Genealogy Chat

Why is it that when I add someone to my tree on genes I cannot leave the page until I have added place of birth and then country, but when my hot matches arrive, most of them don't. Also, when my details have place of birth is Leicester, England do I get suggested matches with someone who was born in Tasmania. Regards Half Pint

Hot matches only match the name, they don't take any notice of the place of birth whatsoever. In some ways it's very annoying getting matched in Australia for family born and bred in England but I think it's probably because there is no standard way of entering place names. For example, If I have someone listed as born Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs and someone else had listed them as Stoke, Staffs then they wouldn't match up, even though it is obviously the same place. Dead annoying though, that's why I've switched my hot matches off. Sam x

I would like to know that aswell,i cant leave the page til i put birthplace etc,yet i have seen loads without this info on. Ann

Those items added without the information will probably be downloads from a GEDCOM file. I am often amazed how many people have recorded supposed ancestors with no information. It is perfectly true that sometimes you will know a person's name without being certain of their date or place of birth. On a private file this doesn't matter much, since it is a reminder to follow up the missing information. People who transfer files to this site without any information are not helping anyone however. I wish they would at least add the Chapman County Code from an appropriate descendant's birthplace record if the actual Parish or place for the ancestor is unknown, and a reasonable date with the tick in the box for 'circa'. Stan

If you have your main tree on your PC (always a good idea not to depend on data which isn't under your control), GR will accept whatever is uploaded. I use Family Tree Maker (FTM), which only has one space for place of birth, marriage or death. I only ever upload info to GR this way, so I never have to use the GR editing tools. The other thing that GR can't do, which gets a mention every so often, is to allow complicated relationships where members of a family intermarry. So if a male and female cousin from slightly different bits of your tree are also married, GR insists that you put them in twice. J

Stan, I have almost 2000 individuals on my FTM and loads of them have no place of birth recorded, simply because I have no Idea where they were born. I am not going through the whole file removing the ones with no place of birth. As for the codes you mention, I have never heard of them and wouldn't know what they are or where to find them - and again, I dont know which county some were born in as I haven't yet found a baptism. This doesn't mean I am not going to include them in my tree as quite often, I have evidence that they existed (such as a father's name on a mariage certificate). Sam