Genealogy Chat

I've got so fed up with pages of some of my more common surnames belonging to side branches of my family, I've added a 'x' to them. I just do a search now and then for those names. It's got rid of those Jones'! Heather

Definitely nothing to do with your surname. My maiden name was Wilton and I generally get A-H. I had assumed the system started from A each time they do the matches so if you have something like Brown you might never get passed them. I remember reading an account of a journalist watching a parade of the chinese army under Mao. He worked out with the population of china and the current birth rate they would never need to stop. If you have someone who is a real pain you can stop the hot matches by underlining the name or putting it in brackets.

Yes, I know I can switch off 'Hot Matches', but being the eternal optimist ........... You never know, one day that elusive contact will be made!

In the world of genealogy one sees many names in our trees and with same first name occuring more than once. I have seen a lot of names associated with the Billing family come through Hot Matches and hardly any belong. Why? The place of birth that says - 'hey, he or she was born in Auckland, NZ - not London' - the name may be correct but its the locality that is wrong.

It definitely is nothing to do with your own surname starting with an R, because mine does and all I ever get are surnames starting with A, B, C, or D, and since I added a few more Browns a couple of months ago I keep getting all Browns again. If there are no hot matches against surnames that are early in the alphabet, could it be that there genuinely were no matches against those names? Perhaps they have very rare first names? Kate.

I only ever get 'B's in my hot matches - I have a Charles Baker in my tree and I'm seriously considering changing his name. Grampa's point is a good one about the place name but I think Heather's idea is the best - If the initial page showed dob & pob we could just go through ticking the boxes to discard the ones in Aus etc then take our time looking at the others. I've just done what I did last time & binned all my 'one name matches' without even looking at them - it's SUCH a pain in the .... when internet's on a go-slow & you've got to change pages about 3 times per name! - I do feel a bit guilty but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it!! Sarah :-) I'm going to mail GR now with the idea - if we all do it, as HPT says, they MAY take notice. lol!

I get mine spread all over the alphabet. I really cannot see why GR cant put the info alongside the hotmatchers name, instead of all that stupid clicking to see who the match is supposed to be. There are many names on my tree in which I have no interest, they are there because I found them, that's all, like the second husband of the woman who was a third wife to my 10 x GGF - no blood relation at all and I have no interest in his descendants. Putting names alongside the hotmatcher would at least mean you could wizz down the page deleting all these without even opening them, plus all the ones born in Japan or Australia! OC

At least you are at P and R, Ann. I'm still getting 'hot matches' for D, so I've stopped entering names onto my tree here, in the hope that I will eventually get some for G and H and L!!

I've just gone through 7 pages of John Gray and William Gray. I agree an idea of where someone was born would be great - there are a lot of folk born in Scotland and Australia which are definitely not mine. But its tricky when some folk have a county, others a placename etc. Perhaps we could use regions, so if we know someone was born in either Essex or Cambridge or Suffolk we could put EA for East Anglia? Surely a drop-down menu giving 10 or so regions wouldn't be too hard to devise? Alternatively, just being able to specify a continent would be a huge help! Found a match amongst all the dross though, so fingers crossed!

Thanks everyone. At least i am doing things correctly. It just didnt 'sound right' to want to discard something and yet having to click on the 'save' I know what you mean about places Jim, even London and Middx causes me grief at times, i tend to think of places as London when they were known as Middx, but i think its a bit much when you have a James Smith born 1876 in Poplar and you get 40 or so born all sorts of years, one of them Canberra Australia, he comes up at least 8 times i get a new set of hot matches. there must be loads of people got him in their tree - but he doesnt belong in mine. Gonna watch Motor Racing, then Footy, what a terrible life Mo

Hi Mo I agree in principle the idea is fantastic, everytime GR send me a list of hot matches though it is the same 4 tree owners (and thier list of matches never change) of my mothers side where my tree is larger on my fathers and covers many more surnames. Mel

I know we moan about Hot Matches not matching except for name and date, but having thought about it I realised that there is a lot of sense in not matching the place. My reason? Not everyone enters a place the same way. For example, the same person could be entered by different people in different formats. I have in the past complained to GR about this as Ryde Isle of Wight is considered different from Ryde, Isle of Wight just because someone remembered to put a comma. Also Ryde, I o W is another separate listing. Perhaps there is a case for GR insisting on a Country of birth and just using that as a matchfinder. They would certainly be unable to dictate a specific form for the whole address.

I go through ticking all the boxes on a page and then click save at the end - havent had them come back. BUT even so, its a silly system and Ive written to GR on several occasions saying that it would be much better if they showed the possible match name and pob dob rather than the potential contact, then we wouldnt even have to open them to check. I can only advise that everyone writes to GR complaining about the system and then PERHAPS they will listen.

Hi Mo The ones in the 'view ignored matches' are the ones you've discarded. You can't actually get rid of any, they are still lurking, lol. Heather

Having a name like Smith in my tree you can imagine how many 'hot matches' i get. I spent the last week going through 14 pages of the things, i wrote to every one that was a possibility, then ticked the box that said 'dont show me these again' I figured either they would answer me or not, but at least i had dealt with them. I also ticked the same box for those that couldnt possibly be related i.e. mine was born in London this one was born in Australia, again i then ticked the 'dont show me these again' box. The only way i could find then to get rid of the ticked boxes was to click on 'save' Doesnt make sense i know, but there is nothing else there. Today i have got 4 pages of the things back again, including telling me all those i have written to. Can somebody please tell me how to get rid of the things for good once i have dealt with them. Havent dared to look at it, but also does anyone know what you get if you click on 'view ignored matches? In principle this is a brilliant idea but i do wish places of birth could be taken into account by GR, at least the same Country would help, and why cant instructions be made more clear, or is it me with my mind on the Grand Prix and Football!! Mo