When reaching out to close relatives you’ve never met, I think it is important to graciously give them an option to say “no thank you.”

I first reached out to the oldest relative on my DNA match list, but I had no response. It turns out that uncle does not check his DNA account, so I waited a bit to decide whether to reach out to a younger relative. I assumed they did not know about me. I got lucky that the younger relative responded and had seen my name on her account. She was open to helping me figure out the connection with her family, and ultimately what seemed like a cousin relationship at first turned into a half sibling relationship.