Genealogy Chat

I have to say Edward - I quite agree! I always put an approximate year and at least a '? Lancashire' or something similar. When replying to names put in - If the year and place is 'about there' I give them my details and ask if there is a connection but I very rarely respond to one without details as I presume that if they have put nothing in, even if it was the right one they probably wouldn't know anyway. Dea x

There are loads of folk putting names into their tree without a single clue as to WHEN or WHERE they were born. There are whole lists of names with no clue to if they were born yesterday or 300 years ago and if born in England or Uganda. These names just get the cold shoulder by searchers as they are pretty meaningless. Indecently, a common name like say John Smith, will never be displayed because there are too many to display without narrowing the search field, and if there’s no date or place it will never be seen. Please, make a guesstimate of the birth date (20 years earlier than their offspring is usually not far off the mark) then tick the ‘unsure’ box; this will give a ‘circa’ date, then add a guess at the birthplace with a question mark (e.g. Manchester?, Yorkshire?, England?) . Come on, give us a clue!