Genealogy Chat

It seemed good! I spent days and days typing all my info in. It was a personal tree, no one could see it (unless they asked me) and not for public viewing. Looking for a particular name on Anc.Family Trees I was shocked to find my brother(not so long dead) on their list and not even under the name I was searching(but he was in my tree). Since this might cause possible hurt to any of his family seeing it, I immediately deleted him. Then I deleted my whole tree....... but Ancestry still has my tree, my people, my dates etc on their lists of people on public view. So much for privacy!!! Moral ... what seems to be personal and private isn't. Marie

This is why I never put any of my details anywhere other than on my FTM or 'names-only' of deceased ancesters on here. I rarely open my tree (only to a few who I have established are 'direct' relatives, or really nice helpful people who I have well established I can trust. I will share ALL my information but only when a link has been established and then, only information relevant to the particular family branch. I often feel mean and I know from what others have said that these other sites are wonderful if you put your tree on there, BUT, I don't want my family details 'free-to-view' all over the world. My ancestors are precious and I want to keep them with 'their family' - I don't want them just dangling from a twig on some big 'world tree' Dea x

While I agree with you both to a point, isnt the reason we look at these site to find other rellies, if everyone kept there info private how would we find out so much extra from the living ones out there also doing there trees;; Just my thoughts but maybe you are right I am between to camps on this;; Babs

But ,Dea, they said it was personal and private. People could only see it if they asked. I thought it was like Genes where only the tree owner can permit others to see it. If I delete my tree from Genes it is gone forever. Do you think other people who are putting personal trees on ancestry know that anyone can see all the names and dates. Don't you think it is a breach of trust? Surely if you delete a tree all the names should go off Ancestry's lists too. I am very p....d off about it. M

But ,Dea, they said it was personal and private. People could only see it if they asked. I thought it was like Genes where only the tree owner can permit others to see it. If I delete my tree from Genes it is gone forever. Do you think other people who are putting personal trees on ancestry know that anyone can see all the names and dates. Don't you think it is a breach of trust? Surely if you delete a tree all the names should go off Ancestry's lists too. I am very p....d off about it. M

Yes Marie, I DO think it is wrong but I know this sort of thing goes on - I would never put the details I have on my FTM ANYWHERE other than on my back-up disc. - I just don't trust this type of promise. I know I am possibly missing some conections but I will have to take that chance. I think names , dates and places of birth on here are all I will give - Once I make a contact who is then proved, I will happily share ALL. Dea x

I'm with Dea on this, I don't put any details anywhere except on FTM and here. The details I have on here I don't share with anyone anymore, except the few trusted, closely related family members who already have access - been ripped off once and won't have it happen again. I'm all for sharing - when EVERYONE sticks by a code of conduct (such as not puting living rellies on etc) but they don't. I have noticed how quickly even those people who have tenuous links to your family don't bother to keep contact once you say no I'm not opening my tree but I'll tell you what you want to know - says it all really! Snowdrops

you gave me call for concern so I did a search and tried to look at the details that came up for the private trees and could not. The only trees I could look at were the public trees. If you click on details of the private trees you are told to email the person to obtain permission to look. So I am not sure what you are saying. Of course you can see your own tree even though it says private tree because they are yours but expect someone else cannot. I do not undertand what has gone wrong with yours. Gwen

I was worried about exactly what has happened here which is why I have not put my tree on Ancestry. I am sorry to see that my fears were real. Once you have 'taken the cork out of the bottle' so to speak, you cannot reclaim your privacy, so I err on the cautious side. OC

Gwen , It is a personal tree. If you put Thomas Linnett birth date 1770 into the place where it searches family Trees you get a long list of Linnet and others and some of them have a personal tree Lizzie to the left hand side and that is mine. And those are mostly all my people and yes if you click on personal tree you will see it has been deleted.... but the lists of names are still all there. And I don't want them there. M

Dear Old Crone, Please if you get any more such fears about things like this SHOUT LOUDLY so that we,(equally old crones but less 'with it') can hear and avoid. I made sure it was private. I checked and re-checked and carefully avoided the 'allow others to view your tree', spot. Are they allowed to do this? M

Marie I just did what you said and yes the list of names came up with no details but if you click on any one of them it says the tree has been removed. You could try going to person view of the individual then click on edit and them click on remove this person see if that works to remove the name. Gwen

I had a look, Marie, and see what you mean. You did not expect this, you do not want it. I would contact Ancestry and complain big time. They may respond that the names cannot be connected to you (or anything else in most cases) but that's not the point. YOU are unhappy about it and they should respond to that. Anne

Marie I DID shout loudly several times but no-one listens to me......sob sob. Seriously though, I am an over-cautious person and see danger where there probably isnt any, so people probably get fed up of my dire warnings. Ancestry is of course an American site and they dont have the same privacy laws in US, so I don't quite know what you do about this. And incidentally - are you SURE that your names disappear from GR if you delete your tree? I'm not - the number of relatives to search NEVER goes down, ever. OC

Thanks all for the support and advice. Gwen, I will try that. Keep your fingers crossed. O.C I assumed names disappeared from a Genes tree if one deletes one's tree. I will have to check! Off to see if there's anything left of the Christmas whisky. M

Ann, How do I complain to Ancestry. Phone? M

hi marie, i've just read your thread and thought no they would'nt do that , so put in my james pope and there it is for everyone to see , after being told that it would be private and all the family is there as well as j pope hazel.

From the Ancestry FAQ: Question: What will Ancestry do with my Personal Member Tree information? Marking your Tree as 'personal' will make your tree 'Personal' so that it can't be viewed as a Public Member Tree, and withholds your tree information from being compiled in OneWorldTree. What does this mean? * Even if you don't share your tree, other members can still learn if a specific deceased individual is in your tree, in addition to the birth year and birthplace of the person and your username (but no personal information about you). * They can then contact you anonymously through Ancestry's Connection Service to request more information. Keep in mind that members who want to learn from your tree may also have helpful information about your tree to offer you in exchange. _____________________________ I know this is after the fact, but it always pays to check the small print. Or indeed the large print. The reason that you are still seeing the details of people on your tree is because when you search on Ancestry, (or any other database) you don't search the records, you search the index. Index entries for your tree are created when you make the full entries. So the records you entered are gone, but the index records are not... yet. It is probable that the index will be updated occasionally, thinning out the links to dead entries, thus helping speed up searches. When this will happen I don't know, but I would expect a proffesional company to re-index on a regular basis. regards, Gordon

am I the only one who doesnt mind people sharing my info after all thats how I got so far because of people who I have been in contact with, I have found so many rellies I am really pleased , especially living ones I lost contact with years ago.I would be annoyed if someone copied all my details without at least giving something back and as long as they dont use my children I really couldnt care less.

Can I just ask, why bother posting your tree on a web site if you don't want anyone else to see it? I dosn't make sense. OC also mentions privacy laws. We don't have any as such. We do have the Data Protection Acts, which are concerned with the 'Fair' use of data held on computer databases.