Genealogy Chat

I have a relatively large tree on here and would not want to try and find my way though it or a similar size one on GC. It is just too slow. I tend to direct people onto gencircles where it is much easier to see the family groups. Another plus for that site is it shows all the research through parish and census records. I do all the twigs as i find the information, i don't set out to do just one family line. Through GC, i have about 60 trees open to me, all with a connection to my own tree. Some of these have been merged on my tree and visa versa. I have access to trees on gencircles and tribal pages that are about 6000 persons but only linked on a couple. I could merge these but it would take too long to check all the entries. I just add them to my tree as i find them in my research and use the other trees see if i am going in the right direction. The net has helped family history but it is not a replacement for looking through record offices imho.

Imho GR is not designed for large trees, which are unwieldy, sooooo slow to navigate, and difficult to follow when they are spread across 3 or 4 pages. Even the Your Relations listing, with 100 names per page, is slow if you need to look at a name starting with R if there are say 3,000 names. Why they don't have a facility to advance straight to names starting with each letter of the alphabet (as they have with Your Names and Name Summary) I don't know! I would rather be able to put 4 sub sets, matching each grandparent, which would reduce the number of names per dataset to more user friendly proportions. But at present to do that I would need 4 separate subscriptions. But that's just my view - others may and doubtless will disagree!

Jacqueline I don't doubt that all your names have been carefully researched but how have you managed to do it without ever visiting a record office? Some of the members of my family can ONLY be found in the local records and unfortunately it means trips of several hundred miles to visit the local area and view the many interesting archives. Not that I'm complaining - its a good weekend away! Anne

I've got a huge tree lol - about 1800 but I've been tracing all lines back for about 18 years with countless trips to libraries, record offices, graveyards, St Catherines house etc. The IGI is a great help as are the people who are so good with lookups on here but I've had bonuses along the way - one line was on the Pedigree Resource File with generations back from a great grand parent - I was quite sceptical but so far everything I've checked with census info and certificates has been right. I have spent a lot of time and money going down wrong routes though :) David

Hi Chris, When I started my tree back in 1998 I knew my dad have a cousin in America who I'd met. She in turn gave me an address for a relative who lived down in Southern England. The lady in Southern England in return gave me an address for someone in Australia. The person in Australia then gave me an address for someone else again in Southern England. I now have over four hundred people in my tree going back nine generations. So don't despair. Paul Blades

All the names on my tree are personally researched, but I also have a mega tree with about 15000 names which includes the "In Laws" of ancestors etc. Those I have had to accept my various cousins words for it that they are accurate. I have been researching on and off since the 1960s Jim

Surely anyone with that number of names can't possibly possibly have researched them? I know from a number of friends that they just take the info from the sites and wouldn't know what a parish register looks like or where to find a record office. I think that's such a shame as a visit to the record office can be a wonderful day out! Eileen PS Just been on IGI and on a pedigree found 2 x gt grandad had married his daughter!

I've got about 800 and each one has been painstakingly researched and verified. I only feel I 'know' them when I've researched them myself or had dialogue with someone else who has links with my tree. (bores my family rigid when I start talking about a particular 'line'). It's taken YEARS and as Kate says, trees grow very quickly when there are families with 12 or so siblings. It helps when their names are rare - for example I've got children called things like Temple ! Oh and at least one of mine did have two wives at the same time - AND he's hiding on the 1881 census ... Good luck to all Annie

One of my relatives had 13 children and two wives (not at the same time!). It's quite easy when you have ten or more kids per generation to build quite vast trees.

I have enough trouble keeping tabs on my 125!

I have also shared information with newly-found relatives, but I would not post it all on the internet without their agreement. One does have to be careful. Joy

I have quite a large tree. The reason for this is I have made contact with 2nd, 3rd and 4th cousins via sites like this and we have pooled our research. The more twigs and branches you include, the more chance there is of connecting with a cousin and the tree grows. Other good sites for making these sort of connections are RootswebWorldConnect and Gencircles. Once these connections have been made, further research on a line can be shared, each person contributing to the common family tree.

What a lot of twigs they must have! Do not despair. I started 5 years ago and have nowhere near that number! On GC I only put direct-ancestral family, too. Joy

How did you manage to get/Research that amount of people in your Tree, Some people on this site have over 10,000 rellies! I only Started this Genenology lark last Sept and i only have 92 people in mine!