Ask HN: How do I reach out to my multi-billionaire cousin? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do I reach out to my multi-billionaire cousin?

5 pointsgscott11 comments

I have got into doing my family ancestry (addicting!) and I am looking for photos of my 2nd great-grandfather/2nd great-grandmother who immigrated to the USA from Scotland. My side of the family due to some early deaths lost any photos and family mementos.

There is only one person who might have photos (my 1st cousin 2x removed) who is the son of my great-grandmother's twin brother... certainly he would have photos. I looked him up to get his address and to find if he has any social media. Figured this would be pretty simple but my Google search found that he is a muliti-billionaire who lives in a house about the size of a city block, is on the board of Berkshire-Hathaway and is childhood friend to Warren Buffett. Myself in contrast I ate at Jack in the Box today, live in a condo is a small city in California that no one has heard of... and I drive a nice... but lovingly pre-owned car.

I have thought of the following ways to make contact but I am not really in-love with any of these ideas

1. I send a letter with some of the geneology and request for the photos. Unknown if someone will look at it because he most-probably gets a lot of letters from crazy people and may have given up on anyone opening any of them.

2. He has a son, who does have Facebook but doesn't seem to really use Facebook much. I could send his son a Facebook message request but his son is a multi-millionaire who has a multi-billionaire father. I don't know maybe a 2% chance of that working.

3. I looked up if he has a personal foundation, I figured I would write his foundation but his foundation address goes to a lawyer's office. Now I have to hire a lawyer to write his lawyer and probably a genealogist to prove the genealogy. (the genealogy is pretty simple from Ancestry.com there is no question to it)

I can't think of any other ways that might be effective and cheap. What do you think?

In all seriousness, billionaires are people too with their own quirks and interests.

I suggest sending a letter and include with it all the research you have. Be clear in the letter what your goals are. You might also say something like “are you the JOHN DOE who is the 2nd great grand child of JANE DOE, cousin of MIKE SMITH?” They may not be that person, just someone with the same name. And because of their fame, their google presence may overwhelm the google presence of your actual relative.

You might also consider trying to organize a reunion of the living relatives you do have and inviting them. Maybe they will come.

About 10 years ago, a distant relative reached out to my immediate family and we connected with the “long lost” side of my family. We had a lot of fun.

Your distant relative may enjoy this too.

Also be clear with yourself what your goals are. Don’t be Jealous of their wealth. That didn’t matter before you were searching. It shouldn’t matter now. Your relative must be smart to have the job they do. So your not the first persons to reach out to them. They can probably easily tell the difference between genuine and disingenuous requests.

This appears to be the consensus. I am going to give the directly sending a letter method a go.

Think about the two sides of this. You are weighing your interest in genealogy, no doubt legitimate but arguably a curiosity, and your perceptions of its value, against their interest in personal safety and keeping possible threats at bay, and their perceptions of the value of that. And in doing so you are also asking for what they will consider their personal information, in effect, in the form of photos. Who do you think has the heavier weight to consider here? Is your quest really all that important?

I believe so. I have children and they don't really have a sense of our family history and I don't either. I feel like it a missing piece that I can't quite put together because everyone has died. I believe my cousin he has the best security he can buy, he should feel pretty secure. He has 4 billion dollars to spend on his protection...

Start with option 1. As long as you’re authentically interested in the genealogy project and understand it might take a while to hear back, a letter should be fine.

If they've got a ton of money, they're likely to have a PA, so I'd consider reaching out them with an email or letter detailing exactly what you want.

It won't be direct, and even the best case scenario is that the PA says "I have nothing" or "I looked and here's what I found", but it's probably the easiest way to contact someone like that.

Why not do all 3?

I wouldn't bother having a lawyer write the 3rd letter, or with the genealogist. Just send the info and see if they write back.

Why not just do 1 or 2 first and see what happens. Can anything really go wrong irreversibly so? These people are going to die too unless they're funding some immortality research and are on the cusp of a discovery. May be they would also be interested in their family/ancestry.

4) Become a billionaire and he will reach out to you

Good news, it is possible. According to this calculator https://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/billionaire-calculat... I will be billionaire in 110 years at the age of 145. That could work out eventually.

You can always start with the letter, even if it gets ignored, it costs you little to try while you investigate more complicated approaches.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com