Suggestions

pm sent to you PP :-D

I no longer give access to my tree on this site after I found information relating to my not long deceased and very much loved family members harvested and added to public trees on Ancestry. I subsequently hid the names on my GR tree but the damage had already been done.

Perhaps I am being over-sensitive...the information relating to the place and dates of my relatives' deaths are available to those who buy copies of the certificate (although of course because of my initial folly, they did not have to do that, nor, I suspect, would they have done). I know when these events took place: I was there with my loved ones as they were dying.

If someone asks me for information and is willing to give me their private email address, I am usually happy to share information but these days I don't often give information relating to anyone younger than my greatgrandparents. My enquirers benefit from this, as I have many more names and much more information on my home database. It also safeguards the privacy of other researchers, who have shared their information with me and had it incorporated into my tree.

With so much modern concern about identity theft, it seems to me to be folly to share information relating to one's family, even if they are recently deceased....or, indeed PARTICULARLY if they are recently deceased.

I have one further point...I have concerns about finding my data, which has been meticulously researched and verified, incorporated into trees which are riddled with errors. This applies as much to this site as Ancestry, where I have now given up adding corrections to public member trees as it was too time-consuming.....

Hope this doesn't come over as a rant...it's intended as a plea for sensitivity :-)

Kim
Hull, East Yorks
Happy to do look-ups in Hull Archives

One of the best public trees I have seen on Ancestry show a lady born in a small village in rural England.

She marries and then emigrates to the US but then comes home every 10/11 months for the next 12 years to ensure that all her children are born in the same small village. And all the family die in this village!!! YEAH I believe that.

hi all

another reason for not opening your tree unless you are sure is as has been mentioned photos i had an american lady take the photo of our great grandmother and add it to her tree when it was quite clear where she had lived and died with no connection what so ever with america.

The thing that makes me so cross is there are thousands of records that are not availabe yet on line for one reason or another
so actual records i.e parish need to be looked at very carefully
its so frustration when people name gather and suddenly your tree goes back to 1066 they see dates and think that looks right
and add it I know my family were in lambeth london for generations but some people had add my family names and they end heaven knows where.

Happy hunting not much point in doing this time consuming hobby if its not right so remember check check and check
again.


;-) ;-)

Then there are the lists of "Hot Matches" which come from your tree which someone else has added and passed on :-)

Joanne

I think you will find that a lot of members have been "once bitten, twice shy" by people taking information that has no connection with them


We're not against sharing


we are against indiscriminate taking of names


we want to control the information that is given to anyone.



If someone contacts me with a connection to my father's side, 5 generations back, a sibling who emigrated to another country ................. why should they want to take the names in my HUSBAND's tree?


I'm quite happy to extract the information concerning that ancestor and send it to them.


Like jax ................... I have only about 100 names on my tree on here, there are more on my private tree on ancestry, and many more on the trees on my hard drives.



If you have a tree on ancestry, which does have a good programme, may I suggest that you make sure that it is PRIVATE.

That way, someone searching will see one name, but will have to contact you by pm to ask for further information.


If you do not do this, everything on your tree can be copied by anyone. Names, documents, photos, will all be copied.



You should also make sure that any information that you take from someone else has been fully researched and documented.

Sadly, this does not apply to many of the trees on ancestry, and also on here.





sylvia

Yeah, I'm not liking that..... never thought about the pictures!

My tree is'nt worth looking at as there are only 54 people in it I keep my main tree on ancestry (now private)

I had someone about 6 months ago wanting to view my tree and gave the name of my aunt as the connection, I asked her where we were related but no reply but this person did open her tree to me she adds up to 100 people to her tree each day plus she has 100s of photos which must also come from other peoples trees. One of my grandparents which I know she took from a 2nd cousins tree on ancestry

I think there was 13000 in this tree at christmas now there is 26000, so is this person actually researching or just copying? and stealing photos?

If anyone wanted to know something I would tell them but I would not open my tree anymore

jax

Thanks for the clarification.

There are always rotten apples and we have to be careful they don't ruin it for the rest of us.

Regards, Jo

Joanne

Yes, the object of this site is to share information but unfortunately there are some very unscrupulous members on here, who make contact, ask for access to your tree and the next thing you know is your whole tree has been attached to theirs. Now you may not think this is a problem, but:

If someone on my Essex/Herfordshire family contacted me and I opened my tree and they copied it in its entirety what use to them is my Irish family who are no relation to the others?

Most people on here would advise NOT to give access to your tree to all and sundry, but ensure through some selective name sharing that there is an actual connection.

Whilst we are all happy to share our experiences and our trees with real relatives too many of us are now suffering from the 'once bitten twice shy' syndrome.

Hi Sylvia,

Have you had a bad experience........not sure where your coming from. I thought the whole point was to connect with people and share information. The majority of people I have connected with must feel the same as they have happily opened their tree for me to view.

I'm new to this so don't know why I should 'Hide' parts of my tree. Why on earth someone would 'steal information' and what is 'name collecting'?

Just realised the 'name collecting'...... I presume this is someone who enjoys expanding their tree as much as possible but is not really interested in the details. Think I have connected with someone who does this as they add a lot of people on a regulsr basis. Whats wrong with that, if it makes them happy, carry on!

Sorry. It is difficult to understand someones perspective at times and when reading your reply it came accross rather negative.

Just wanted to make a suggestion to improve my 'user experience' and from what I gather there are others with the same opinion.

Happy researching x

why allow access to your tree if you do not know the connection?

Solution is simple

exchange of pms that tells Fred you want to know his connection to Person X, while also telling HIM that your connection to person X is through your gt grandfather (or whatever).


Most experienced users of this site do not allow free and easy access to their tree to anyone.



I personally never do ........... I communicate with "Fred to discover how he thinks he is connected ot Person X


THEN, if I think it is a correct connection ....... I extract from my tree the branch that concerns him, and send that to him.



does away with any "stealing of information" or "name collecting"




sylvia

I also have that problem at times. I usually send a message to the person asking what is their actual relationship to PersonX and tell them what my relationship is. Of course some people have no idea about 3rd cousin twice removed and that sort of thing.

Huia.

Scenario:
Fred contacts me as we have relation 'PersonX' in common. We allow access to each others trees.
Question is - how do I find how Fred is connected to 'PersonX'?

I can easily search for 'PersonX' in Freds tree but then I have to scroll through to the bottom of the Full tree to hover over Fred to see the connection. Ie 'PersonX' is X3 Great Grandfather of Fred.

We then realise my X4 Great Grandfather and Freds X3 Great Granfather are the same person.

Solution:
It would be good to be able to view a direct tree between two given names in a tree.

Is it only me that has this problem?

Hope nobody takes this as a critiscism as I love this site.

Regards, Jo