I received a Facebook message request from a completely unknown woman today. The message is as follows:
Hello, my name is [Stranger's Name] and I am a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. I apologize for reaching out in such an unexpected way. One of our members has been rescuing older DAR certificates that have been misplaced over time. Recently, she received the certificate belonging to [Step-Great-Grandmother's Name], whom we believe may be your great-grandmother. We are hoping to locate a family member so we can return it to her family. There is absolutely no cost involved—we simply wish to reunite these certificates with their families. To date, we have successfully rescued and returned more than 50 certificates. If you believe you may be related to [Step-Great-Grandmother's Name], or if you know someone in her family whom we should contact, we would be very grateful to hear from you. Thank you so much for your time, and again, my apologies for the unusual nature of this message. Warm regards, [Stranger's Name]
The reason I, and my mom, think this may be a scam is because the woman they mention is my maternal grandmother's step mother. I have no blood relation to her, and the generational gap is large enough for multiple last name changes and family relocations. I can see how the connection could be made on certain ancestry websites, with marriage licenses and birth certificates, which has me waffling on whether this is genuine or not, because it seems that all they would want is a mailing address of me or a family member.
My mom does not believe that this relative was in the DAR, and I trust her recollection, as my aunt had an ancestry kick a few years ago and shared everything with my mom. Ironically, my paternal great grandmother was in the DAR, so I'm wondering, if it is a scam, did they just pick the wrong great grandmother?
As to whether any of my other family has been targeted, I'll have to ask my cousins if they have received anything similar, but I don't have the bandwidth to explain how to access Facebook message requests to my 70 year old mother, so I'm not sure if she received something similar, and probably won't find out any time soon.