Genealogy Chat

Hi Jill, I work backwards as far as I can go on every line, then find the descendants of ancestral siblings. I generally only follow non-blood lines where there is a specific aim, for example, as my Weatheralls are traced (by me) back to Wensleydale in 1676, I have looked up any available info about the relatives of spouses, working on the assumption that most of the inhabitants of the Dale would be connected in some way. As for my Allchin line (Alcherne in 1475) I am collecting all the Allchin info I can as a One name study sideline. I have well over 1,000 of those and am in contact with lots of distant cousins through them.

I was in contact with a new fourth cousin and she was telling me about her immediate ancestors......she got very cross with me when I said I didn't really want/need ALL the details of her full ancestry as I was only related to the one particular branch. Later I discovered that she goes off on all sorts of tangents on her tree covering hundreds, if not thousands of people to whom she isn't related. It's not that she doesn't do the research.....she does......but sometimes I'm not quite sure WHY???? She wanted to do my hubby's tree herself (she admitted this to me), but I foxed her as, firstly, he is half Spanish and getting his Spanish tree together has cost us a fortune and has been extremely difficult to do....secondly hubby's ''other'' grandfather is a solid brickwall of decades standing.....My cousin said she would still have a try at hubby's tree. I haven't heard from her since! Merry

I would SO like to find someone on this site who had actually taken one of my lines further back than I have. As I started off tracing all the ancestral lines I have plenty of brickwalls, lots of them being circa 1800. I would LOVE someone to ask why I selected that particular Joe Bloggs and not someone from the next village or born 5 years later. It would be great if someone said 'Okay, you've given me the father's details, but you have a baptism for the mother, so you must know her parents as well' In all the time I've been on this site I have found possibly half a dozen rellies who have actually asked intelligent questions. One of those might have been regarded as a name collector, but as he gave as much as he took, I really didn't mind.

I was once contacted on here about a relative of mine who had married someone with a very unusual name. The guy offered me a tree with thousands of names including all the kings and Queens of England and France and said would I like to check it. What am I supposed to do ask if he has any proof Eleanor of Aquaitaine married Henry 11. It was so tempting... I have a strange one at present. I found someone from Australia on a website asking about one of my surnames linked to several other names which I recognised as the spouses of my great grandfathers brothers and sisters. I sent her quite an enthusiastic E. mail thinking she must be related somewhere. She replied sending me lots of new details including a family for one brother who had emigrated to New Zealand that even a solicitor who had had to prove a family will had been unable to find. However it turns out she is descended from the brother of one of these spouses so she does not qualify for a twig on my tree. She has now sent me a questionaire on the details I gave her which is going to take quite a bit of research to answer. What would you do in these circumstances?

Hi all I am very new to this site and must say the tips board is the the best board. Since starting I have had a couple of people ask for a look at my tree and only one gave me some nmes that were of use. I started my tree on paper and last year spent a week in London trawling through BMD's and paying a fortune for certificates. I must admit that finding that person you are looking for is a great feeling and I am pleased I can now view the records on line instead of having to travel. I have managed to track back a few generations but am happier trying to find my mum's siblings which has been a long project in itself. I would be over the moon to meet and rellies on here and would share what I have found but I must say to just name collect would take all the fun and excitment out of it all. Tina

Can I ask everyone who has replied to this message. What is the point of being on Genes if you are not prepared to pass your tree on to other people, who are part of your family? I have found many cousins I did not know anything about. And I have used auto reply as it is quicker. But I check all the names and verifiy them before they go on my tree, and the hard ones to find are not on Genes only people who will give me their e-mail address will get that infro.

I don't think we are reluctant to share info with someone who has a proven link, but we need to check that they have first. As to the objection to the current layout, someone connected to my Mother's side of the family need have no interest in my Father's side as has been said before. I prefer to swop email addys and exchange edited gedcom files wherever possible, or even a descendancy list or ancestry as an rtf file.

