Genealogy Chat

Perhaps it's because we get to 'know' our relatives so well that the rest of the family aren't interested-to them they are just names. We have followed them through from birth to death and almost shared with them their highs and lows in life. Jennie

Hi Glen, I could not agree with you more, there is nothing more exciting than uncovering information which leads to someone you have been tracking for yonks. I recently found a marriage 11 years after the first child had been born, and in a completely different county from the one I assumed it had taken place, when the certificate arrived I knew it was the correct one as all the info was what I had expected, plus the cherry on the cake, one of the witnesses was the bridegrooms brother. I shrieked in joy, this wouldn't not have had the same satisfaction if someone had passed the info onto me. It is nice to share, but sometimes I feel like I have been used and abused as the recipients grab the info and then I never hear from them again! fuzzy x

Hi OC The trouble with the youth of today is if it isn't on the net within a couple of clicks then they think it can't be found. I have quite a bit of info about certain rellies and only started late last year,can't hope to achieve the same results as many others such as yourself but enjoy the challenge. I do feel sorry for the folks who say i joined GR and within two days found so and so,now i have 15 generations in my tree. It always seems a hollow way to find results,yes we all need help and guidance for certain things,but where is the fun and sense of achievement,sharing information can be useful,but i would never want everything on a plate.Where is the satisfaction and feeling of success by opening an e-mail which tells you everything? I linked to another tree that gave me some pointers in the early days,but at least i proved the link and the errors via bmd,certs,census etc.Now that tree owner asks me for the latest blood and guts episode,and pushed his tree back because he is competitive,sought copies of wills,took photographs in graveyards etc. I feel like i turned him from a name collector to a family historian,could that be the difference between a good share and a bad one? Glen

hiya Glen, well done on your R/O thread!!!! isnt it a pity, that we cant have it pinned anywhere, like individual tabs we can add/edit, save stuff to, i know we have 'our threads', but even that can get cluttered, maybe i'm just waffling but thank you!!! Julie

Like Merry and one or two others, I am starting to get a bit jaded about this whole 'sharing' thing. I inevitably know more than any requester, because I have been doing my tree for nearly 40 years. I find that much of 'my' research time is eaten up by providing information to other people, who dont have anything to give in return and often don't even have their connections right. Even more time is spent checking THEIR research and telling them that you cannot POSSIBLY get back with any certainty to 1698 on your computer, without having even found your Gt GPs in 1900, or without buying a single cert. I would be utterly thrilled to share my tree with a genuine relative, but I have yet to find more than one direct relative, and two with whom I share 10 x GGPs! I no longer actively seek contacts - I wait for them to find me. When they do, I give them the Inquisition - when and where did my Fred Bloggs marry their Mary Smith (cos I havent found it). If they cannot tell me that, then we arent related as far as I am concerned. OC

emma, Once you have uploaded your tree, they send you possible matches like GR does, or so I assume. I found an option asking me how often I wanted to receive the alerts.....the default is once a week....ooooh cant handle that think I will change it to once a month!! Fuzzy

Perhaps it should be called the 'Sledgehammer',best used to tackle your brickwalls,and not for passing on too much of your hard work to those who can't or won't buy grandads marriage cert!! Question for Merry, Is my cynical attitude a result of my impending birthday or a result of Mrs Glen and her hospital trip? Glen

Maybe being blonde here again but I have uploaded my tree, now how do I see the matches?

Merry, I know what you mean, I am trawling through 19 pages of hot matches at the mo, and why am I bothering???!!! some arn't even close, one name I didn't even have!! Like you I tend to end up giving rather than receiving info, but in a way i would rather do it all myself, unless of course........does anyone have any info on WILLIAM HENRY REED!! LOL Fuzzy x

Hi Merry I'm not sure,i think it is the bigger audience that is the attraction,and it immediately throws up possible matches (similiar to instant hot matches) that may expand your research. It also has the option to add source details from census records,possibly to help you verify your findings to other researchers or pinch from others if you prefer. One World Tree entries take several months to appear this is instant. Good points and bad like everything,but i'll use it as an alternative method like many others. Glen

Ooooooh! A good reason NOT to do it then!! I've had it up to here (*hand, palm down, level with top of head*) with any sort of matches!!! Latest one..........they tell me their father's name so I can add dad and the match person to my home tree on which I already have their grandfather. In return I give them one of their lines back to 7xg-grandfather who married in 1732. I/they can't win really........in a way I don't want to be given info (other than PHOTOS!!) and in a way I get bored with dishing out info to others ..... Merry

Merry, I can answer this one!!! Ooooh please let me Glen.... If you upload your GEDCOM file from the FTM onto ancestry you can then share it with the Ancestry community and you may get a match from there... Fuzzy x

What's the advantage of building a tree on Ancestry? (Easier to ask you than to read Ancestry!) Merry

nudge

To access the tree builder click 'family tree' from the homepage. The source/citation/census options work similiar to FTM. If you accidently hit the 'order certificate' option at any time and close the GRO site,you also log out of Ancestry Glen

A new tree building feature,similiar to a One World Tree,complete with the option of adding census results and sources.There is also a search for 'historical' events for the names in your tree,one of which allows you to order certs. By clicking the link it takes you straight to the free/partial index result and allows you to connect to the GRO website and order the cert. Just watch those cert delays grow again. Glen

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