Genealogy Chat

Don't usually come on this board,but having nothing better to do thought I would take a look and low and behold there's Lou having a moan!!! Good on you girl!!!Mind you you are wasting your time (when you should be doing lookups) because the people who the moan is aimed at are either so thick skinned or just plain thick that they have not got a clue what a look up on early not indexed census returns involves.I was asked recently to look for a person who may have lived in Oxfordshire in 1841and 1851!!!!!Just a name ,no age,or possible location. I blame it on the telly,its all sooooo easy on there when months and years of searching are codensed into a programme lasting 45 minutes. Regards Mary

Hello Mary babe! You're not allowed to give me grief, you're family! I did wonder whether I was just being over sensitive and crabby when I posted this thread but its been a good sounding board for people to get it off their chests! As you say it will do no good in the long run but it made me and hopefully a few other people feel better! And you need to get that crystal ball serviced if you can't find them possibly in Oxford - you should know where they were without needing to ask! Lou x

Jaquie As someone who has been doing family history for many years, my own experience has taught me that you do not need to have your full tree on any site. This is because when you are really into research, your detective instinct for genealogy enables you to spot the people who are going to be of interest for your ancestry. The place, a name and a date are the main clues to be looking out for and this may only need to be a very few names. I have had many rubbish requests on this site by people who have not used any basic commonsense when asking me for information and rather expect information whilst giving none to me in the first place. They may well have thousands of names on their site. My attitude is that if people want information from me they should be able to state where their interest lies, and that means putting some of their cards on the table first as they want information from me and not come to me with a garbled message that states: 'How are you connected to the T.....t family my father was born in Kettering Northamptonshire in 1901' and the message is unsigned. What sort of question is that supposed to be and what are they expecting? This sort of contact will get a very short reply. I have shared my Family History interests with people all over the world who are connected to my family and these contacts have shared info with me, but I have very few names on this or any site and that is the way it will remain. I have been 'bitten' on ancestry by people who have taken my info and latched it on to theirs, and the info they have filched is not part of their family. They are not doing the research correctly. I know what and whom I am looking for, and I expect others to know who they are looking for as well, and to be able to state clearly where their interests may lie. I am not into sharing my family tree with all and sundry. We all have the freedom to use the site the way that it suits us. Janet

Jacqui He became a member when the site first started, simply because his mum YEARS ago had made a start on their family tree then abandoned it. (She basically started it after losing her husband, it was a gap filler, then she remarried!) and for a while, hubbie was a stay at home dad so he carried it on. I then got the bug and joined and now I'm the anorak and do all the work (!) but the info has always been on his membership and cos there's notes and everything in there, it would be a hassle to transfer it over so we've never bothered. It works for us, how its viewed by other people doesn't concern us Lou

LOU Well said, you have the right to do what ever you want its your tree, you pay your subs. So what you do with your names is up to you. Julie

Jaquie Not quite sure what your answer meant as sharing with family is great. Are we not all saying that that is what we are doing?My point, and as I understand others are saying, is that you do not need a tree with many names on Genes Reunited to do this. Janet

And the fact that we do not have thousands of names on the site does not mean that the rest of us are not true researchers. Lou

Anyone searching their tree correctly, don't need to have a huge list of names on Genes to find rellies. My 4th cousin found me and all i had was my grandfather and gt grandfathers names on genes. Julie

Jaqui As the saying goes there are many ways to skin a cat! I made contact with relatives through Family History Societies and the names section they have in their mags and CD's. I have my name on the family History internet sites and have made contact with Irish cousins in America and have not got only a tree but copies of letters dating back to the 1850's which has led me into further research which I am feeding back to my American cousins. We have shared much info and still working on it all but I have done all this without a big 'tree' anywhere! I would even go further than Lou and say that those people who are more experienced, are more likely to be the ones with smaller trees, at least on this site. Janet

im a newbie and only been doing this a week and have spent a weeks shopping bill on the 1837 site...it was by looking at all your tips and info that i managed to grasp where and how to begin....and thanks to a member on this site i have now got my pauls great grandmothers husbands family tree....and that made me more interested in finding out all i can about his birth name...please continue to help and guide us...most of us new ones really appreciate what your doing and i for one am absolutely amazed at what information you can get from a few names etc...and one day when i grow up ill be as good as you at this malarky. lol p.s. i still and dont think ill ever grasp the census site lol michelle

