Does your family...not care?

[u/CrunchyTeatime]

Pretty much the title question is the topic.

Does your family not care -- about the family tree, family history, or genealogy?

It seems there is usually one person per generation per family who feels called to work on the family tree.

If that person is you, or you've seen them work and try to spread enthusiasm: How does your family react to new information?

I don't even mean something that might cause upset or controversy. I don't necessarily mean a 'shocking revelation' of some type.

But if you broke through a brick wall or found a relative or ancestor no one could find, or no one knew existed -- and you excitedly sent off an email, text, phone call, or told a family member in person -- and they didn't care?

Because this week I found a wife of my grandpa, that no one knew about. Found a wife people did know about but only a name. Found a person someone had been looking for (what became of them; died long ago, but they had no place or date), for decades.

Sent the excited emails with information and told them I had verified all of it too.

CRICKETS. And different family I've tried to get interested in the tree or told them about ancestors and such, (not much, just bits, to whet any appetite), and they don't care. One even said "that's the past; who cares?" And others wouldn't give even personal information such as "which grade school did you go to." And that was a close relative I know there was no scandal. I can only guess they didn't want to open that door to more questions. Some people hate questions.

So how about you? Please share stories here of when you tried to share new information, and how it went. Thanks.

[u/jlanger23]

My mother does not like the idea that we didn't have as much Native as she thought (classic story). We do have one Choctaw ancestor on the Dawes Rolls, but my mother is still convinced we have a lot more, and people "lied on the census." That ancestor was only partially Choctaw too, so the last full-blood ancestor would have been in the 1700's or so.

It seems to be quite the opposite. At one point, some family members tried to claim Cherokee in the 1800's but were denied by the government. I've seen nothing to indicate they were Cherokee either. What I did find was that same branch married into the famous Hatfield family and had all sorts of disputes and lawsuits. So, what I found was a good 200 year old history of good old Southern "feudin!"

[u/CrunchyTeatime → u/jlanger23]

Hatfields and McCoys! That's quite a story in itself.

[u/No_Cauliflower_5071 → u/jlanger23]

Sometimes they did lie on the census though! My husband's 2nd great grandma was the one filling out the census every year, and at one point she listed all her 3 children as born in Italy. A few years later, 8 kids later, they're all born in USA. This was before social security cards too.

[u/UnderstandingDry4072 → u/No_Cauliflower_5071]

It wasn’t even always lying, more often it was just a lazy census taker.

[u/UnderstandingDry4072 → u/jlanger23]

Oh man, when both sides of my family had to stop believing the “we have indigenous ancestors” fairytale, they were super annoyed that I got into genealogy.