Genealogy Chat

see below:

I checked through the new names this morning as usual and noticed one or two possible matches so sent off an e-mail - I continued to the next name and noticed that almost all my surnames had several red messages beside them saying I had contacted the person. Out of curiosity I explored further and found that they were all the same member so I looked to see how many people this member had on their tree and it said -..... 51732..... !!! How can this be a real tree? - It's no wonder we had all those matches - they must match to everyon's tree on the site!!! What a waste! Dea

People who have that many names in their tree are quite clearly heavily involved with the LDS Mormon church and their obession with researching their family trees in their neverending quest to try and connect everybody on the planet in one great big huge tree. In some respects they are quite helpful and will always share information with you to increase the size of their tree even more and get bonus points with the church leadership, but it does also mean that your connection with trees of this size will be really remote. Assuming it has been well researched though, it is most definately a 'real' tree. You and your family will fit on there somewhere somehow, it's just a question of where.

The trouble is, if you contact someone with a tree this big, they often can't tell you how some info was arrived at as, ''that part of my tree was given to me by XYZ'' they have, of course, lost track of the donator and so cannot tell you the vital bit of info you are asking about......... GGGGRRRR!! And before everyone jumps down my throat saying they have met someone who can remember all the details of 100,000 twigs - I did say ''often'' not ''always'', above LOL!! Merry

Perhaps it's me then but I would feel a little uncomfortable sharing my information with someone who has a tree that big. - I am happy to share with anyone with even the vaguest connection where it would add something to theirs, but I wouldn't like my 'precious' family members being 'swallowed up' into anything that large where they won't matter. Maybe I'm just strange. Dea x

Hi I can understand that. We all like to feel our family are a bit 'special' and not just a miniscule twiglet on a global tree. Cheers, Horatia

Blow me, thats a lot of people, hope they didnt have to buy certs for that lot! I tend to stick to my direct line with just close blood lines. Afterall, if we kept on bringing in more and more distant relllies we could all end up with millions of people on our tree.

There's about 15 people on Ancestry World Tree (or whatever it's called) who all have a section of my tree (not supplied by me, I hasten to add), but with my gggg-grandmother substituted by a different name!!!!!!! Only people who are ''obsessed'' by this hobby would understand how I felt when I saw this ''interloper''!! LOL I have contacted all the people with the interloper. No one was willing to change the data they had, or didn't reply. I even discovered the person who introduced the interloper, but they wouldn't accept they had made a mistake, despite 100% (yes 100% LOL) proof that the man's wife was not X but Y. They just sulked!!! So, still the World Tree shows the interloper and I am still cross about it! Merry

just checked mine and have one person with 45 matches,quite clearly copied from my tree!!! i'm not happy as i have no idea who this person is,on checking my contacts have now found that a contact who copied from my tree a few weeks back has now changed name,and won't reply to me now. personally i think this person is just a people collector as i can't see the connection,and they have several hundred in their tree. nicky.x

You never know Linda, As people have said on this thread and I read on the other one about how to find how many people a member has got on their tree - there ARE people with large trees who are most helpful and take it seriously - this person COULD be one of them ??? It seems a bit strange to me but I could, or course, be wrong. Dea x

51732..... Thats not a tree, its a flippin woodland! who is C? (Merry tell me NOW!! lol)

I have rather a large Tree on here and I openly confess that it is not all my own work. My GR Tree only consists of those to whom I can show a Blood Relationship and their Spouses. I have been researching my family Tree now for about 40 years, and had got a few lines back to the 1600s. Since joining GenesConnected (as it was then), I have made contact with many distant cousins and have been happy to add their research to mine, although I will raise any questions or anomalies with them. In fact I have added about 350 in the past month. Offline I can show a much smaller Tree which I can confirm is totally accurate but on here I have a 'Work in Progress' which is liable to amendment. As each one is confirmed my 'Accurate Tree' becomes bigger. I fail to see any benefit in turning down the offer of information which may help my quest. Even if it eventually turns out to only be a nudge in the right direction. When I finally get my promised week in Lewes I will be able to look up the information on my 14th ggfather and his family, but had it not been for a previously unknown 6th cousin in Southern Australia I would not even have known his name as my personal research had left me 4 generations short. The important point to remember is that any information we receive, whether it be from a Transcript, a CD, a Gedcom File or a response to a question on here, needs to be checked if you are going to be 100% certain of your Tree's accuracy.

That is part of the problem Grampa - How can anyone check almost 52000 people in such a short time before adding them to their tree.? You have been doing this a long time - you are entitled to have found so many. Dea x

Exactly, Dee!! btw I would never put everyone on my ''family tree'' on here. They are separately off-site safely on a family tree program. :-) Joy

I suspect that the person with a Tree of 52000 names would have assembled that Tree by linking other peoples' research. In reality, it doesn't matter to us how tenuous the links are to him, but we can assume that the smaller pieces of the jigsaw are likely to be correct. As an example, I know of a Tree online which can be downloaded as a Gedcom file and contains over 10,000 individuals. I could, if I wanted, add that to my Tree. The link being one marriage. That act may devalue my Tree as a whole, but the 2 parts would still be valid research tools.

'C' has lots of Jones's also but only approx dates. Star

My cousin answered a request to view her tree. The man made a very tentative match, he then asked if he could view her gedcom. The next day the whole family was linked to his tree, living and deseased (he has approx 5000 names). He included all our living relatives, brothers, sisters, children etc. It made me so cross as at one time had an input in our local family history society !!!!!! Kim My mistake this man D has almost 4000 names

c has added to every surname i have and none with a birth place kim

I also replied to C about a possible connection and then found they hab most of my surnames in their 'tree'. Who is C and has anyone had a reply from them? Liz.

I have messaged c but not had a reply, i think this person is doing for fun, not one of c's entries has a place of birth kim