Short answer Jacqie is NO it doesn't matter. I have a big tree going back to 1633 on one line but it is on my own more manageable Family history site on my computer. To be quite honest with you I doubt there is anybody out there who has much to offer me on this particular line as I have all the info to include apprenticeship records, wills, settlement records, Marriage Licences, Estate Records, Poor Law Records and much more. I will be the one sharing the info on this line. I have shared the info with one close relative and I know who the others are. I keep searching the names on Genes but nobody is turning up. The Irish Line is special and I also know the ones I am looking for as I have done all my homework. My Scottish line is also an area where I know who I am looking for and I have no Scottish ones on this site but the ones I am interested in are not turning up on the name site either. When I see a name I know exactly what and how to pitch the questions to excite other peoples curiosity but that is mainly because I have done all my own research over many years. Janet

Tracy I'm the same, I've got that many notebooks on the desk. Confirmed people Possible people Possibly linked somewhere people Same name in the same area but probably not directly connected people! ETC!!!!! I have to be 101% certain of anyone before they go into the tree. And maybe its just me being picky but I'm not happy with just knowing when they were born, who they married, how many children they had and when they died. I like to know where they lived, their jobs, what kind of life they would have had, get records for apprenticeships, burial details, memorial inscriptions. I can spend months on just one set of people cos they turn out to be very interesting. Is that just me??? Lou

Tracy Re: your suggestion that GR makes it easier to understand what records are available and how to research them - I quite agree. I have been asking them for ages to redo the site so that the info they do have isn't buried. But they have not done it, so we keep getting the boards clogged up with questions about the census, parish records, bmds etc - I don't mind answering them,but it is a waste of time when if only GR made their info clearer, people would know where to look and the boards would be free for the more difficult questions/look-ups. nell

Tracy, There is already a lot of information on this site, both by GR and by the members themselves. The trouble is that there will always be the newcomer who doesn't bother to read them, sees that people are asking for information, posts a request and then just sits back waiting for the information to be handed to them. Perhaps we should just reply 'When all else fails, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS' Lol Jim

Well what can I say Only popped off for a while and now this thread is amazing Lou it seems that we are all in agreement with the please and thany yous but where are the ones without manners - one can only assume that they do not read any other threads apart from posting their wants. I managed to reply to a thread the other day - thought I was quite brave - never got a response though - still wont be put off may even be able to answer another query another time Annxx

Jim If they dont read the instructions then they wont read the post that says read the instructions either. LOL Margaret

Jim I must confess it took me ages to find the genealogy pages on this site because I didn't know I could scroll down. It doesn't make it obvious, and yet there's a lot of dead space wasted on the site. I know they need the banner ad at the top to help generate income, but I want to just be able to go straight to the genealogy resources or to the message boards without all this scrolling. And don't get me started on 'page not found'... nell sorry Tracy I meant my message for Tracy. Glad that's sorted now! nell

And we miss you Jon. Still, at least I get to talk to you regularly! Lou

Lyla Then I would reply on the new thread telling anyone who is about to look up whatever, that you have already done this and received no recognition. It may put a stop to that sort of bad behaviour. Margaret

Lyla I agree with Margaret, say something. You've gone to all that trouble (and if your 1841 are anything like mine they're not pretty to search!), it's disgusting that they've not even acknowledged you and are now asking for the same info. Do people think the end result will change if someone else looks for them? Lou