Suggestions

I have always found the hot-matches notification useful but it not been working for a long time. I have received assurances from the team that is is going to be fixed "soon". Please can soneone tell me when - "soon" has been used too many times now to be believable.

With the problems that are happening on the site at the moment don't hold your breath!!!

Yes, there were problems, but the process does appear to be running - I had 12 matches in September, and there is a message under 'Newsfeed' on my Home Page to that effect, but there is also a further message for October stating that non were found within the batch run at that time.

One of the other reasons they appear to have dried up is that, under pressure from a minority of certain members who though they knew best, GR were persuaded to change the system last December, so in order to register a HotMatch, the Place of Birth must also match in addition to the year and name. As a result many of the matches you would have seen are no longer appearing, simply because the POB differs slightly and so many members will now go for months at a time before receiving any new ones.

Where's this 'newsfeed' please IGP? I've searched my home page but can't see anything called that.

Not that I am worried one way or another, but as the names place of birth and dates need to be exact now it seems would'nt it be better to search the trees yourself?

I had two Hot Matches sent to me today. They were the first I've had in months but they both seem to be proper matches.

grannyfranny - the Newsfeed section is on the homepage on the right of the screen just under the purple "Quick Search" box (I've only just noticed this myself).

Kath. x

The following details were in the Technical Update released on the 21st September in Phil's Blog

"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."

Ah, thanks, that explains why I don't have that bit!

The problem with the new hot match criteria is that unless everyone records their ancestors identically no one will now get more than a couple of hot matches a few times a year.

ie I record my ancestor Joe Smith as born 1899 Battersea, London

Sarah Smith records Joe Smith as born 1899 Battersea, Surrey

both are correct but will never be matched. And that is just a vague listing.
Most major cities are often the hardest places to find ancestors. London being one of the most difficult, with much of it being listed in the original counties that the old borough were in, such as Surrey, Kent, Essex etc., it is a minefield.

Thanks for the explanation for the Hot Matches criteria, and your comments about London suburbs is spot on. Most of my tree is based in London, and I haven't had a hot match for nearly a year.

I too am one of those who REALLY liked the hot match facility, and to not get the service is almost enough for me to cancel my registration to GR - which would be a pity, as I've met so many lovely people who are willing to help, not to mention cousins I never knew I had!

Got my hot match notification, and newsfeed to say so, and a good number of hot matches too. Curiously, the way the place of birth was written didn't always match very well, but all were viable.

NEW HOTMATCHES

I received an e-mail this morning informing me of several Hot Match additions, when I clicked in the e-mail to go to these matches I was just taken to the Hotmatch list - not the individual listed names. So I had to do some detective work to find out who they were, when I did get to them (eventually) they were all contacts that I have already been introduced to.

So this notification was a BIG waste of time.............. :-((

A few hot matches came through today. Some were people I had already contacted (and thats fine too) others were good leads and one, WOW what a match. Given that I am continually updating my tree, I was expecting more matches.

Very pleased with the outcome.

However, it is shame that these things only come through when you make a complaint, or other communication with the GR people. They need to do this on a more regular basis.

We are actively trying to sort out all the hot match issues, and glad that some are now coming through and hitting close to target in terms of identifying links.

Peter - very good point. Why on earth do we send notification and not link you directly to the named match. I will raise this point today.

Christopher - I agree totally that you should not have to complain to get anything, and we are working hard on fixing and improving the hot matches processing.

Thanks as always for positive and negative feedback. It is all taken on board during the development of the website.

If Hot Matches were working Genes could set up a Borgia tree and wait for the matches to come in. In fact why don't they use Search Trees to find people with the Borgias in their tree., :-)

Very true Ken

There seems to be a few with the Borgias, whether they are still members or not?? :-)