I often contact submitters of the online trees at Ancestry.com, hoping to make a connection with someone researching the same family.
But don't be surprised if many do not respond. Some apparently have lost interest. Others may take a while to respond and there may be others who are not quite as interested in family history as you are even though they respond.
Some may not respond because they have "collected names" from trees and know nothing about the individuals in their trees.
ReplyDeleteAgain, as with all interests and hobbies, the submitter may have moved on to some other interest.
This makes me a bit reluctant to try to contact some of the owners of online trees. However, a number of people have connected me either because of my online trees or because of corrections I have submitted, and I responded right away - several of these contacts have been quite helpful to both sides!
ReplyDeleteAnother possibility is that people have entered information using a "public" account--like at a genealogical society--and the notice goes to the Society, with no way to identify the individual to pass along the query.
ReplyDeleteI try quite a bit. My first note is fairly short--that way if there's not a response I haven't spent too much time, but at least I know if the person is inclined to respond, is still researching, etc.
ReplyDelete