsense has died down (so to speak).

[barryd]

Do not know how to. Suits me fine.

[coombs]

I've attempted to contact about thirty relatives (2nd or 3rd cousins, sometimes once removed) via Facebook messages. About ten replied, most saying "I'm not interested in my family tree, or you, please go away and never bother me again" but three were very interested and made up for the rest! One of these, my Dad's cousin, who he has never met, and I exchange emails every couple of weeks or so and I'm hoping to meet up with her once all this Covid-19 nonsense has died down (so to speak).

Sadly some people can be quite rude to distant relatives, even though you are 3rd or 4th cousins, they dont see the blood link as anything special, despite sharing 2 great grandparents, or great great grandparents.

[ThrelfallYorky]

Ah, perhaps they follow the saying:
"You can choose your friends, but not your relatives..."

[chris_49]

I've contacted a few by Facebook. In every case it was because they appeared or even contacted me on My Heritage, so i knew they had a family history interest. (I have an old tree there but I can only reply to messages if I rejoin (my tree is now too big for free membership, though it wasn't when I created it.) I don't want to rejoin not just because of the expense but because I found it a fairly useless site anyway (their Smart Matches are a joke, much worse than Ancestry or GR hints).

 My FB profile says "if you get a friend request from this stranger, it's because we have a mutual connection to the ........ family" (see surname list below). Some have replied, and in one case it led to another mutual cousin turning up. I don't think I'd approach a stranger out of the blue - my mother's surname is very rare, but still there are people with the name who aren't related at all AFAICS.