General Chat

I am so fed up with contacting people who have uploaded their trees only to find that they don't want contact from others. I have contacted several people who are either loathe to reply or do not want to share any information. I thought that was what this site is all about? Has anyone else had this type of problem?

Dear Jannette

Here, Here! I could not agree more.

I don't want personal details from GR members but the basic facts like BMD info can be shared.

I agree that there are a few people who pretend to be related so you have to be careful.

I have sent messages to people, including things that only a family member would know and they do not want to share even basic info.

As for people who do not reply, do not get me started!
Just a simple sorry this is not my relative, would be helpful.

A lot of GR members drop out but I believe their details still remain which is annoying.

Some people start searching family history and then quickly get bored. Most of us genuinely want to search our family hiistory.

Anyways,

Best wishes to you and good luck with your research.

Lisa
x

I know how everyone feels about this subject as its also happened to me. I contacted someone who had my parents names in their tree to ask the connection. They asked my reason for wanting to know and when I told them never answered again. I am very very wary now who I let view my tree. Sadly like most others its to late as information is added to trees by name collectors who have little or no connections to me or mine.

Yes Jeanette I agree with you, I have given access to my tree, and then found there are no details until way back, which I have already got in any case.

If you go into "My account" you will se the option to hide living relations.

Do bear in mind that the names and details are still present on the site database, and can be searched. The differenc it that when someone viws your tree they are replaces with the message "Hidden"

Would anyone really want to reply to this message?

"This could be amatch please show tree
from xxxxx"

I got caught yet again. Early in April I contacted a member to see if we had a link. Reply yes - see my tree, The link was there but no mention of her husband and 4 children. I asked if he had any further info - reply yes lots of paper info. I sent him all I had - no reply nothing. Mailed him a week ago to ask politely if the info had been of interest and had he any further info for me - silence.

I think you have to be very wary of the 'big' family trees (number crunchers)
I became linked to a member with more than 17000 names. The so called connection was so vague it wasn.t worth following up so I withdrew access to my tree very quickly. I noticed however that the other tree was growing very rapidly and sometimes by 2-300 names in one hit.

This isn't genealogy.

Claire in Wales has a point. I know of a few people who have received pm's along the lines of.....

John Smith 1839 connection?

If someone can't be bothered to send a pm that makes some sort of sense, you need more detail than that to know if you have the same John Smith, then why should people reply?

I bet we dont get a reply on here from anyone who 'doesnt want contact'.. trying to defend their option not to share info,
Spineless bunch of selfish nerds

I PM'd someone the other day to ask for details of someone in their tree, who was of the same name as someone I am looking for. I didn't ask to look at their tree, as I thought this was a bit forward at initial contact point. The answer that came back was that this person was the aunt of someone else. Now what kind of information is that, I ask you. Definitely not what I was asking
Julia in Derbyshire