Genealogy Chat

Difference is, Hawkwind, that was your own work. I've had someone copy & pasting my notes on people. For example, 'In my opinion Jane may have been born out of wedlock. If its the same Jane, then she is also related to my husband Paul.' If people copy this, without obviously even reading it, whats the point of them even doing family history?

Why are so many hung up on analysing why someone should "steal" masses of data and reproduce it without crediting the sources etc? I wouldn't want to myself but if others get their fun from name collecting then so be it. How in this age of lack of courtesy and downright selfishness anyone can still be surprised at this sort of behaviour beats me. Surely we all realise the risks we run when we place data online? If living people appear on a tree and is based on data appearing on a GR tree then who exactly is at fault?

This is a difficult one for me.

I have found unknown cousins using both GR and Ancestry and they have access to my tree and so much more and vice verca.

BUT

I am really loathe to open my tree to just anyone. I like to know who they are and what the link is and then I will make a decision whether to open the actual tree or not. However IF I decide not to open my tree I do offer/send a written out precis of what and where I found information in relation to the people identified. This obviously has taken me some time to do, but is a way of protecting the identity of other members of the family that actually have little or no significance to the other person. I have found so many nice people, relatives or not, this way. However I have had some rudish comments from others, which I don't really understand, after all I am supplying the information, but perhaps in a way that the receiver can 1. identify the relationship and receive more info than they could get from my tree, but 2. probably means more work for the receiver in having to physically type the info into their tree.

Am I really being pedantic?

I have one tree which has four main branches - my parents and my OH's parents. I have taken years to research - paying for certificates and memberships, etc., not to mention the time which I have put into it.

If someone contacts me and wants to know about someone who was born in 1816, I will gladly give them all details of that person and their parents, siblings, spouse and children. That should be enough to get them over a brick wall so that they can continue with their research. If anyone gave me that much info on one ancestor, I would very much appreciate it.

What I object to (and it has happened to me), is that they ask for access, claiming have a 'common' ancestor on my mother's branch - then copy my entire tree and I later find them on another site gloating about the thousands of names in their tree.

If they are only distantly related to me on one branch of MY family - how can they be in any way related to my husband's family and ancestors?

This is why I give help as mentioned above - but I no longer give access to my tree..

Hello Helen

So sorry to hear this, as it has happened to me about 2yrs ago. This person was not even a blood relative, stole the lot of my own research & i found on rootsweb, ancestry & another i had not heard of, all by accident, so as you can imagine i was livid.
I asked this person to remove all she took, & she did, only as i threatened her to report her to Genes & she did so, but not the other sites.
I have learnt a valuable lesson. Never give access to any one unless its someone you know really well & i have a few of them & most trusted.
150 yrs of my Tree is not available now to see.
In the yrs i have been with Genes have met some wonderful people & we keep in touch regularly.

The one thing i haven't asked of anyone is to look at their Tree.
Most time members give me access & i wish they didn't as they never stop the access & i have too may on my list.

Once bitten twice shy is that what is said?

I would have thought the purpose of making a tree available on GR or Ancestry was to seek the help of others in building and extending that tree. I too have spent hundreds, possibly thousands, of pounds on subscriptions, CDs, books, certificates and journeys to record offices. This research has given me pleasure and delight at every turn. It seems rather mean-spirited not to share this information with interested parties who may or may not be related, particularly if I am willing to make use of their endeavours.

I also plead guilty to adding very distantly-related ancestors and complete strangers to my tree for weeks or months at a time, but the tree can shrink as well as grow if I fail to discover any possible link. However, many is the time I have found links between two different branches of the family thanks to the addition of complete strangers found in official records or other people's trees.

I am surprised when I am given access to a tree with over 30,000 names and can't help having doubts about the accuracy of the information, the way the names were obtained and the motivation of the owner, but if it helps me solve a problem then the exchange has been worthwhile. Ultimately, the pleasure is in the chase and the sharing of knowledge with others.

I was asked last weekend how much I had spent on my research., A quick count of my certificates showed we were in the mid 4 figures and that did not include the subscriptions to sites such as Ancestry, GR, FMP and Scotlands People. This is why I get annoyed with those to take but do not give back.
Before I will take any info I find on a tree I expect there to be a source attached to the info (BMD or census) and preferably both. Otherwise there is no proof and it is all hope and prayers. I will also normally make contact with the owner of the information to understand if they are happy having their info borrowed.

3 weeks ago I started doing a tree for a friend on Ancestry and due to some certs that he had I quickly got back to mid 1800's. At that stage I found a hint to a tree, wrote to the owner and my friend is now in contact with a 4th cousin he didn't know existed.

This all started so he could have a family tree to give to his father as an 80th birthday present , instead I have been able to give him a whole new set of cousins who he has talked to by phone. and I have a contact who is helping me research the tree so we can get as much as possible onto it by October :-)

n

I was contacted by a member because we had shared relatives in our trees, after many messages I sent him by email my full tree and he promised to send me his by return, well over two years now and still waiting, he doesn't even reply to my messages.

i just don't understand why, In future anyone else will have to do the hard work themselves.

Once bitten.

Yay ~> Oh my oh me :-)

My favourite subject is on yet another thread - I haven't looked at the Community Board for some time - Its time for another rant ;-)

Yep - I agree and disagree in equal amounts to everyones thoughts. It boils down to what is a Family Tree. It is with this point that sets the cat amongst the pigeons. Most love to discover there families past [which I have been doing] - others are in search of a loved one - others just want to build a tree that goes on infinitum they don't care whose name is there....it makes them feel more important if they have 1000s of twigs in there tree. And Yes there are one names studies of which are fantastic when done correctly.

There are unscrupulous people out there sadly. No I do not 'own' my tree literally - but my direct ancestors 'from me' 'both parents' up are mine... last year a relative on my fathers [maternal] great grandmothers side not only transferred all that that side of my tree to her site - which I have no issue with [as it is our common ancestor] - but she then proceeded to transfer every other major branch of each and every side of my fathers paternal and maternal side - then she did the same with my mothers [now this is just not on]....including all siblings..there spouses and children - it went on and on 'YES' 100s of names - absolutely no logical reason for doing so....this is what I consider 'nutdome' in every which way. People can agree and disagree with me - but there is a point in time when you really have to think of others sanity in why they just 'collect names'....It makes genuine trees look like mud after a while, so much so that no one understands where a tree there viewing starts and ends. This relative proceeds to get some unusual pleasure of updating 'MY' tree written as - 'There Tree' with census information and the like on Ancestry.com....I have asked them to kindly remove it....silence is what I get back.

Oh and the tag line for my rant is that the above relative recently updated our 'respective' ancestors tree on her Ancestry.com site....going wayyyyyyyyyy back to the mid 18th Century....lots of new names. Wow I hear you cry - how wonderful you should be thankful.....nup its all made up....she just found a similar surname and ran with it and leached of other trees posted on ancestry.com.....making more mud pies as I see it for others to make even more muddier as time goes on - I could go on and on and....Thankyou for reading my rant...and apologies for the lack of grammar - full stops etc

Cheers ~> Steve ;-)