Suggestions

Are "Hot Matches" still working?
It used to be that "Hot Matches" were updated something like monthly.
I think that mine have been updated, possibly three times, this year.
The consequence of this is that I have only had four messages all year, in this respect, whereas a couple of years ago I was receiving personal enquiries almost weekly and i was sending out contact messages weekly.
Has it all died??

Yes, they are working. However, the process has been enhanced so you only get them if the Place of Birth also matches as well as the Name and Year of Birth.

This was done as a result of continual lobbying from certain members who objected to getting matches where the POB was different. The downside is that you will now receive far fewer potential matches.

Many of us preferred the old method which allowed you to eyeball the POB, but sadly we were overruled by those who knew better.

I like the way it is now. I was getting 100's . All cause they are so many John Moore or Robert Patterson .Al of them born in Britian. But mine were born in New Zealand or Aust. It took all of my time to get rid of what I did not want. .
What works for some does not for others.

I use the " search trees" box at the top and put all the names I have an interest in at least once a week.

I have noticed that newer researchers often use the Registration District as place of birth and although there is often a connection it is not likely to show up on the new way of doing hot matches

For instance someone new has several of my grandfathers brothers as born Headington as opposed to Iffley (which is in the Headington RD)

hello i have not had any since aprill so now i know theason why

i am with you i g p that seem a very long winded way elizabeth k

sally w :-(

Thanks for the up-date information. Yes, I bet there are many who have been wondering about this.

InspectorGreenPen I think you have a point. You see I find that if there is a mis-match regarding POB, one or other 'could' be right or wrong and that way you get to have a contact and check the trees between two of you. Sometimes it is only a question of Islington, London or Kensington, London, in which case it can be easily discarded once contact has been made. I have found this in a lot of my family members, but did get the contact from the 'Hot Matches' initially.

So food for thought eh!!

A note for Crystal - we're a long way from 'home'.

Thanks,

Sappho (not from the island of Lesbos)!!

I think that it was better as it was. It was no trouble to me to look at all the new possible links and remove all those unlikely to be linked.
If you are entering a new relative and have no idea where they were born or you take an "educated" guess, which is totally wrong, it would seem that you would not be linked with a possible "Hot Match"

Sorry to disagree, Stephen.

""Yes, they are working ref:- InspectorGreenPen 4 Oct 2011"
no they are not and have not for 8 months or more so don’t mislead."

Yes they are working otherwise I would not be receiving any. As stated earlier, the last batch I had was in September 2011.

"If you have a tree of less than 500 it is not a problem looking at single member on a one to one basis but anything above this is very time consuming."

I disagree with this statement too. I have over 13,000 name in my tree and I would estimate that 80% of my connections with other members are as a result of looking at member trees on a one to one basis and 20% as a result of HotMatches.

Updated message today on Homepage

We looked for new Hot Matches but didn't find any. Try adding more relations to your tree. 12 Oct 2011
We found 12 new Hot Matches for you. 19 Sep 2011

At least this is a step forward as it lets you know that there were no new ones in the batch of names checked this time around, whereas previously you heard nothing.

One of the ongoing issues as far as I can see is that there is only a very small number of names checked each time (I believe it is just 100 for each member) so the likelihood of getting new ones is very small. Adding new names won't necessarily speed things up either and there is no guarantee that these will be checked next time around.

IGP nothing like that shows on my Homepage for either message..so is that even not consistent?

Or am I looking in the wrong spot? I assume you just selected Home from the options along the top?

According to Phil's blog this was added recently and, at least for me, it appears on the right hand side of my Home Page when selected from the options at the top.

Quote:-

Newsfeed - Added newsfeed on home page. This currently displays when Hot Match checks have been carried out. Other events will be recorded and displayed soon. It will only appear after a newsfeed item has been recorded.

I have just over 34,000 on my tree and rarely receive any Hot Matches, if I do they are non related! The old system was hugely better. <3

Is this a 'Look at the size of my tree' competion or what?


Personally, I prefer a nicely trimmed tree which I can prune or add to as and when.


I like to make sure that each branch and leaf on my tree is verified from a reputable source. I long ago learnt not to accept branches containing hundreds of names for fear of 'contamination'. I once had to uproot a complete tree because I had been lead up the garden path.


Why would anyone want a family tree the size of a General Sherman tree anyway? Why would I want my gt.gt.gt. uncle's third cousin's wife's auntie twice removed in my tree?


In genealogy I don't think size matters but accuracy and correct lineage do.


I don't bother with Hot Matches preferring to make personal contact through the Search Trees facility or other verified contacts.


Small but beautiful - that's me :-D


Cx.

No, it is not a size competition.
Surely it was just to point out that even with thousands in the tree Carol rarely received any hot matches.
I never used hot matches, so do not know why I am reading this correspondence.
And regardless of the size of the tree, it is up to the tree owner to decide who to add and how much proof is required.
Must be Sunday morning.

Of course I realise what the thread was about - I just felt I would throw that in because of the tree numbers being bandied about. :-D


I agree Stephen, of course people can do as they please - as I have done.


I'm still not particularly interested in Hot Matches though.


What has the fact that it's Sunday morning got to do with anything :-S


Cx.

I still don't get any messages on my Home page as IGP indicated...is anyone getting these?

I haven't had any for awhile now, and definately no one with a surname commencing from the letter C onwards :(

I have not imported a gedcom, and my tree is not that huge really, it would nice to see something!

Ditto Grace.
Coming up for a year now since I last saw a Hot Match.

Very difficult to give examples of something that´s not happening.
I haven´t seen a Hot Match since very early this year (Jan or Feb) & must have said so on virtually every thread on the subject all year.
The last message I got informing me that I had Hot Matches was around 4 months ago & when I opened them, there were 3, all of which I had already recieved last year, from existing contacts.
Genes might just as well abandon the pretence & leave members to make contacts for themselves.

I got a few today!!! :-0 first in at least 6 months if not longer. Only trouble is they are nearly all from one surname, what about the other names in my tree? Some of which are more numourous than the one that has been picked out

I had mutiple matches with one person, say 5 matches with Joe and 4 with Joe, but after clicking on one of them it was in fact 9 matches with one person, if that makes sense :-S

And no message/icon on GR but I had recieved an email today, which was how I knew about them.

Perhaps they mean 2.11.2010 !!!!!