Hi meercat,
Errrrrrr, mmm, I think I might give that one a miss, but thanks for the 'offer'.
Cheers, feralcat
;-)
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LOL
Here we go again.
I think that anyone coming onto a site called Genesreunited might be forgiven for assuming that the majority of members are there to be reunited with distant relations and are perhaps prepared to share information.
No one is forced to put a complete tree full of personal details on site (or any tree at all) and even if you have added all and sundry to your online tree, no-one forces anyone to open that tree to anyone else.
Terms and Conditions of the site state a warning that, if you do so, the new contact will be able to see the tree and may take any information from it.
I make two sorts of related contacts I think. There are those who are very distantly connected and with whom it is easier to share a bit of information using PMs or e-mails, then there are closer people who share quite a lot of ancestors. When I've checked they are related I usually open my tree because it is easier for them to see it than for me to send lots of branches to them.
Only a very few people get sent copies of certificates or photos or get told personal stories. All that is safely offline.........mountains of it.
This family history hobby is different for everyone. What we find depends on luck as well as our own hard work and the money we may spend. We don't all end up with the same results and most of us have some branches which are much longer than others.
How you choose to do your hobby is your own business and what form your tree takes is up to you. If you keep what is on GR basic then, if you choose to open the tree, that means no harm is done. Keep living people off any website because you can't be certain how far any information may spread.
Oh and having 9000 ancestors is not a sign that anyone is doing anything sinister! Many of us have a lot more known ancestors than that without needing to go sideways and taking anyone else's!
Have fun and remember we are all doing this for pleasure.
Sue x
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