Reach Out
Connecting with distant relatives can reap rewards
Speaking to as many descendants as possible is vital. When we researched journalist Frank Gardner’s tree, his late relative’s family turned out to be the guardians of a fascinating collection of letters sent between the children of Frank’s great grandmother Grace Rolleston, dating from the years after their father died in 1881. These letters referred to Grace, and, reading between the lines, it became clear that she had been admitted to an asylum suffering from grief-induced insanity. Sometimes we find obliging distant cousins willing to share photographs and the like online. You can search by an ancestor’s name for family trees uploaded to such websites as ancestry.co.uk, genesreunited.co.uk, geni.com and myheritage.com, and then message the person who created the tree using a contact form on the website. It’s worth uploading your own tree to as many websites as possible, to encourage other users to find and contact you in the future. The community is also full of helpful people who answer questions in forums at rootschat.com, british-genealogy. com and our very own whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/