Has anyone made contact with "lost" but still living family members?

[louisa maud]

I contacted  cousins successfully,  initially didn't go well but  the brother and father contacted me and I actually met them in London researching, worked out very well, sadly the father and his son are now deceased so there is no one for me to correspond  with about our research,  I miss them both

LM

[Jebber]

I have been contacted by distant relatives and have contacted people myself. Unless I have an email address, I always write a letter similar to Stella, but I do enclose a stamped and address envelope for them to reply. I have had great success.

[Annie65115]

Thank you all.

I was thinking of something along the lines of the letter that Stella suggests, but I think, Stella, that you have probably worded it better than I would have!

OK. We'll see how this goes ----

[ThrelfallYorky]

I've had unknown relatives make contact with me twice, and twice I've made contact with relatives of my OH.
One of the rellies of my OH was inquisitive without proffering any help/info/contact himself. He asked for too much personal information, in my view. I even write out by hand a complete family tree of that side, and posted it to him in Australia, never getting a "thank you" or aknowledging the many hours of careful work involved. He sounded rather unpleasant in his e-mails, his written English was poor, and we have heard no more from him, for which we have no regrets.
The other rellie of my OH was delightful, sought me out through an online group, later visited us, to be shown round some old time haunts of her grandfather, with her own parents, one of which proved to be my OH's cousin, and proffered information on their own links, which he had known nothing of, previously. We are still in touch.
What a contrast!
On my own paternal side, one very pleasant contact, with a cousin of my father, which has resulted in a gentle "keeping in touch" ever since.
Either way, you never know until you essay it.
TY

[louisa maud]

I once stupidly  gave someone a whole lot of info about a well respected person in my family, I was sorry I gave so much in one fell swoop, I felt after  little and often would have been a better idea,  we live and learn.

LM

[Familysearch]

I exchanged a photo for a newspaper report, which was most helpful.


Annoyingly, the recipient has added totally incorrect information to her tree on Ancestry.

[brigidmac]

I was researching my friends grandfather for him and when I made contact with his elderly aunt discovered that she considered him a long lost baby.
He had no idea that his aunt's and cousins had looked for him after his mother removed him from their care and moved towns without leaving an address.

He now has a big family in Wales having been brought up as a single child of a divorced mother .

He didn't know paternal cousins either . Though they knew about him .

[Gan Yam]

I have contacted and been contacted by various distant cousins and am still in touch with a few of them, sharing information and research.

I was also contacted by a brother (from another mother) of my mother and aunt. (I was aware that he existed, so not a surprise "uncle", but never mentioned )  He was very pleasant and just wanted to know if I had any information about his mother and my grandfather.  His father (my grandfather) had died when he was 11 and he didn't know whether his mother and father were married.  I gave him as much info as I had, but then he said he would like to meet my aunt, my mother having died by this time.  I decided, rightly or wrongly, that it would not be possible to give him the contact details of my aunt.  She was in her 90's by this time, he was at least 30 years younger than her,(not much older than me) and her parents split had been a very difficult time for my grandmother, mother and aunt and I thought it was in her best interests not to drag up the past.  He was fine with this, and as far as I am aware he made no further attempts to contact her.

You can only give it a try and take from there, depending on the reply you receive, if indeed you receive one.

[Roobarb]

Some years ago I wrote (a letter, not email) to someone in my wider family tree after seeing a number of articles posted by him on the Internet. I found out that he had passed away a couple of years previously when I received a rather stern letter from his widow informing me of his death, she also said that family history was his thing and she had no interest in it. She said that his work might be passed to one of their grandsons if they had any interest in it.

I felt awful that my letter had upset her and also rather sad that his obviously extensive work might just go in the bin.

Go carefully!