I'm finding that when you research your family, you find many secrets. It might not be news to you, but it could be to someone else you link to through your searches.

I connected with a cousin who denies their grandfather (my uncle) had a second marriage or that his father had a second marriage and that I'm related at all. The records prove it and I even met the man on many occasions. It seems that his family was kept in the dark about our side of the family.

You have to be careful when you expose a family secret. Unfortunately, I have lost that contact now to get information because of it. They don't want to know that any of that happened. Wording correspondence diplomatically doesn't always work. You do the best you can and hope that they'll come around and work with you again on your family project.

Then you have the others that you connect with that relish these secrets. LOL To a fault actually. I'm trying to find the middle ground of truth through it all. Talk about detective work!!!!

Best of Luck Rebecca. In cases like that, you might have to rely on documents such as marriage certificates, newspapers, etc to prove to them they are mistaken.

Maybe if you had all that, and wrote them with copies? But, some people can have proof in front of them and still won't budge. I agree, very frustrating when they are sitting on info we want/need.

As I have done research, I have come across some very deep family secrets. Some I can understand keeping quiet, others that while I don't think are that big of a deal, to them it is very private.

Good Luck and keep us informed.

Tina

I just WISH I could unearth secrets...lol. Our past is a secret, including our family's real name. It seems we were all told different stories. Some cousins and I are trying to piece together bits of truth from the different stories we were all told.

While doing research for a paper I was writing in college, I found a picture of my grandmother and her brothers. Recently, I was able to purchase the book (took a while to locate) and plan on sending the picture to the Austrian National library for research. At least we'll have a name finally!

Lyn,sounds like you are on your way. Sometimes getting started is a slow process.

Is tagging faces something that might be helpful?

Not to sound stupid, but tagging faces? I'm guessing it's like Facebook tagging adding who is in the picture?

Lyn, yes, tagging and identifying. But sometimes tagging goes further and helps you identify people in other photos when tagged by others. I hope that's not too muddled an explanation.

So I just have to upload the pictures to google docs and tag them with the people I know. Nice....that's why we were sending the pics to the Austrian Nat'l library...so they can tell us who people are. I'll have to try this first. It would certainly be much cheaper!

You can send them the link for the photos - in Picasa. Then you won't have to mail them.

Thanks, Angie! I never thought of that. You're just making this easier and easier :-)

Lyn, keep us updated. Angie is my backbone in the forum. Sadly, I have a bad case of Facebookitis and need to attend an AA for it and come over here more often. I learn much more here than there. LOL

Good luck on your pictures.

Tina

My family tree can be traced back by word of mouth only, there are very few written records -- it's all oral stories. "Mythology" has provided me with my first original ancestor from 1000 BC or possibly earlier.

I am the first in my family to be born outside of India though (England) & my younger sister -- the first to be born in the US :-) That's my little claim to fame.

But I am an Indian with fair skin, light brown hair & green eyes. Even fellow Indians think I am mixed. My grandmother & her brother had blue eyes, wonder where that comes from, would be interesting to find out!

Tina, I use FB but I am not addicted. I post some on my wall and I contribute to the FB page for the local historical society. I enjoy reading some of the posts but I play no games.

I always said about Twitter, one is twittering their life away - so it is with FB.

Yes I have come across several people with the same exact last name as me, and I always wonder how I could find out whether we're related...