Genealogy Chat

Ha! I see they were founded in 1934. My William Hill would have been a mere 90 yrs old at the time - his younger brother (dare I say it ... Ernest Hill/Monck) was over 80 and still alive and kicking at the time!

Perhaps related to the well known chain of William Hills betting shops here LOL !

No, no hot match.

Got a couple of replies yesterday. Still don't know what the initial issue was, although I have asked repeatedly (some surname we apparently both posted in a thread about, that I can't find). But the "hint" seems to be the fact that I turned up in the other member's Contacts list -- which of course is because *she sent me a PM* ... about the surname that means nothing to me that seems to come from some thread on TTF ... ! Which she keeps referring to without telling me what she is talking about ...

So once again I said I still had no clue what that was about and would she *please* explain it!

In response to which I got the GR form letter:

Dear Janey,
Thanks for your message
Sorry this is not my relative, sadly we have no connection.
Best Regards, ...


@#&%($ !!!!!

... in response to which I said, among other things, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT, and could we please stop this now.

Fingers crossed!

I often get an email from GR says 'they have found matches in trees for.... click to find more details' Perhaps that is what is meant by a hint

PM sent to Jill

That's where I've seen it, I was semi-thinking that -- at Ancestry.

But there's no way she could connect anything from/about me at Ancestry (I have no tree there) to anything here! I have no idea. I'm wildly curious. If she doesn't answer by tomorrow, I'll try asking again!

I reunited someone with her son a couple of weeks ago here at GR. That one was easy ... he's a member, and had himself in his tree under his birth name. ;) She PMed to tell me it was him, and the tears they had now shed, and to thank me. Just now I received a message giving me access to her tree ... So I will thank her kindly without looking, and suggest she close it back up since I'm really a stranger ...


Nobody knows what a hint is??

If I hear again from my interlocutor with the hint supposedly connecting us, I'll report back. ;)

If I get a possible Hot, hot match I send a more rounded description of the match involved, ie, parents, fathers occupation, and how I am descended from that particular match, but do not open my tree until I recieve an acceptable answer.

Have recently been stung by someone who copied my tree wholesale, including my 2nd husbands family who they couldn't be related to.

I agree with Steven although I've learnt from experience not to open my tree. I will happily pass on relevant information.

Some people feel awkward about making the initial enquiry but because I did I am now in contact with two members whose 2x gt grand parents are my 3x gt grandparents. I meet up with one of them as we only live 5 miles from each other.

It's just a shame that GR do not take into account the place of birth as it is ridiculous how many hot matches I've had are certainly not that.

It's certainly very frustrating not to get a reply when you know the message you sent has been read. Even if there is no connection I will reply out of courtesy.

Chris

Steven, I have answered two PMs from the person, thank you.

The first said something I could make no sense at all of, saying that the GR member had "John" in her tree and that's why she was so helpful to "that person". I had absolutely no clue what that was talking about. So I replied to say that. In reply I got the tree access request asking who was in my tree that was in hers, and referring to the GR hint. Once again, I replied to ask what this was about, and what the hint was.

I didn't wish to reproduce the contents of the correspondence here, and in fact was just asking about the concept of "hints".

"I had a reply from somone once on GR who said he didn't want to share his tree with anyone as it had 'personal' information on it. What's the point?"

It's that long-standing discussion here. I generally open my tree once correspondence has been exchanged establishing who our common relations are and what the relationship is, if it is a direct relationship. In some cases I offer information but not tree access.

I have never once ignored a communication from any member of GR, other than random tree access requests I get as one of the active "helpers" on TTF, from people whose threads I post in. I gave up on responding to them.


edit - I do see where you were coming from Steven - one post saying "ignore it", you were countering that advice. As you see, I'm with you. Even an unsolicited tree access request with no personal content (I would never send such a thing myself), if it isn't obviously from a confused newbie on the TTF board, I will always answer to ask what it's all about.

Oh, I agree about Hot Matches. They're like getting a picture of a pony for Christmas. ;) The anticipation, the disappointment ...

I may just have to wait for the next PM which may explain it!

I've had a PM from someone I don't know asking for access to my tree and saying who is it that I have on my tree that she has, it came up as a GR hint.

I pay no attention to what the management here gets up to. Except for the every-two-week 10 "hot matches" I get for William Hill of Devon, matched with William Hill of Ireland, William Hill of Australia, William Hill of Worcestershire ...

Anybody know what this might mean?

(I certainly didn't open my tree on that, not least because she hadn't offered me hers!)


(edited to fix the subject line which somehow lost its essence -- it is supposed to say 'who can tell me what GR "hints" mean?' and for some reason it keeps becoming 'who can tell me what GR'; so many charming glitches at this site ...)