Genealogy Chat

I know that this has been mentioned before but please read below

I have had a number of requests to ‘view my tree’. I do not mind sharing my information with people who are researching the same families. But I always check their interests before considering the access. The latest request was…………’I wish to view your tree’. There was no name guideline given. Out of politeness I asked what name the person was interested in. The answer came with a surname only and one that is NOT in my tree on here or my main prog. I feel that ‘Newbies’ should be aware and to be careful and think before allowing general access to their tree. Gill

Gill, Couldn't agree with you more. GR users should also be aware that these type of unexplained requests can be rather alarming and confusing for the person they're contacting. It doesn't save time either because most people will ask for you to explan your tree viewing requests. Cheers, Horatia

I had a curious one last night, saying they were looking for Worsley in Lancashire. There are loads of Worsleys in Lancashire, all over the place, so I sent a message back saying mine were from Lowton, near Warrington, if it helped. They just replied saying they had no idea where their Worsleys were from, as they'd only just started. I'm sure it was perfectly genuine, but I tend not to contact someone unless I see a related surname with a birthplace that matches what I've got (or the surrounding area). I'm quite happy to help but we need more to go on than that.

The best request I have received is: 'Are we looking for the same Arthur? Let me know'. Elizabeth

'Subject : Request to View Your Tree Please would you give me access to view your tree. Thank You' What should one say? No, springs to mind: but the worst part is that the site is actually set up to send such fatuous messages.

A few hours ago I received:- 'I have MS born 1710 in my tree. Do we have a connection?'

I must agree with Clive about the automated messages. I prefer to write my own messages asking to view trees because then I can add my own bits. I try not to say 'you have my relation in your tree' but instead put something like 'I have just found x person in my hot matches, I have a person born at that time in the same place as your x person, they are my (great-aunty etc), married to x, child of x from wherever, do you think this matches with the person in your tree?'. The automated message I really hate, though, is 'This is not my relative'. When I first got one of those I was very upset because I didn't realise it was an auto-reply and thought someone had actually bothered to type that terse message. I'm sure it wouldn't take much to reprogramme the message to read, 'Thank you for your e-mail, unfortunately I don't think there is a match with anyone in my tree'. After all, I have gone down at least two wrong avenues looking for relatives. If someone does that, then finds they are tracing the wrong family and has to recontact a contact, the recipient may be reluctant to help them further the second time.

Hi, i also had a pm, the person just said i want to view your tree no please or thank you , and it turned out that we weren't related at all , after i asked her some questions hazelx

i received on that just said ' have you got a barlow between 1850 and 1890 ' when i replied yes several could you give me more details they never replied back nothins a strange as folk love linda x

I've started coding people with the same names in my tree ie. I had several relatives called John/James/Thomas/George/Mary/Ann/Sarah/whatever Dring so what I started doing was numbering them - the oldest traced one being no. 1 etc, and I put the number down as the middle name on my tree. There are so many Drings with the same names that it's the only easy way to find out who the contact is looking for. It probably makes them wonder who George 2 Dring is, for instance, but when they send me a message it makes it so much easier to track the relevent person down on the tree.