General Chat

Top tip - using the Genes Reunited community

Welcome to the Genes Reunited community boards!

  • The Genes Reunited community is made up of millions of people with similar interests. Discover your family history and make life long friends along the way.
  • You will find a close knit but welcoming group of keen genealogists all prepared to offer advice and help to new members.
  • And it's not all serious business. The boards are often a place to relax and be entertained by all kinds of subjects.
  • The Genes community will go out of their way to help you, so don’t be shy about asking for help.

Quick Search

Single word search

Icons

  • New posts
  • No new posts
  • Thread closed
  • Stickied, new posts
  • Stickied, no new posts

Lost Genes Reunited members

ProfilePosted byOptionsPost Date

SylviaInCanada

SylviaInCanada Report 1 Apr 2020 17:46

Arthur ...........

many people change their email addresses and forget to change them for everyone.

GR is especially bad for that because a lot of people seem to join at the free level, which allows them to build a tree but not to post on the Boards. They get all excited, but then after a few months or years, they lose interest, get bored, or life intervenes, so they stop working on their tree, and gradually forget that they had one, or forget their sign in, don't remember to change their email address, and that is that.

GR never deletes a tree except in very rare cases when a member has been banned, only a member can do that OR someone knows their email address, password, etc. So trees posted back in the early days, beginning around 2003, will still be on here.

Gwyn in Kent

Gwyn in Kent Report 1 Apr 2020 12:04

Keep that hope, Arthur.

I once had a reply on Genes many, many years after I had contacted someone.

Arthur

Arthur Report 1 Apr 2020 10:36

Thanks for the replies. To answer some of the queries>>
Yes the messages have been unopened - I should have made that clear in my first post.
Change of email address could answer it, but if they are still interested in GR then surely they would also correct their email address.
I still have hope!

SylviaInCanada

SylviaInCanada Report 31 Mar 2020 17:44

Arthur .......

have you checked to see if the messages you sent have been opened??

Just go to messages, click on Sent messages. If there is a green envelope to the left, then it has not been opened.

If it has been opened, then I think you have to assume that the person is either not interested, or just possibly is having to go back into their records to check.

ZZzzz

ZZzzz Report 31 Mar 2020 14:54

Don’t despair Arthur, I had an answer about 4 years after sending one, so I think like has been said people lose interest and then come back. :-)

Shirley~I,m getting the hang of it

Shirley~I,m getting the hang of it Report 31 Mar 2020 12:21

If they haven’t answered your messages then there’s no way to contact them

People don’t reply for many reasons

They changed the email address they used to join genes

They have lost interest in family research

They have passed away but their tree still shows on genes

Etc etc

Unfortunately if people don’t respond then that’s it I,m afraid :-(

nameslessone

nameslessone Report 31 Mar 2020 12:19

Arthur

Non. Members can still receive your message. If they are not opened it could be that they have changed their email address, not interested.

I don’t use Facebook myself but many people do - you have a go.

Arthur

Arthur Report 31 Mar 2020 12:10

After finding a new branch of my family I sent messages to several people on GR who possibly had connections to my family. Many of the messages remain unanswered. I presume that this is because the persons I have tried to contact have lapsed subscriptions to GR and my messages are not getting through.

If that is the reason it is so frustrating.

Does anyone have any guidance on how to contact these people?