My mother lost touch with her cousins many years ago and I would have been about 5 years old the last time I seen them. I am 30 now.
I am doing family research and trying to build the family tree. My mother is quite a bit younger than her cousins so she doesn't remember much.
I found a few of them on Facebook but the others don't use Facebook. Some are not really interested much in my research and are not providing much info about my great-grandparents but they might not remember either. It's a long shot but I'd like to ask them about the family history.
I looked up their name in the phone book and I think I may have found them but I have no way of verifying the info from the phone book because some of the cousins are estranged from each other due to family issues.
I want to write a letter to the address in the phone book (essentially cold-calling/mailing) and see if it's my relative. I don't want to reveal too much in case it is not my mother's cousin after all.
Some of them would be 60+ so I'm not sure if they use email or not. Here's what I've thought of, but I'm not sure if this is a good way to do it, or if I should explain more.
Hi XYZ,
Are you ABC & EFG's son? I am so-and-so, your cousin HIG's daughter.
If you are the right one could you please email me back at: [email protected]?
Regards,
so-and-so
How can I ask some long lost relatives if they indeed are family members without revealing too much information about us?