Genealogy Chat

For all who have accounts in Ancestry too. An ethical shocker. If by accident a different user account, not your own, is signed in on the computer where you are accepting from, your acceptance will go to that different account. But in their system a tree invitation can only be accepted once then is gone. The acceptance of your invitation can actually go to the wrong person's account, by accident: that happens if your email but a different user account are signed in on the same computer. There is nothing to make sure it only goes to you. You don't know this danger exists before it happens. Then after it has happened, that's it, the invitation is gone.

The inviter does not know it has happened, they just think the invitation was accepted - I now realise this happened to one of my invitations. But worse than that. Not all inviters or trees display a username, so you might be left not knowing one. Then, only if you are a full paying member have you any means at all to initiate a contact. This includes if you do a member search on the inviter's real name - you can only find them if they have a public tree, and then if you find them you can't message them unless you are a paying member. But many folks who are free Ancestry users without knowing it's possible for this situation to happen, may not be able to become paying members even if they want to - because only folks with bank debit cards can do it, and nowadays it's surprising who may not have one. I have seen a bank not want to give one to an old lady with no debt history at all. You need a card even to get a 14 day free trial from Ancestry and they only let each person do that once. Anyone without a bank card, using Ancestry without knowing this can happen, could be left totally powerless to contact an inviter whose invitation has gone astray. Nor will the inviter know it has happened.

Not all inviters display a username. If you are left without a username for the inviter, their support service will go in 5 days from "if you could call us on... with the username for the owner of this tree once we verify your account details we can accept this invite for you" to "Unfortunately our privacy policy does not allow us to contact that member on your behalf nor to have the invitation resent to you". No explanation even of grounds to have such a privacy policy, when it's common sense that they have an e-address registered for every user so must be able to contact them. What sort of practice is that, capable of cruelly leave folks cut off from a warmly writing cousin who had been keen to make contact and who won't even know it happened?

All our friends and contacts using any tree sites need warning about this. Paying users of Ancestry should demand safeguards before being willing to stay with them. What service are you paying for, if this disaster can happen to your invitations and you would not know it?

Topics here recede down the list so quickly, and I would not be allowed to keep reposting it, that its content needs prompt saving and passing on by all who see it. NB I have been advised to post in this section, after did in "general chat" first.

You took the advice from RamblingRose & reposted on this board. Suggest that you delete the earlier thread:

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards/board/general_chat/thread/1347114

Also, as you seem to be making more than one point, perhaps you identify them? I see two - pc logging and Ancestry's messaging system. But are there more?

Too much for me to read

I dont invite anyone to look at my tree on Ancestry...if I wanted anyone to see it I would make it public

Like Jax,


I found your posting too much to read and to understand


However, I will say this ...............


I never invite anyone to see my tree ................................


if it is public, everyone can see it ........ and take all the information they want from it.


Mine is Private .................. and I do the same thing that I do with mt tree on GR


anyone who asks if there is a connection has to prove to me that there probably is, then I will let them have the pertinent information ................ patiently typing it out for them



One of the major dangers with ancestry trees is that people you invite to see your tree MAY be able to also EDIT your tree ............................. and they may well alter your information with the wrong information.

* You don't have to set trees such as to allow anyone to edit it.

* I'm extremely offended by folks who reject understanding things on grounds of length. The explanation would not be complete if I cut out any of it, and not complete leads to not accurate. This is a humanitarian issue, care is needed to make it known in an accurately and completely.

Obviously I did not ask for the issue to happen. Unwillingness to read about such things is uncaring. Unwillingness to understand is simply closed minded. It's like saying "I've already fixed what I believe in life and will never listen to anything else." Both would result in culpability if you helped to cause anyone to suffer the experience as a result of not making the simple civil caring effort to absorb the info about it.

I don't think it's an unwillingness to understand Maurice, just that in places your explanation is unclear ....and i read it on the general board as you know and several times here.

Can you clarify? are you saying that you share a computer and that the other person failed to inform you of an invitation to look at a tree?

As regards someone not being able to join A unless you have a debit card, you can join I would think using a 'pre paid card' that does not depend on you having a bank debit card?

