Don't be scared of forums.

One of the most valuable websites I have found whilst doing my family research is www.rootschat.com.  Not only does it have a great chat room where people help each other with research and friendly chat to help relax when you're in the middle of a frustrating brick wall moment, but on the forum you never know when someone may see your post.

In July I put a post to try to help find my great great Grandmother Annie Elizabeth Ayres (she has now been found - see my last post).  Thinking that nobody had a connection I had forgetten about the post completely until this week..........

On Tuesday evening I received a reply to the post from someone believing they may be connected to Annie.  It turns out this lady is Annie's great granddaughter from her second marriage.  It turns out not only did she have a lot of information that I was missing but she also pointed me towards this photo of Annie.  Not only was this amazing but this photo had been posted on the Helmdon Village website which I had visited many times and clearly missed.

Obviously after the months of trying to find anything about Annie this is amazing. 

This is not the first time I have been contacted by a distant relative.   I was contacted on Ancestry by my second cousin because the information I had about her sister was incorrect.  She didn't know we existed, however was in contact with my Dad's cousin.  We're now in contact regularly and it's been great to meet extended family.

So the moral of this short post is, although you have to be wary and always be internet smart (that should be something everyone should think about), sometimes you can be contacted by some interesting and useful people.  :)