Roger <What is the point of being on this Site if you are not prepared to pass on information about your family> I would be SOOOOOO delighted to exchange/pass on information about MY family to someone who was genuinely connected to it. Sadly, every contact I have had on here has a tree based on wishful thinking, not research and I have yet to find a genuine contact through this Site. No - I lie! I have had two genuine contacts. For one contact, her 5 x GGM's sister-in-law married a brother-in-law of my 5 x GGF. They had a child who died at birth and the wife died a few days later. Husband remarried, new wife also died in childbirth, husband marries yet again and dies.End of line in 1801. Which part of our mutual trees should we share, do you think? The other was a a similar story - there was no issue and it was the end of the line for my side AND for hers. I gave her the previous two generations from my side. I got nothing in return. As for the steady stream of people who are related to me through a woman born in 1702 - they arent, cos she died in 1704 and CANNOT be their ancestor. My tree has cost time and money and effort.I feel I owe a duty of care to my dead ancestors to get their facts right - not dish them out willy nilly to be tacked onto just anyone's tree who fancies them - how disrespectful is that. Happy to share with GENUINE relatives - if only there were any! OC

Merry - Do I remember your hubby's family is from Barcelona, or have I got confused? (I do that a lot!) If I am right - Do you need any look ups in Barcelona Cemetery next time I go? Dea x P.S. - I thoght you were away on holiday?? Dea x

Hello Dea, Eeh?? (as in Manuel!)...........Yes, my f-i-l is from Barcelona!! It would be fantistic if you were able to go to the Cemetery there. I bet it's huge though??!!! How is your Spanish for asking for the whereabouts of a particular grave? I can only ask for a beer! (Una cerveza grande, por favor!) Shall I PM you some names? (there's only two main ones!) Yes, I was on holiday in Oxfordshire, but now I'm back (If you need details - lol - see my thread, imaginatively entitled, ''I'm back'') Merry

Merry Manuel said Que not Eeh. (Cant do the back to fronty question marks on here) Dea Merry made her family go to various boring family history related venues and told them it was a holiday!!! OC

Yes, but my Manuel has lived here since 1942, so he is just starting to lose his accent a little! Merry

¿¿.....I can! lol!! Merry

Nobody likes a show-off, Merry...(LOL, in case you thought I was being nasty) OC

Tee hee!! Positive wishes for your daughter, btw. She will be fine.....I've been reading about it on various sites. Merry

Merry Trying to divert myself so that I don't jump in the car and drive 200 miles...I may do, tomorrow. OC

Well done Merry ! There is a VERY large Cemetery not far from the airport I don't know how the system works over there but I could e-mail them and ask before I go, and yes, my Spanish is quite fluent thankfully. Anyway pm me some details and I will see what I can do. Dea x p.s. - It always annoys me when I see the character Manuel (who I love, incidentally), muttering away in 'Spanish' as, being from Barcelona his first language should have been Catalan )

I'd be delighted to open my tree to relatives, unfortunately most of the contacts I've made on here haven't been on my direct line which is what I am actually interested in.I'm happy to share what info I have with 'family' members. Roger an automated response maybe be quicker, but a personal one is much more polite, I've never sent an automated reply, infact I don't even know where they are Linda

Also people are complaining about how many relatives they have, well if you could get far enough back the answer is we are all related as we are supposed to have started from just two people. lol. But, Genes is not like ancestery and all other family history sites, so why are you on it if you don't pass on information!!

After quite a gap I have had contact with 3 genuine family members of my husband in the last 2 days. Hot matches connected me to someone who shares his gt grandfather. I put the name in quick search and found someone else. Then I had a contact via my tree on ancestry to another genetically connected rellie of husbands. On my side of the family I have made many connections to my Scottish side. I have my tree on tribal pages and thanks to the fact that Rods aunt is a hoarder we have photos and letters from the mid 1800's. So my new contacts have managed to see photos of their rellies from 3 generations back. I have had some very pleasant communication with people only connected via marriage and if they want to put my family on their tree I am happy to oblige though I don't put them on mine. If I did not have my tree on rootsweb I would have missed out. Jeanie A.