Genealogy Chat

This is one of a few tree matches I have where the message is not opened - do I presume the people are still on site but have not renewed their subscription/payment? Does anybody know the answer to this one?
Thanks

Could be, Mary. Lots of people who have trees on here are no longer active, or have changed their email addresses and not told the sit.

Sad, but you just have to accept it.

Thanks Meg - you are right it is sad! Think I would prefer it if they were removed altogether, what you don't know can't worry you LOL!

Mary,

Just so you know that even if you don't have any current membership and another member sends you a message you can still reply.

I sent a message to a lady as I had a hot match with her tree and she hasn't had membership for a number of years and her tree is still on here. When my message came through she clicked on reply out of curiosity to see what happened and was surprised when it worked.

Maybe the person you have sent a message to doesn't realised that they can reply with having to be a member.

Regards
Gai

Hi Gai, that is interesting and I hope that is right. Perhaps if you are not a member you just don't get the notification from GU?? If they let their membership lapse then perhaps they do not visit the site to check their mail!!
I am fairly new at this game and I suppose I still enjoy the chance that I may find relatives. When names dates and even places match up it gives you a bit of hope of success! Sad old bird that I am!

Mary

There are several levels of membership in GR

I have taken much of the following information from GR's own FAQs

1. It is free to register with Genes Reunited .... this was the original membership. You can build your family tree, use the search facilities to find possible matches to your family name, add notes against relations in your tree, post photos on your family tree, receive emails from other members, and reply to these emails. You cannot initiate emails to other members. Also, if you already have experience in researching your family history you can import your Gedcom file in to your Genes Reunited family tree.

2. Standard Membership ............. with this, in addition to the above, you can also contact other members via email, link up to view other members' trees when they invite you to do so, and add messages to the message boards.

3. Gold Membership ........... with this, in addition to all the above, you have unlimited access to our records section (i.e. BMD records, census records and military and overseas records), except for the 1911 census.

4. Platinum Membership ........ with this, in addition to all the above, you have unlimited access to our records section (i.e. BMD records, census records, including the 1911 census, military and overseas records).


At the end of any membership period, you can renew, or downgrade, or not subscribe at all.


If you decide not to subscribe ...... GR does NOT delete you, you become a Free Member, your tree is retained on here, and you have all the privileges of a free member


GR sends emails to the personal email address (as registered with GR) to tell them that a personal message is waiting, and they do that to members in all categories. There is no difference between free and paid members.



Getting a reply from a member always depends on:-

a) they have kept their email address up-to-date with GR
b) they are still interested enough to respond
c) they are still in good enough health
d) they are still alive.


Trees will remain on GR even after the death of the "owner" unless that person deleted it before his/her death, or a member of the family was able to delete it afterwards.



I personally think millions of members are no longer interested!! At least not in GR


The reason for GR being able to advertise that they have over 11 million members is because they never delete anyone.

I reckon possibly about 10%, or 1 million, are probably still interested.


I also reckon that possibly 1% of that 1 million at most even know about these community boards!



sylvia

The following was posted by GR on Facebook today.

Genes Reunited are proud to announce we now have a database of 749,625,668 names across our family trees and records.’

To continue to help our members unlock more of their family history, let’s make it 750,000,000 and add more names! Share this post on your wall and encourage your friends to become part of the genes community. Together we can do this! We will keep you updated on the count.

Gai

As Sylvia has so eloquently described, there is no concept of a lapsed member, everyone has a current membership of one type or another, unless they decide to remove their details from the site altogether.. The problem is that some are no longer active.

I have a contact who only logs on once a year - yes once a year. She checks her messages and responds to any that are of interest in one big go - so there's always hoping.

Hey Inspector
The older I get the harder it is for me to be optimistic but I shall do my best! LOL