Telephone Oral History

Yes, Joseph, I too have had, if not hostile, then indifferent and evasive reactions to my inquiries of distant cousins even here in the US. My sister still lives in Silicon Valley where we were raised, and she found a second cousin in the phone book that also lives in San Jose. He admitted being related (his father and our father were first cousins), but when she asked for a meeting, he kept putting her off saying he didn't know anything about family trees, etc. Our father and his father are long gone. He said his mother might have some pictures. When my sister called the mother, she denied having any pictures or documents (which is hard to believe). My sister has been calling his mother, and she keeps putting off meeting with her. My sister tried calling the cousin again, and he had changed his phone number! Talk about being wary and suspicious!

Since we are female, have no brothers, and my father had no brothers, my sister and I have been looking for male Olague relatives in order to submit DNA to the University of Arizona to see which haplogroup our father belonged to. Imagine trying to get a person like our reluctant cousin to submit a DNA sample when we can't even get to first base! We might have to bribe him or one of his sons big time. We'll see.