My parents both moved away from their relatives long before we were born.
And when they passed away we had to round up distant relatives to inform them etc
We had no idea where to look, we finaly resorted to media communication.
It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that we discovered other living relatives!
We never knew Grandparents,Aunts,Uncles,Cousins,nor Great Great Granparents and so on.
We always felt left out of having family events as a result.
We did not even have a ‘memento” or picture of them.
I researched my Mothers side of the family to the Ukraine where their were descendants
who had been unsuccessfully able to locate family members that were important to them.
( some were babies , some 12 years old others of marrying age etc.
Some are very old and had waited and thus sufferred not knowing what had become of
their sons,daughters etc ( World War I and World War II)?
A lot immigrated to the U.S and Canada to get away from a harsh government, leaving some in that country that could not afford to leave .
They waited for a rescue, but never got one.
A sad situation.