Catching up with Cousin Bait Messages

 

One of the indispensable aspects of researching our genealogy is the access we gain through using online services. Whether for building a family tree or puzzling over DNA matches, most services offer some way for us to directly contact those distant cousins who also are pursuing the same ancestors. Think of this messaging service as a form of "cousin bait."

While I try to connect with key researchers chasing my surnames, it is so easy for those messages on, say, Ancestry or 23andMe to get lost in the translation. Just this week, I was elated to receive a note from someone I had contacted nearly a year ago who, oops, just realized that I had written. What a gift to have received the reply, complete with photographs and a brief biography of each of the ancestors in question! I can certainly say this was one response which was worth the wait.

I realize there are many ways in which messages to researchers may not reach the person intended. Many such messaging systems depend on the subscriber keeping their (hidden) email address up to date. If a subscriber doesn't note their address change, I don't receive the message, but the host service certainly can't do much about it.

Another reason why messages don't arrive may be because the person no longer maintains a subscription. Thankfully, in one recent case of someone with a lapsed subscription, Ancestry actually followed through and sent the message anyway. I know I'm leaving myself open to spam, but I always include my personal email address in my messages, and thankfully this recipient spotted that in my message and was able to directly contact me, despite no longer being a subscriber. 

Granted, some messages to fellow researchers, if actually answered, yield very little information. That is certainly the luck of the draw. In this week's case, I benefitted from the details I learned from this distant cousin's response. For that, I'm grateful. Each of us knows a little more about our close family from personal experience than others, such as distant cousins, would be able to know. Details gleaned from personal letters, or notes on the back of photographs are gems only close family might have—if, that is, their children and grandchildren didn't indiscriminately toss all those "old papers" and memorabilia.

Those are the details that we might only find if we reach out and connect through messages to our distant relatives whom we stumble upon while using an online genealogy service. Sure, there are many messages which remain unanswered, but it's worth it to go through the effort anyway. I do it in hopes of finding the one who knows the answers that I couldn't have found any other way.