Genealogy Chat

2 people have added a line of my family in (obviously copied from my tree) I only have Me my parents and my brother and sister on who are alive for my benefit makes my tree look better! (with their permission of course) but why do these 'hot matches' need to add US!! Surely they should ask our permission or does opening your tree give that permission?

You probably have it set so that you automatically give tree permission when you reply. You can un-set it.

untick the box Tracy

I have nardly any living relatives on my tree on GR and always refer to them there as 'Living Evans' or 'Living Williams' or whatever. nell

I opened my tree to these people in good faith... There was a connection but I wouldn't dream of just adding them to my tree as they are obviously ALIVE It was such a distant connection anyway. Very Very Annoyed.

I've lost count of the times that I have written this on here but I'll say it again. Put your family history info into a family tree programme like the Free LDS PAF software or Family Tree Maker. When I get a contact that asks to see my tree, I say no, I don't open my tree because that shows ALL my relatives whereas they only want to see the bit that relates to them. I get their email address and I produce a report from my family tree programme for the line they are interested in. With family tree maker you can adjust the amount of generations you show, so I normally clip the living generation off. This is the way to go if you don't want living relatives copied over. Why not ask your contact to remove your living relatives. If they don't comply you can complain to GR. Cheers, Horatia

Same here, I am so peed off with one guy. He has a vague very distant connection and yet he has added about 100 people from my tree. So distant from him they would be unrelated in any term. You could scream, couldnt you.

If you include living people in your tree (with or without their permission) and give someone else access to it then you are handing information to them on a plate. When they add 'your' living relatives to their tree then you can complain, and GR, for their many faults, will remove them. But you cannot stop that person from adding your names to their tree on other online sites. Moral of the story: don't include ANY living people in your tree on GR

David Hear hear! You only have permission to include living people on your tree, you cannot pass this permission on to a third party, the third party must get specific permission from living people. Further moral of the story - don't show your tree to anyone! When you are satisfied that there is a connection, then do as Phoenix suggests, or if you are a computer dummy like me, then just send them the info by email. OC

I dont have any living peeps on mine - it just says 'LIVING' and a surname. Never put kids or yourself on there.

It IS maddening when you see your own close relations wrongly on someone else's tree, but I always console myself by thinking what a p*** they will look when someone in their family checks the info at some future date. However, I am astonished that GR hasnt acted to remove this person from someone else's tree. And why dont GR practice what they preach, and make it IMPOSSIBLE to enter living people in an identifiable form. They could simply make it a default that you have to enter at aleast an approximate date of death, or you cannot enter a specific name, merely LIVING MALE etc. OC

OC Being a long in the tooth cynic who has suggested more than once what you propose, I can only think that there would be such a loss of numbers if GR put a cut off date on entries that they wouldn't entertain such an idea! GR is akin to an ostrich - bury your head in the sand and wait until someone complains, and only then take action (which they do). But why not take preventive measures? Do you really believe that all the living people whose details are on this site have given their permission? I know for a fact that they haven't, as some my relatives whose details appear aren't even aware they are on this site.

No David, I dont believe for one minute that all the living people on this site have given their permission - and certainly not all those children and babies - WHY do people do this? What is the likelihood that someone would recognise your three-year-old by name, if they didnt know of you first? And yes of course, I know that GR is not a serious genealogical site, it is a money-making venture and as you say, why spend any money on it if you can get away with not doing so? OC

What makes me larf is when people send you the stock 'please open your tree' message and you write back, could you tell me who you think may be connected in our trees. I reckon 90% of the time you never receive a reply. How can anyone ask to see your tree when they probably have a Jones from Wales and that is the connection as far as they are concerned. Ridiculous. But I think its also the ones which you are connected with - you give them info, allow them access assuming they want to see just that bit of the tree and next thing 100s of your names turn up on hotmatches. I wouldnt be interested in this 'name collecting' stuff people seem to do - I have enough trying to sort my own real lines, not adding thousands of people who arent of interest.