Monday, April 23, 2018

Photo Updates


The verdict is in: yes! Ralph is going home, too. Well, I mean his photo, that is. I heard from the Pollock descendant who gave me all that fascinating detail about Ralph's life after he left his childhood home in Colorado, so now I have directions on where to send young Ralph's photograph.

Out of all the photographs marked "Thirza," I have yet to track down a Van Noate descendant for the hundred year old picture of baby Louise. I mentioned the other day about posting baby Louise's photograph on our local genealogical society's Facebook group, and I did get a few general suggestions, and one member sent me a rather complete copy of the family's tree. But as for how to contact a living descendant, well, the best suggestion was to try poking around on Facebook.

So I did. And found someone. The problem is, no matter where I look, I can only find rather distant relatives. The same went for the trees on Ancestry.com. There were about six different Ancestry subscribers who had Louise in their family tree, but every one of those trees was posted by someone who must be much like mea little bit too enthusiastic about their genealogy. And what I'm seeking is a close relative, not a seventh cousin twice removed. But, using another tactic, I found that possibility.

The nexus is a grandchild of Louise's husband's brother. At least, I think that's the connectionand, trusting that the trees where I found the family line are actually accurate, it looks like that's the closest I'll get to contacting someone who might know how to get in touch with Louise's grandchildren.

Of course, that leaves the squishy part of contacting a stranger, out of the blue. It is definitely so much easier to research dead people. Even sending an email to a living descendant of a dead person isn't too difficult. But going straight to a relative of a relative of a relativewho doesn't even show the slightest interest in genealogywell, that's a challenge I'm not sure I'm up to. Yet.

Give me a couple days and we'll see whether I chicken out. Baby Louise may just have to remain in that folder on my desk until a closer relative stumbles upon this post via our research assistant, Google.

  

8 comments:

  1. That’s a sweet smiling baby. You might want to keep her.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She is a sweetie, isn't she? It' tempting, but no...she needs to find her way home. Someone will want to have her.

      Delete
  2. Sure hope a close relative turns up. That photo is too precious not to go home.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm hoping to rely on far relatives pointing me in the direction of closer relatives. This is, after all, a family with roots in my county. How hard can this be?!

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. Agreed, Iggy! Besides, I've always found it interesting to see when families are expecting a new baby, to then compare the newborn with baby pictures of previous generations. Won't it be fun for baby Louise's descendants to get to see just what she looked like when she was a baby?!

      Delete
  4. Google will help you out! I used to call people, I don't anymore I send them a copy of the blog post and they can take it from there....many do not want old photos...sad but true:(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's what I'm afraid of, Far Side: that no one will want this photograph. I think the sign of lots of people researching a family on Ancestry.com is a good sign...but absence of researchers? Does that mean the opposite? I hope not.

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...