Genealogy Chat

Another message from them this morning in reply to mine yesterday. This time they say ' Perhaps one of your ' lost cousins' already as (sic) the answer.That's why we always recommend doing the simple things first ! Half an hour now could save months of searching. I agree with the comment about their rude replies.

I have had my lot on there since it started and have had only one contact which was made over the last free weekend. But boy was that a goody! I had info from the IGI which was 'submitted' for one line and although it looked good I wasn't going to accept it until I could prove it myself. Turned out that my contact through LC was the submitter on the IGI and had all the sources to prove the information. Another two generations 'proved'!!!! Chris

I have put loads of rellies on there, and not one match - until a few weeks ago. Got vry excited - until it turned out to be my sister!!

Amen to that! One of my relatives married a William Brown, and I get swamped with messages from other people with a William Brown in their tree. I know nothing and care less about him as he is only a relative by marriage, and even his spouse is on the very periphery of my tree. Another relative married a Sarah Smith and I daren't put her on the tree at all. Andrew.

I like Lost Cousins and Curious Fox for finding relatives (sometimes in preference to here). Why is that you may ask? Mainly because on here I get so many contacts for the people who MARRIED my relations. These contacts have no interest whatsoever in my relative and I have not much interest in theirs! So although you do get a lot of contacts on here, many of them are a waste of space. At least contacts on LC or CF should be more relevant!! Cheers, Horatia

I have all my lot from the 1881 census on Lost cousins (except the irish branch) and only conect to 1 other person! and he'd already contacted my here and through Ancestry, as well as having sent a copy of the tree to my great grandmother when I was little.

When was the free weekend? I've just had a match and haven't yet subscribed. I'm hesitant to subscribe as I have only 2 matches with the same person yet there should be more if they entered the whole census. On of which is my ggg grandfather. I too have found them to be very snotty in their replies. I was even advised rather rudely that I hadn't referred anyone to the site. I have no one interested in family history to refer so unless people here would tell me their details so I can refer them there is nothing I can do. The idea seems good though. We just have to wait until others join and match. Toni

Sent an e-mail asking if 1881 is all they are interested in. Got a snooty reply telling me not only 1881 and when I've put 1881 relatives on the My Ancestors page they will look for matches. Sent further message telling them I have already put some on the page. Next reply even snootier - you have only put x number on the page ! Then went on to sing their own praises about how much help they have given to people even back to pre-1837! Final message told them I'll put more on when I have time as too busy searching for a marraiage - probably pre-1837 and some deaths. Not very impressed with them despite their home page with the photograph of the actor and he probably knows his family history anyway as he is actually from a titled family and has a title himself.

I have over 550 rellies on the site, and have made contact with 4 people, but to be honest I either already knew them, or had referred them to the site! they should have kept the service free, it had alot of good publicity to start with, but since they have started making people pay a subscription fee, I havent added anymore rellies to it.

This site is definitely in a league of its own networking wise- Ive made contact with 3 different groups of relatives who were last seen 50 years ago -all round the world- all due to either party seeing a group of identical names inserted by the same member-I hunted down 2 of them and the third one found me .

Ok, after reading all your replies I'll try and be patient lol. Don't get me wrong, I have made contact through this site and a few others and I've been researching for approx 3 years now, so I'm pretty well up on it all. Didn't quite understand the freebe on LC but I do now so thanks :) As we all our, I'm impatient in finding stuff cos it's so exciting and interesting, lets hope someone I'm related to decides to by a pc lol. Ria

I've made half a dozen or so contacts through GR (although one of those was my uncle, who only had five people in his tree and couldn't tell me anything I didn't already know) and none through LC, although the latter's offer of free help has been really useful in getting me round an apparent dead end.