Re Ancestry acting as some sort of go between between a paid member and free member (or non member) then how exactly would the extra staff be funded? Aside from privacy issues ( which are paramount....it is the choice of many people to not be contacted by any third party however well meaning) if someone won't pay to join in order to make contact then why should Ancestry ( or anyone) employ staff to do that for free?

Or am I totally misunderstanding what you have written?

I do sympathise that due to circumstances you have perhaps lost a chance of making contact, but at very least you can put a tree on here or other sites and hope that the person you seek will notice it at some point and join to contact you.

I think Maurice means that if you're accepting an Ancestry tree invitation through your email (and are on a shared computer-e.g library), make sure that no-one else is signed into ancestry on that computer- otherwise the invitation is accepted by the person who is logged in (instead of the intended recipient).

I've tried hard to understand what you are trying to convey, Maurice, and have failed.

Where does the' humanitarian' aspect come into it?

Definition of the word............

Concerned with or seeking to promote human welfare:

I don't see contacting people on a website as being in that category

Community Preferences

Connection Preferences
Don't miss out on chances to make important connections with other people who appear to have research interests similar to yours. Just imagine: you could discover a relative you never knew you had.
How would you like to be contacted by other Ancestry members? Learn More

Anonymously through Ancestry's online Messages feature (recommended).
This setting ensures that no other member can see your email address or other contact information unless you share it directly with them. Easily view and organise your messages online on Ancestry.

Do not allow other members to contact me
NOTE: It is highly recommended that you NOT select this option. This will prevent any other researchers with similar interests or possible family members from contacting you. We recommend using the first option above so that others can contact you anonymously through Ancestry’s online Message feature.

You may also block certain people from contacting you.

Activity Preferences

You can choose which of your activities on Ancestry other members can learn about. We don’t share information on research for people we believe are living, and try to share the information that will be most helpful in connecting with researchers with similar interests and possible relatives. You can update your personal settings at any time.

Public Profile Preferences

In order to better show off the great family history work you do, we show information about the public family history information you share and about your message board activity on your public profile. If you’d rather not have this information available on your public profile, you can update these settings.

Please note: Although we use our best efforts to match your research interests with other Ancestry members, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or relevancy of the matches we may provide.

Please visit our Privacy Statement and Terms and Conditions to see how Ancestry uses and stores your personal information.

When someone sends an onsite message or an invite to view OR edit their tree, you get an email. (just like here on GR)
And if you invite another member to view OR edit your tree, you get an email when they click their acceptance. As per this incoming message (x's to protect my, their and my tree's privacy) :-


Dear xxxxxxxx,

Good news –xxxxxxxxxx has accepted your invitation to join your family tree.

Click here to visit your family tree:
http://trees.ancestry.com/fhs/home.aspx?tid=xxxxxxxx

You received this email according to your alert preferences. To change your preferences log in to My Ancestry and go to the 'my alerts' section. Please know that Ancestry.co.uk does not share your personal information with anyone. Learn more in our Website Privacy Statement.

Just read the first couple of lines again

Why would anyone else be on my computer?

If anyone was I would expect it to be a family member.... If you are using a computer at work then tough..... You should be working, not messing about with your tree

Anyway I still wouldn't invite anyone to share my tree..... A first cousin asked a while back..... She didn't get to see it either, but if she wanted to know anything in particular I would have told her

* Gritty is correct.

* "I don't see contacting people on a website as being in that category" -

I do, when it's a case of a cousin who you did not know existed, the site let you know mometarily that they exist and had wanted to cvontact you, and then allows a technical accident to leave you cut off from them unable to make the intended contact, and they don't even get told it happened.

I also call that a breach of European Convention on Human Rights article 8 on family life.

* "Why would anyone else be on my computer? "

Shared or public computer, e.g. where you were taking advice. Someone who lost an invitation from me had it go the account of a friend who was helping her at the time. I don't have a web connection a thome, because can't cope with getting all the complex technical choices right, both of computer and router etc gadgets and choosing a service, so I'm reliant on public computers out of home.

Maurice

I too read your post on both boards and found it very hard work - but I did understand parts of it.

I understood that you were probably using a computer that was not your own - after that I got a bit lost.

However, I do believe that if one can work out what you are trying to say then your post was worthwhile. It is just a shame that it is difficult to read.

