General Chat

Why are members so possessive about letting others see their tree? I have just gone through nine pages of contacts and less than one third have opened their tree for me to check out their ancestors and I already know we have one named person in common. I think in future I will hold on to my tree until the person actually replies to my contact; lets me see their tree; or specifically asks to see my tree - well no I will not do this because I want to share as much information as possible - so if I make contact I will open my tree for you to see. Jackie

To be honest I will not open my tree to anyone now...as I have too many living reallies on it but I will give any info and help as much i as I can ....Hayley x

Jacqueline I never open my tree either, not since someone lifted the whole lot and stuck it on Ancestry One World Tree, in a tree containing over 100,000 names! He even had the cheek to include my narrative notes. If you and I have a connection, then I will send you the relevant information in a message. You do not need to see my tree and I do not need to see yours. If we have a connection seven generations ago on my father's side, why would you be interested in my mother's tree? OC

I have so many living relatives on my tree that I do not open my tree to anyone! I do give out information about people on my tree. Anne

Must admit, OC, I was amazed the other week to find myself on an Ancestry tree (even down to a little note that I was adopted, which I have never explicitly told any contact) which belonged to a person whose identity I could not recognise. Going by the information I found, this has to be somebody I contacted via Genes - on my own Ancestry tree, there is no more information about me than my name. What worries me about the taking of vast quantities of information is this: Say I decide in March not to renew my membership when it runs out. I know that somebody on Genes who I contacted has added a lot of information from my tree, some of it that I thought was correct at the time but now know to be the wrong line. (I gave them the relevent descendents in an e-mail and now realise I perhaps should not have opened my tree). Say, for argument's sake, I am 'gone' and a distant relative joins here. They contact my contact, who opens their tree. This new person could easily get all the details that I gave to the first contact, which the first contact would not have known if I hadn't told them. There could be a whole succession of relative-sharing even after original contacts have left the site. Additionally, if 'wrong lines' have been copied, people could end up with entirely wrong branches of trees. A good example of 'wrong branch' is my grandad's family, the Siggs. The majority of Siggs lived in Sussex and Essex, but my grandad was born in Lincolnshire. However, having told people related via grandma who grandad was, if I search for him - William Siggs - on here, I find that people have him down as being born in Uckfield, Sussex, just because the majority of Siggs lived there! I don't think he ever went to Sussex in his life, but I have had to politely correct so many people who have made this (understandable) error. He had the middle name Everard (quite distinctive) - if you take a minute to look him up on the BMD index, you find his birth was registered in Grantham.

Kate I have long since resigned myself to the fact that most of the publicly available trees on the internet are wrong and full of misinformation. This is yet another reason I don't open my tree - I really don't want to add to the huge mountain of rubbish trees and rubbish information. Someone with over 100,000 names in their tree has not checked the information, they are a name collector, and I am not feeding name collectors with 35 years-worth of extremely expensive research. For someone to parade the fact that you are adopted is absolutely unforgivable - they have not asked your permission and anyone with an ounce of brain understands that adoption is a sensitive matter for those concerned. In my case, the tree thief repeats my notes word for word - including reference to a letter I received. Wish I was a fly on the wall when one of his contacts asks to see the letter! I can sort of understand it - some people assume that because you have opened your tree, you have given them permission to use that information - and to pass it on where ever they like. So to save any misunderstandings - I don't open my tree to anyone. OC

Hi all, I feel i must comment on this thread as i agree with the others , being a member for just over a year, i have also been stung by a name collector who took not only very hard found & expensive research, but also some very personal information & decided to display EVERY SINGLE MEMBER of my tree on their tree. This 'PERSON' then went on to research LIVING members of my family and their children and decided to display that info also!!!!! This led to a few weeks of emails being sent to GR to force them to remove living info ( emailing this person directly and being polite was simply ignored! ) this caused quite a bit of upset in my family who thought it was to say the least a bit scary and wierd!!!!! Although i immeadiately closed thier access to my tree they have carried on researching people on my line who could'nt possibly have any connection to them whatsoever, they have 1000's on their tree and i still cannot say exactly what our connection was!!! A harsh lesson to learn, what is worse, this person keeps coming up on my hot matches and bit by bit they are collecting more info on my lines , lots of it is incorrect so they are not even researching thouroughly. I know i am not the only person they have done this to, and am aware that some people think this is harmless, but i have to say, it has left me feeling a bit conned and i don't think it is what this site is all about, I may be wrong, but from now on i will be as helpful as i can to anybody i can, but not often do i open up my tree. Sorry Donna

I don't mind opening my tree to anyone, as long as they really have a connection. I used to get annoyed at people copying my information, but these days I just feel a bit sorry for them. Surely it's a lot more interesting to do your own research than copy some one elses. I always feel a bit pleased with myself when someone opens their tree to me, and their information matches the information that I have researched myself. I have used information from people about living members in their trees, but have only entered them into my personal tree, not my online one.

OC, I had the same problem. I wonder if it was the same person! Jacky :-)

Jacky The 100,000 people tree is compiled by someone called Ryan (surname)..I don't know if he is a member of genes, I think not - I think someone passed the information to him when I was first a member of Genes and opened my tree to anyone. It is a nasty feeling, to see your own ancestors, tacked onto a tree which has NOTHING to do with them - just because the name is the same. This person also manages to have 125 year old fathers on his tree, and women giving birth long after they have died. It is funny really, I suppose - except that a lot of people seem to take it seriously (the 100,000 name tree) and copy it again, adding their own errors and flights of fancy, thus clogging up cyberspace with yet more rubbish. OC