distant relatives and such

[corrado]

I have been trying to find distant relatives, and it seems they don't really have interest in talking to me. Am I crazy to even want to meet 3rd or 4th cousins?

[JohnArmellino]

There are always relatives that will not be interested in your genealogy. However, there will also be those who are. Concentrate on the latter. On my last trip to Italy I met two dozen distant relatives. Even 7th cousins! Three times I was invited to their homes, as well as enjoying several meals in local restaurants with my much extended family. On the other hand, many closer relatives stateside just don't care about our family tree. My advice is not to give up.

[sal4]

Corrado.......Don't feel bad, I think that it happens to allot of us..I have located a 5th cousin that is my Grandfather's brother's family in New York that I have e-mailed 3x's thru Ancestry.com and it's been over 1 yr and I still have not had a reply.......Her family tree has some of the same relatives that I have, so I'm sure she and I are related.....I really feel that she could answer some questions about our family....and it would be really great to have contact with family that we don't know........Oh well maybe someday she will want to contact me....One good thing is that thru this forum, one of my husband's cousin's found me and has been able to give me my husband's Grandfather's names going back 5 generations, which is fantastic for my search of my husband's family......Hopefully she will be able to come here to celebrate my daughter's wedding with us in July 2011.....and meet relatives she didn't know, which actually only lived a few miles away from where she lived growing up .... Don't give up......Sal4

[DeFilippis78]

Put it this way....according to law a third cousin is so far removed from your gene pool that you can legally marry a third cousin. So the blood and genes are so watered down through generation after generation its as if they are not related at all. Some people are not interested because there is basically no relation. I have had distant cousins contact me but I dont find it exciting or fascinating because the relation is pretty much gone. They are basically strangers to me. I try to keep as close to my true blood line as I can get.With each generation the genes are split over and over and over.

Alicia

UPDATE: Actually Im wrong about the third cousin law. To my dismay, 19 states in America let you marry your FIRST cousin and a few others allow marriage after genetic testing. Thats how much the gene pool has been split!

[johnnyonthespot]

I think by the time you get to the fifth or sixth degree, we are all related to one another...

[DeFilippis78]

Yeah...through Adam and Eve

Alicia

[sal4]

Okay here is my take on distant relatives....I don't need to have a close relationship with them, but there is so much to learn from the relatives we did not grow up with......I have been searching my Grandfather's brother's family and I finally found one and I know that she or someone in her family could help fill in the blanks on her side of the family and how exciting it would be.....I know that if a distant relative contacted me, I would love to meet them & exchange info on our families.....We don't have to be on the phone everyday or even see each other...Come on what is the big deal....Sal4

[PeterTimber]

By that time Johnny the lifeguard has left the genepool =Peter=

[phoenix1212]

I am searching for relatives of Guiseppe Falcone born October 1892 and died on March 2, 1985 in Chieti Italy. He had a brother Antonio that went to the US and a sister Cristina Falcone born 1890 who married La Monaca Nicola
that died in 1988 in Ripa Teatina.

[Tessa78]

Chieti is both a province and a town.

There are 15 Falcones listed in the phone book for Chieti (the town)

http://www.paginebianche.it/execute.cgi ... hieti&ind=

T.

[phoenix1212]

The address where he was born was Via (contrada) Cinquina number 39 in Torrevecchia how can I find out if anyone from the family still lives in that house?

[phoenix1212]

The address where he was born was Via (contrada) Cinquina number 39 in Torrevecchia how can I find out if anyone from the family still lives in that house?

[johnnyonthespot]

I did a reverse (address) lookup in the Italian tellephone directory ( http://www.paginebianche.it/execute.cgi?&l=en&ts=105 ) and, along with several searches at other sites, I have come to the conclusion that the street Via /or/ Contrada Cinquina (or several variations) does not exist.

There may be several reasons for this, but a view of the area surrounding Torrevecchia with Google Earth (link in my signature below) seems to show nothing but modern buildings. This might make me think that the area was possibly destroyed in WWII. Okay, that's just a wild guess...

There are Falcone's present in nearby Ripa Teatina. See this page.

[phoenix1212]

Thank you that is very helpful.

[vintagegamer]

I have been trying to find distant relatives, and it seems they don't really have interest in talking to me. Am I crazy to even want to meet 3rd or 4th cousins?

Corrado, I am currently grappling with this same issue myself. I recently made an incredible breakthrough with family in Italy, whom our family lost touch with over 30 years ago. I managed to find them, and sent them a letter. I received an email back from one of the younger members of the family, and it was so great to get that email. The family member also invited me to link to their Facebook page, so of course I did. Shortly after that, one of their siblings wrote me and asked me to add them onto my Facebook page as well, and obviously I did that too.

But now, it seems the "novelty" has ended on their side, and I'm having mixed feelings because I've written via both Facebook and email, to ask some family-related questions (really general stuff), and I get nothing back. I don't know if it's because they are the younger generation or what, but after the feeling of having achieved something incredible by having found this family again, it's a bit disappointing when they don't reply to emails or questions.

In a time when technology is right in front of your face to take advantage of, it's really hard to understand how the communication process can still have so many problems.

VG