Genealogy Chat

Most of the people who get in touch with me through Genes, are lovely people, who learnt the basics of “good manners” at their mother’s knee. Their enquiries are always accompanied by the word “please” and they invariably respond to a reply with “thank you”, regardless of whether I’ve been able to help them or not.

Others aren’t quite so well versed in the best way to approach potential contacts. So I thought that it might be a good idea to put a thread up where people can add hints and tips for new members….and for older members who can’t quite work out their “p’s and q’s”.

1. ALWAYS say please when you are asking people for help/information/access to their tree.

2. ALWAYS acknowledge a reply

3. NEVER ask someone to open their tree to you if you have no intention of opening your tree to them. I am constantly amazed by the number of people who think this kind of behaviour is acceptable. I've lost count of the people who have contacted me and said that they haven’t bothered opening their tree to me because they haven’t got very much on there anyway…... that’s not the point. Personally I don’t care how big or small a tree is, there is a principle at stake here.

4. ALWAYS make it clear who you want information about, giving as much detail as possible. Last week I had a “pm” with the heading “Hot Matches” ….All the message said was “What’s your connection to Robert” …nothing else. How am I supposed to know the answer to that? I have about 500 “Roberts” in my tree.

5. If someone contacts you about a potential connection, please acknowledge it. Even if it’s only to say “Sorry, not my relative”.

6. PLEASE give people time to get back to you. Many researchers don’t spend all of their time on Gene’s or researching their tree (odd, I know. I don’t understand it myself, but that’s just the way it is) they may not turn the computer on more than once a week. Others may be busy. In my own case I put a Gedcom of my Ancestry tree on Genes three weeks ago, it contains over 11,000 documented people….as you can imagine I was getting people contacting me left and right…I think the record was 40 enquiries on one day. Each enquiry takes time to answer. A little patience from (some) people would have been gratefully received.

7. PLEASE do not take information from people’s trees without asking them first. Personally I don’t usually mind, but even I get annoyed when I suddenly find that someone with whom I only had 1 “hot match” last week, now has 4,567 relatives in common with me. Afterall I have spent thousands of hours researching my tree, and enough money on it to justify my Bank Manager having to buy his Valium tablets in bulk....it's a bit unfair just to take that information "wholesale".....and why would anyone want to?...where's the fun in that?

8. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not put the details of living relatives onto your tree. You may be (justifiably) very proud of your partners/parents/children/grand children/nieces and nephews, but you put them at risk of all sorts of things by putting their details on a public forum.

....and, finally....Thank you for taking the time to read this thread. If you think of anything I've missed, please feel free to add to it.

Jan

I agree with everything you have said

Yes, some very good points.

I would say, however, that it is unlikely that the Data Protection Act applies to information contained in family trees. as it would fall under the category of research, which is outside the scope of the Act.

Well put.
I have lost count of the number of people I have told
Please remove dates of birth of living relatives.
When you open a bank account they ask for mothers maiden name as a security question. They think who will know that. They have reckoned on us genealogists plastering them all over the internet.


When I first started I copied info from someone elses tree in my ignorance. I now know to use the tree as a guideline other wise I will copy thir mistakes. That can take a lot longer to put right especially if someone then copies your tree.

I am suspicious when someone opens a tree with thirty thousand plus relatives. They may be genuine or have they just copied trees by gedcom?

Some sites with auto fill translates British placenames into American placenames if you are not careful. For instance Greenwich becomes Greenwich Village New York.

Jan
I more or less agree with all you have said - but if we have a match I will be telling you I won't open my tree as it is useless. It contains a few names but everything else is Offline and I would offer to email it to you.

Also - Capital Letters. Everyone should be very careful how they use these as they can be read as 'shouting'. Your capitals don't 'shout' they 'plead'.

11,000 rellies!!! Huge respect!!

Thank you all for taking the time to read this, and for adding to it :)
Jennifer....no huge respect due I'm afraid :)
The only reason I have 11,000 rellies on there is because, apart from researching my own personal ancestry, I am also doing a One Name study, and an Area Study, this particular tree has elements of all three, which is why it is so large. Obviously I am connected to everyone on my tree, but some of the connections are really quite distant

Well said! I have to say though, that very few people these days (now I've given away my age!) don't seem to learn manners at all!

