Suggestions

If, for some reason, you have sent an email message to a person who may have a person in their family tree that you are interested in and enquiring about and you do not hear back from that person, is there anyway that when that email message is sent that it could come back to you stating that the email address no longer exists for one reason or another? I realise that that person may not wish to answer but, at the same time, if the email does not exist anymore, it would be nice to know. I hope that this makes sense.

Thank you. Pearce

Pearce ...........


people do not respond to pms (private messages) sent through GR for many reasons ...........

1. They signed up with GR in a fit of enthusiasm and then lost all interest.

2. They have changed their home email address, but not informed GR of that change, so any emails GR send to them just go into the ether. Some of them may even still be active on GR, but only receive notifications throuhg the pm system

3. They may have become seriously ill and unable to work on the computer.

4. They may have died, and their family know nothing about the GR presence, or do not know how to access it.

5. They may not want to connect with others ........ strange though that may sound.


GR does NOT delete any trees except for the rare occurrence when they have banned someone from the site.

Any subscribing member who no longer pays the subscription when due, is reduced to a FREE member .............. GR was free in the early years, subscriptions came later. You can build a tree on GR for free, and do a couple of other things, so many people like the free category.

Largely because of this, GR has no way of knowing whether a member is active or not, or even whether an email address is active.

If they are not notified, they will not delete any tree.


There are 2 things, and only 2 things, that you can do ...............

1. Have you checked to see if the pm you sent has been opened???

Click on Messages above. Then click on Inbox

If there is a green envelope there, the message has NOT been opened.

If there is no envelope showing, the message has been opened and read, but not replied to for whatever reason.


2. Ensure that you yourself have left instgructions with a family member or friend as to hat to do if you become incapacitated or die, so that you yourself do not not cause disturbance to future members wishing to get information.

That preparation involves maintaining a record of ALL sites that you have joined, the user name, the password used, and any other information needed to access the site.

Give the family member or friend the authority to contact GR and tell them that you have died and your account is to be deleted, and your tree removed from the site.

Have that person do that with all your other sites.



I have a small address book beside the computer that holds the information for every site I have registered with, whether it is paid or free. My OH and daughter both know about it, and will do the necessary when the time comes.


Finally, make sure that you yourself remember to change your email address on file with any site whenever you change it!





sylvia

Thank you Sylvia for your advice. This is much appreciated.

Pearce :-) :-)