We recently made contact with my father-in-law's first cousin and are going for a looooong drive to meet her on the weekend. Because ancestors died early on my husband's side his father lost contact with them and he did not know his cousins and their offspring, so this branch of the family is a surprise package.
In her late eighties this lady is looking forward to our visit as we are to seeing her. Usually when exchanging information I burn relevant files and photos onto a CD or DVD and direct the contact to take a look at my online family site. I presume this elderly lady doesn't have a computer.
It bugs me when I sometimes see reckless use of paper in the genealogy world. Although I am not an environmentalist I am committed to preserving our natural resources so am feeling quite guilty as I print off sheaves of paper for the new cousin. I hope mother nature will forgive me for this transgression; I really do like trees.
These are the things I am taking along:
* A pedigree chart of her father (who is the brother of Mr Geniaus' Great-Grandfather)
* Descendant charts from the earliest ancestors on two lines
* Individual reports on each direct ancestor plus great-grandfather and grandfather
* Copies of all certificates, wills, service records, documents, newspaper clippings I have relating to these direct ancestors
* Photos of ancestors graves and places in England where they lived
* A copy of the only photo we have of great-great grandfather
* A selection of photos of descendants on our line
This collection is well over 100 pages. Is that overkill? (she is into family history) Is there something I have overlooked?
No comments:
Post a Comment