A few weeks ago we got a copy of a family history written in 2005 that included members of Mr GeniAus' Parkinson line. The common ancestors are William Henry Parkinson and Martha Jane Midgley. On reading the document we discovered that some of Mr GeniAus' previously unknown second cousins had emigrated to Australia from England in the seventies.
We were anxious to contact the female Parkinson descendant in Australia who wrote the history but the contact details we had for her were no longer relevant. She has a relatively common married name so searching for her in the White Pages brought up too many options, we need more than initials to identify her. We planned to check the Victorian Electoral Rolls for her next week when we visit the National Library of Australia but then .... I started thinking.
Realising that this lady had a brother whose surname was less common than hers I did a Google search, a Facebook Search and a Linkedin search for him. Bingo - combining the clues I got from these searches and comparing them to the info I had for him in my database and the written history I thought I had found a business 'phone number for this potential second cousin.
Mr GeniAus is not as shy as I am about cold calling people so he immediately got on the 'phone and told his story to the chap who started out hesitant but, after a few minutes, became quite keen. He was quite surprised to receive a call from an unknown second cousin here in Australia. He has taken our details to give to his sister, the genealogist in the family.
So the wait is on. I do hope we hear from her soon.
We were anxious to contact the female Parkinson descendant in Australia who wrote the history but the contact details we had for her were no longer relevant. She has a relatively common married name so searching for her in the White Pages brought up too many options, we need more than initials to identify her. We planned to check the Victorian Electoral Rolls for her next week when we visit the National Library of Australia but then .... I started thinking.
Realising that this lady had a brother whose surname was less common than hers I did a Google search, a Facebook Search and a Linkedin search for him. Bingo - combining the clues I got from these searches and comparing them to the info I had for him in my database and the written history I thought I had found a business 'phone number for this potential second cousin.
Mr GeniAus is not as shy as I am about cold calling people so he immediately got on the 'phone and told his story to the chap who started out hesitant but, after a few minutes, became quite keen. He was quite surprised to receive a call from an unknown second cousin here in Australia. He has taken our details to give to his sister, the genealogist in the family.
So the wait is on. I do hope we hear from her soon.
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