A different Christine

Hi Jan

All agreed. I would add that I didn't think of someone doing a one-name study, expanding their tree as a result. I am doing one myself, but so far it is in a separate tree, and probably contains about 10,000 names, mostly as yet uconnected. My tree on Genes only includes my proven connections (well, mostly) of about 1,800 people.

I must add to your Point 8. I find it so often. Never, ever, put the names of living relatives, and particularly kiddies, onto a public website. I got one woman tellng me exactly where her 5-year older daughter was born, her nickname and the name of her favourite cuddly toy. The mind boggles. First of all the scare of some crank using that information, and secondly what does she hope to glean from it? Surely no-one else is going to know the identities of her child's parents/grandparents etc any better than she does.

Margaret

Oops sorry....pressed delete by mistake :)

Hi Margaret
Ordinarily doing a One Name Study wouldn’t necessarily expand your tree, but the Notman family is a bit unusual in that the name originated in Tranent, East Lothian, Scotland, and theoretically all Notman’s should be able to trace their roots back there

When I found some in my tree I realised that they were a very small family and decided to specialize in them. So far there are about 500 on my tree, and I have built about 30 other Notman tree’s, some with less than 100 people on them, others with as many as 3,000, as I find the links so I join the trees together.
….and of course since I ended up with countless Tranent records while researching the Notman’s, an Area Study seem the next logical step

I have about 450 relatives on my tree and have got well and truly stuck right at the top with Hugh Munro c 1740. I think he is connected to the Munro's of Fowlis which is a very well documented tree but I can't prove it. Would a one name search help? WHat is a one name search and what is an area search?
I've already paid a sum of money to a genealogist to carry on from my research but he didn't turn up much -having said that - I'd pay quite a lot to find out where Hugh came from!!

n

Hi Jennifer
A one-name study is a project researching facts about a surname and all the people who have held it, as opposed to a particular pedigree (the ancestors of one person) or descendancy (the descendants of one person or couple). I have just started mine, and as yet it's not what many would call a "proper" one-name study, because I tend to focus on the Notman family in Scotland, chiefly because I like to have the paperwork and it is easier and cheaper for me to gather records in Scotland
An area study is a study that focus's on a particular geographical area, in my case East Lothian in general but Tranent in particular.
I can't honesty say that I think a one-name would help you with your research into your personal ancestry.
The only reason I started doing mine is I realized that whilst I was gathering information on my own Notman's I had managed to acquire all the death certificates issued in Scotland for the Notman name from 1855-1957...and all of the marriage certificates issued between 1855 - 1932, plus hundreds of births and pre 1855 marriages. It seemed a shame not to do anything with them....hence my decision to do the study.
Similarly I also have copies of all the surviving Tranent Parish Records, so logic suggested an area study.
But the Munro family is huge. The work involved would be immense.....and as I said it wouldn't necessarily lead to you finding out more about your direct line.
There must be another way.
Jan :)

i think you're right. There must be another way. I just wish I could find it! I honestly think there was some sort of cover-up going on. Hugh Munro 1740 seems to have dropped out of the sky. He must have been fairly well born because he was a Midshipman in 1758 and my brother has the log book that he wrote on board the ship Speedwell and Surprize during the 7 years war. I've tried the NA and all the ADM records I can get my hands on. I've been to Greenwich and I find eveidence of his existence but nothing about where he came from. His descendents have always thought they should have inherited the title 'Baron of Fowlis' but for the life of me I can't see why except for some interesting relics in the family and so on.

Just to get back to the etiquette issue, it does pay to be as specific as possible about what information you require, as it may be obvious to you but not the reader.. I feel very guilty if I post on the "trying to find" board asking if there are any descendants of Fred Bloggs born 1880 or whatever, only to have people give me all sorts of information about him such as census reports! They have gone to all sorts of trouble to find stuff i already had. I do try to say now that I do not need information and am looking for living relatives only.

(I think it would be good if Genes had a section just for contacts, thinking about it).

Jan (diffferent one!)

n

Just had my Hot Matches which, as always, led to a flurry of PM's many of which brought this thread to mind.

n

In case people hadn't realised, this thread is actually a year old and hasn't had a posting since last July till it was bumped up yesterday.

Thank you fo bumping this up :)
Although it is an old one the issues raised are (unfortunately) still current