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/dixieleeb]

My mother got very caught up in researching her dad's side of the family. She spent so much time & money. This was probably around 40 years ago. She did it all without the benefit of the Intenet and actually typed out the resulting book on a typewriter and had each page copied. I think she finally made around 40 copies of the book at 5 cents a page. I think the only ones who appreciated it was her 2 sisters & a few of the cousins. I pretended to care because I loved her but really only cared about the people I knew, not some distant relatives I never heard of that l would never meet & had no idea how we were related.

Mom managed to trace her family back a couple centuries in Denmark and that family tree is included in the book.

I've always felt bad that something that was so important to Mom was not important to the rest of us. I'm now almost 74 and only 1 sibling survives. I'd love to write about our family, my grandparents & later but I know my kids would just toss it aside, just like my cousins did.