Genealogy Chat

Well I've stirred up a hornets nest here. But reading all the arguments I'm inclined to agree with having some details on even if they are a rough guess than nothing at all. It is after all meant to be a site to connect people together. If you have common surnames sending e-mails to ppl whose ancestors may not be in the same country let alone county must be very frustrating. I'm sure Graham is great at answering his e-mails but plenty on here arn't even when they do supply the details. So far I have just ignored the names with no details beside them is that what the GEDCOM users want?

I'm still with you Brian! Loading GEDCOM without even a "circa" birthdate or place of birth is of no use to anyone on GC particularly if the names are common. Presumably that's why on this site its mandatory to add them. To be honest, I'm mostly interested in tracing direct line descendants, and doubt I'll have many thousands on my tree ever! But having so many names but no details has made it difficult to connect my genes with anyone..and that's what this site is about surely? I think it also generates the problem of emailing people but getting no replies = its such a shot in the dark with only the name to go by! I would guess that those with large GEDCOM files get lots of mail when there's no connection! And wasn't Graham rude?....I spent hours in my local FHC last week looking for marriage details for him on parish registers! Dierdre X

I too am hoping to connect my genes with someone else, but thanks to this arguement, the person that I was most likely to get a connection with has deleted his tree. As the surname we share is uncommon, there are 14 on this site and 8 are in my tree. No I don't think Graham was rude he was just puting his point across the same as everyone else, I fail to see how that's rude. Graham has always been polite, and helpful in my dealings with him. Shelli

I uploaded from a ged com because I had brothers who married sisters, half brothers who married sisters and first cousins who married sisters. You can't do that on GC. You would be entering details twice. It isn't because the details are not entered on the ged com. The file loses the data when it is imported into GC. I do enter the details that are missing a few at a time. I can't see what stops people e-mailing if the name is familiar. I e-mail and ask if the person is from a certain area. I have had only one person not reply. Regards Margaret

Come on people, lighten up a little! This is supposed to be a hobby, a pleasurable relaxing pastime away from the stresses of everyday life, and a little something extra to leave for our children when we're gone. We're not saving lives, contributing to medical or scientific research, or other noble causes, we are indulging in a very interesting, and for me pleasurable hobby, and on the side I have met some very pleasant, interesting people and feel I've made some new friends. Come back Graham, there are a lot of friends that will miss you. And to all those who object to the frivolity on the members board, join in and have a bit of fun. There are also a lot of interesting conversations about such topics as travel, gardening, photography etc etc., as well as lighthearted repartee. Diana.

People are allowed to have their own opinions, its quite simple really, If you dont like reading their opinions dont click on that message again. But I think most people are just to see what is said next. sometimes I enjoy reading other peoples opinions. if I didnt I wouldnt read them. Debbie

Well I would be surprised if Graham has deleted his tree. He's paid his subscription I'm sure he was just leaving the discussion. It sounds as though this site has been useful to him already.

Looks like he has deleted, Jaqueline, as he has only one person on it now (think it was well over 3000 before). And I do think calling people sad and telling them to get a life is rude. We are all going to differ in our opinions sometimes and we are only airing our views and opinions after all! I hope I haven't been nasty in any way? Dierdre X

Margaet excuse me I dont understand what you meant. I never said a word about complaining to GC about Gedcom. Please tell me why you said that. Debbie

Having read through all the messages in this thread I have no intention of adding anything other than to say that the hot weather we are experiencing this week is doing nothing for people's patience and stress levels. May I suggest that everyone thinks before they type, or at least reads through their message before posting it. It may avoid further misunderstandings and petty comments. Sue

Well I'm amazed Graham has deleted his tree what over this. What does he do when something really important happens. Still he has GEDCOM he can soom put it back on again

Cor! What a good read. There seems to be a lot of passion. I now know why there are gaps anyway! Roger

I feel I should add that 90% of this site is FREE - including creating family trees, uploading Gedcoms and use off ALL the boards. The payment of 5 pounds enables you to initialize contact with other members and add photos. While I understand Margaret's issues, I for one, can't get too worked up over slightly flawed free functionality. I might feel differently if we had to pay use these features. Crista

I agree with you Crista. The sight on the whole is good. Maybe a few teething troubles but it's early days. And for the cost I think at the moment it's worth it.

When I don't have the date of birth or place, I just type in unknown. I don't any other way to get round it. For the year of birth I either give a rough estimate and tick the "circa" box or just put 0000 and tick the circa box. If I do searches and the name matches mine but there are no dates or place of birth, I email anyway and have had a couple of hits. Hope this helps. Andrea

I wish I had read all these comments before deleting all the info I had on GC site with view to loading my family tree via gedcom. For some reason unknown to me the file would not load - so now I have to start all over again inputting onto GC - reading the comments I think perhaps the two - GC and a family tree package - should be seen as two different sets of info - why did I not have that thought sooner!!

I have had an email from Estelle at GC this morning that says that the facility to import baptism dates into the gedcom being uploaded into this site is coming soon and at present is in its testing stage. There is no plan to incorporate burial dates at the moment. This will at least mean that those of us who have uploaded a gedcom with a lot of baptism dates will soon show with a date instead of just a name. I suppose we will of course have to delete our present tree and reload it. Not really a problem. Margaret

Margaret, Thanks for that info. It seems that the problem here is not with the individuals who are uploading their GEDCOM files, but with the way GC is dealing with importing them. It shouldn't be difficult to implement such rules as - if DOB is blank use baptism date and add circa - if a name field is blank insert "unknown" (there are over 100,000 entries with a surname "unknown" on GC It could even be more sophisticated and do: - if DOB missing use half way between parents and children's dob, or use child's year of birth minus 30, and add circa. Surely this isn't rocket science and even a *very* approximate auto-generated dob is better than nothing (and the circa marker indicates it as such). Rob

Robert It sound very simple when you write it like that, but with over 1100 names in my tree and 1800 in my husbands, I would rather wait for GC to change the system than have to alter the majority of our data. It would take for ever and as I have all the full data, and a lot more besides, on our PC I don't feel the need to do that. Margaret

I could not help noticing a message on here the other day very simular, and I went back over the information I had again on free bmd. Well thanks to all the updates it actualy had the names I was looking for, so it meant I could complete their details more up to date. May I suggest that other people do the same they may be pleasantly surprised, as I was......... Janet