Hi Ria, What was free this weekend was the ability to initiate contact if you had a/some matches. That was it. Being a cheapskate I had been waiting to see if either of my two matches contacted me, especially as I thought they might not be new to me. It's like this site in the way that, without paying, you can respond to a message but not make the first contact. I was able to make use of the ''free weekend'' but only because I already had a couple of people listed as matches - I put my 117 names on in December. I don't intend to subscribe yet; I prefer to spend on certificates! I think it's very likely that more than half of any matches I ever get through Lost Cousins will be people I know through other sites for the very reason that they are the ones also using the internet. I have, however, got one genuine new contact through LC, which I'm really pleased about. I also agree with posts above that for anyone really wanting to find specific living relatives there are better ways - I've traced an elderly relative just using 192. c o m combined with BMD indexes and family knowledge - but it's never been my main aim. Linda :o)

Yep, there probably are but not everyone uses the internet! I know its hard to believe but its true! But no one seems to want to accept it. Not everyone is as dedicated or obsessive about family history as we are. Not everyone has been bitten by the family history bug! Use other methods as suggested in my previous post. They may not be looking but they don't mind being found! Cheers, Horatia

I entered all my rellies from 1881, when the site first began, but so far have not had a bite, I just cannot beleve that in the hole world I have no rellies at all, most of the ancestors had really largge families, there sureley must be ONE somewhere!!

I suppose the big question is... what is it you are paying for if you do subscribe. Yes I agree if you get a match it must be correct cos of the page numbers etc and even though it could take a long time it is possible to get matches as some of us have. Don't understand what was free this weekend as i couldnt do anything different. ive had about 70 people on since the site started and havent had a dicky bird. Ria

Hi all As ever i have to agree with wiser people (and again this time it's Horatia) I am researching my birth family,nothing to unusual there,and i know that none of them knew of my birth except for possible brothers and sisters. I now have 400+ names (not all in my tree)spreading backwards and sideways,i have found only one name in one tree that is a relative. The remaining times i match a name it is usually through a marriage 100 years ago into 'my' family,or the third wife of ggg g/f or something similiar. I have found that i have 15 half brothers and sisters,(still possibly two more to go),and that means loads of potentialy close rellies of similiar age to myself. I traced each line back three generations,and none of those appear in a tree owned by a descendant of the name i am looking at. They usually come up as siblings via the census and the tree owner leaves them alone,'not a direct enough relation to spend time and money on' Strange isn't it,15 half siblings who have never used the internet to record any family,via GR,Lost Cousins,etc etc. I get far more success using the internet as a research tool,then looking for ways to locate the rellies and try to contact them directly. Glen

I had not paid for membership on Lost Cousins, although I had two matches, because I suspected they were both people I'd contacted through here. Over the free weekend I did make contact and found that one person was definitely a previous GR contact and I'm awaiting a reply from the other. The best news though was a new match which turns out to be a lady in New Zealand connected by marriage so we have started exchanging information. I really like the idea behind Lost Cousins because, as others have said, you don't get false matches and you don't need to pay unless you want to initiate contact. I actually enjoy the fact that it's very straightforward - there are no message boards to be sidetracked by, LOL. To work to its full potential it really needs to increase the number of relatives entered - lots of new members needed and existing members to add all their distant cousins, great great aunts and uncles, etcetera. What are you waiting for? !! Linda :o) PS to Rachel - You're right, I joined this site when it started and even though GR grew enormously quickly I didn't get a single even likely match for about seven months, when I then paid to upgrade my membership.

I suppose it's a catch 22 situation. They need to get as many people on the site for it to work, so that as more people join then there's more chance that you will get a match. I expect that the same situation existed when this site was new. I've got about 30 names on there, and haven't had a match yet. I haven't paid any money yet though - I'll get my credit card out once I get a match! I wouldn't write this site off yet - give it a chance.

All of you seem to assume that your missing relatives have internet access and are looking for YOU! Some of them may be elderly and wouldn't go near a PC if you paid them! Never make the mistake of only using websites like Curious Fox, GR or Lost Cousins. All are good at tracing missing relatives with internet access; but for those who DON'T have internet access (nor want it!) I would suggest you trace missing relatives by sending for death certificates and seeing whom the informant was. These death certificates often supply the informants address. I have contacted missing living relatives in this way. Also, you mustn't assume that just because YOU are looking for missing relatives that your 'missing relatives' are doing the same! Mine weren't looking for me but they didn't mind being found! :-) Cheers, Horatia