Maurice .................

it was not a matter of not being willing to read any post of length .............. heaven forbid that I do that!


I could not understand what you were getting at, and too tired to continue.


Of course, if you are sharing a computer, or using a public one, then yes there could be problems.


But I believe that there is not a problem IF you sign in using your own email address, and then sign out at the end of your session.


I also think I understand why your message to your cousin went to her friend ...................... the friend helping her had signed in on your cousin's Ancestry account, but had input her own email address.

Hence that is a problem more between 2 people than with Ancestry.

Maybe it's me? I admit the tablets I'mon are making my brain less than useless , but
surely there is a way of making contact? in the same way contact was made in the first place? Even if that is by asking for an Ancestry member to look for the tree where the 'initial link' ( the mutual ancestor?) between cousins was found and ask them to message the owner....

Maybe I have just lost the plot.

If you have a problem with Ancestry...........why don't you take up the matter with them?

Quote the Human Rights Convention at them........and see what response you get

I have, obviously. But you don't only take it up with them, you warn everyone about it.

* "Even if that is by asking for an Ancestry member to look for the tree where the 'initial link' ( the mutual ancestor?) between cousins was found and ask them to message the owner...." - obviously that is something you can only try, not something certain to be available.

* "it is difficult to read." - in what way. Show us how it can be easier to read without l;eaving out key facts resulting in inaccuracy. Until someone actually shows us this by writing their own version, I shall continue to hold that all insults to the writing are psychological devices for the critic to avoid feeling committed to do anything about the issue.

This is a type of human nature that often happens to social justice causes, it's one of the devices that folks use, to put up walls against them. Sometimes it's subconscious. The answer to it is to challenge the folks doing it to point out exactly which words are unclear and/or to write their own version so we can see what their idea of understandable is. Nobody who uses the "don't understand" trick will ever do this. They always run a mile from it, and by that they prove that it's they who are running away from listening and the attacks on the message are spurious.

It seems to me that the original contact message must have been sent either to or from the 'cousin's' friend's account. How can a random stranger receive or accept the invite otherwise?
If that wasn't the case, there was a serious security breach in Ancestry's system.

Can anyone suggest a free site that Maurice can use? He could then download a gedcom from Ancestry, upload it to the other site then give the cousin access.

Alternatively get yourself a new email address such as @gmail or @hotmail and create a new free account on GR.
Upload the aforesaid gedcom then give the cousin the sign in details.

Check with the Library/staff if you able to save downloads to a memory stick. If it is possible, you could save your downloaded gedcom to that then post it to the cousin. You could add separately any photos or documents you choose.

The cousin can then upload it to her on PC to read with an offline programme, or to any other site they use. Ancestry allows a member to have multiple trees on the one subscription.
Come to think of it, Maurice might be able to duplicate his ancestry tree using the gedcom method, or may be just the relevant section of it and reinvite the cousin via their email address or own user name.

DET "Can anyone suggest a free site that Maurice can use? He could then download a gedcom from Ancestry, upload it to the other site then give the cousin access. "

Tribal Pages, give the password and email address to cousin.

Maurice,

I have been using Ancestry for about the same number of years that I have been on this site. In that time I do not recall ever having a problem with contacting other Ancestry members. Nor with either granting access to my Private trees or accepting access to - and viewing – trees of other members.

But that does not mean to imply that there cannot ever be a hiccup in the Ancestry software, as has happened to you.

I used to be in the Engineering Industry, and one of the prime rules was to “break a problem down into the smallest pieces”. So can we please try that?

INITIAL CONTACT
If I want to contact another Ancestry member I click their ‘owner’ name and get the choice of

'View Profile', 'Contact' or 'Block user'.
Clicking Contact brings up the message box screen wherein I can/should/always do! enter a Subject and then type my message.

When I click ‘send’ two events occur:-
1. The other member receives an email from Ancestry.
2. When they next log on to Ancestry that other member sees a small ‘sealed’ envelope at the top of his/her screen indicating, that there is an unopened message. There is also a small number above the envelope – which would be 1 if there were no other unopened messages in his/her inbox.

Did you send the message to initiate contact? Or is that what someone else did on your behalf?