Genealogy Chat

One reason for the large number of names with no date or place is that unlike several other internet sites, there is no facility on GR to hide details about living relatives. In many cases, it's desirable to enter the info for living relatives onto your tree, but you don't necessarily want these details open for all and sundry to see. Therefore, many people 'privatise' their file before uploading it to GR, which removes dates & places for living individuals. It would be better if we had the option to display 'living' under the details for people born in the last 100 years and where no death date is entered - that way, only the people that we give access to would see the full details, and others would at least know that they are 'live' names, i.e. born in the past 100 years. Another problem is that GR doesn't seem to realise that there is a difference between BIRTH and BAPTISM, and also between DEATH and BURIAL. This is particularly true for pre-1837 records, where usually only the baptism & burial dates are available. Most software allows you to differentiate between these, but unfortunately when you then load the info to GR, it's not smart enough to grab the baptism/burial dates as approx birth/death dates. Therefore, even if the info is in your original file, it is lost once you upload to GR. I agree that the present name-matching is getting unusable, especially for common surnames. GR really need to look at smart matching - i.e. where there is a match of names across at least two generations. E.g. 'John Smith' will give you thousands of matches, but a match for 'John Smith son of Samuel Smith & Mary Jones' would be really useful. Ancestry can do it, so why not GR? Richard.

Sometime ago I too complained regarding lack of detail being added, I got shotdown in flames too. I feel that you must have an idea of a date if you enter the name, or at least the century. The solution to this I find is to contact only those with dates or areas, otherwise you get bogged down with non matched replies. There seem to be a large number of names only appearing with no dates or areas. Christina

Hi Pat Waiting to hear from you! The point I was trying to make was: Some people moan that no-one on this site ever contacts them regarding their tree. Maybe they should have a look at what info they have entered on their tree. I have 8800 names under 'Your names' and like the rest of you I am not going to contact every single name, only those which interest me by date - and I am NOT interested in anyone entered before 1066! and I cannot be bothered to guess what you really meant when you entered born in the year 44. If we are not very careful, this site will become like That Other Site (the one well known for its inaccuracies) Marjorie (Better tempered today)

Well I accidently entered my own year of Birth as 58 and nothing I can do will change it and an email to GR has had a response either.

I agree with you. I would never contact anyone unless the information they had entered was close enough to make me interested. If you contacted everyone with the right name but no other sensible information you would be at it all day.

Nudge for Marjorie X Pat x

Hi Marjorie. We haven't spoken for a while now, we must catch up. I came looking for you lol. I will email you direct as I need to ask stuff and check on things, now don't worry just gonna fire some questions at you, seen as you are way ahead of me on those Holdens lol. well they aren't really too bad after all, I would like to have a chat about Holdens and Hardmans seen as they both keep rearing the ugly heads on my tree, and maybe yours. Also very interesting stuff about what you were saying about DNA, just like to delve further into it. I will email you tomorrow if that's OK. X Pat x

Pat! Pat! Where are you?! I don't have any posts from you, where have you put them? Speak to me! Everyone else: I don't think GR can be all that fussy about the info entered, I have columns of names, about 200, who all appear to have been born before the year 1066. I know its annoying when you have someone with only a vague date of birth, I've got them myself - but I don't enter them on my GR tree, I message people instead. I realise most of the 200 on my 'Silly list' are probably mistakes in entering the birth year, but as I said, who is ever going to connect with someone born in the year 103? Marjorie.

I am new to GR and find that it insists on having a date and the use of 1900 seems to be the norm. These are things where information may not be available. Another thing is although we put in dd/mm/yyyy the USA puts mm/dd/yyyy, so there is a huge problem. GR also insists on having a country of birth. The blame should actually be laid at the door of GR. I am only using the sight to find family members and refuse to go through the process of loading everyone again. Great sight for this purpose. Anyone wanting a better sight let me know. 83 million names is better than 27 million. [email protected]

Marjorie & Jim LOL. Yes that is annoying ain't it? 1440, 1540, 1640, 1740,1840, 1940 oh dear, nit picking again, slap wrists Grampa lol. Think Debbi is right, and Debbi yes a Century is more important than the rest lol. Marjorie will you ever check your posts or I will be forced to email you direct, probably should have done that by now, OK will do lol. Pat x

I agree too. Just the century they were born in would be a great help .( i know i have a few that i have had to guess at till confirmation comes). Really upset recently by a couple of rude people who gave me a mouthful for contacting them - no details posted, only a name. Quite a few "no dates" are also "no areas" and with a name like Smith it makes it a long slog. Then there are those who dont reply.....!!! ( but i figure that the kind and helpful members on this site outweigh the others so its still worth it ) Elaine x.

It is a common error Debbie. Trouble is that we could be talking about 1940 1640 or even 1040.

Marjorie/Jim Totally agree. I don't see the point unless you ARE planning to be accurate. You may as well just choose everyone with the same name from IGI and add them to your tree in that case Lou

I fully agree with you. There are those on GR, however who will think you are nitpicking just because you believe that Genealogy should be an exact science. I know I have had my head bitten off in the past for having the gall to suggest that people should be accurate. Jim

Just had a trawl of my names on this site and was quite startled to find someone born in the year 18, in fact loads born before 1000 AD, Hm, turns out not so. What is the point of entering someone as born in the year 18?Do you really expect anyone else to reply? Marjorie (Grumpy, going to bed)