Would you contact a relative to make corrections about your family history?

I would contact them to clarify the bloodlines; i.e, that the great-grandfather fathered children with two different women. I’m not sure I would spell out the lack of divorce prior to the second “wife” unless I was asked for more details.

Are you sure you know “the truth” ? Be prepared for a change in your own understanding.

My dad did research on his father’s time in the Yukon mining gold. He found out his dad had been married before he “married” his mom. He also never found his parents’ marriage license. They had left Scotland unmarried and arrived in Canada as married.

I think it would be good to connect to your new distant relative. I take it all the people older than your dad are dead. I would put it to the person as “I have some info on so-and-so related to his time before he came to America, are you interested?”

Yes. We may have some common blood but it’s nice to increase your family with so many relatives, I mean they come with kids and all. They can’t be all bad.

@zenvelo Good question… yes. My Dad and sister went to visit my great Aunt and her family who still live in the (very) small town which both families lived.

They went to town hall to get copies of birth records, death records, and went to the church for marriage records and baptismal records … (birth records and marriage licenses are written out like stories, they’re pretty cool)
So, my Dad has photocopies of all the records, including the marriage records from the church. He’s been doing our family tree, in paper form and I started adding information on Ancestry for research purposes. It’s nice to able to access census info and ship registries and documents like that… plus I can merge my Mom’s family tree with my Dad’s online.

I guess since it was so very long ago, that it’s possible that he came here and legally married the second ‘wife’. (what documentation would he have needed to show he was able to marry… if any)
He came here 1918 and this relative of mine has our great grandfather married to this woman by 1920… I think I may be able to access those public records to see if there was a ‘legal’ marriage.

@Hibernate I just re-read what I wrote and realized that I sound (and maybe even am a little) pretty “uppity” about this other family. LOL, I know it was so long ago and I shouldn’t hold someone accountable for mistakes in documenting lineage, if they just don’t know better.

I just don’t know if it’s appropriate for me to approach someone to say “hi, we have the same great grandfather…but you’ve got some wires crossed regarding his children”

I think anytime we have information that might be of importance to others we should operate under full disclosure. I would want to know and find it interesting, but, could care less about the realities of it in my life. Long dead peoples biz. is not mine. lol

Oh no no. If I were you I’d call them or visit them even it may be awkward. Family is family through bloodline and maybe they don’t know it yet. Go go call them as soon as you can ^^

No, I wouldn’t care.

I have. My answer, therefore is a yes. It’s important information for future generations.