Genealogy Chat

im trying 2 find any information on any of my family members but am not sure how this service works. i assumed i could look at others family trees but it seems not and now im stuck on how 2 research as all details i enter come up as no matches.....anyone that can giv me some advice will be most appreciated

On the quick search to the right of the screen, type in the surname of interest, than click search. If you find any in the same area, then click on the envelope and send an email to the submitter.

you could keep on typing in the names you want to search- but it would be very time consuming-I think most people enter in a short tree or import their main one using gedcom, and hope that other people will recognise the names one day. GC will email you when there are new names and messages added- or you could visit your contacts to see if anyone has emailed you or visit your name summary regurarly to see if new names and messages have been added in the last 14 days( or whatever date interval you want) try the help/faq too you can only look at other peoples tree if they allow it, first you have to be a member, find someone you think might be related- click on their envelope and ask for info.

Pawlina Do not expect to build your family tree from this site. This is just one of many you can use to (possibly) find relatives, but mainly to get tips and advice. Most of the work building your family tree will be - from reviewing census returns: The 1881 (free on LDS), 1891 (Paid subscription on Ancestry.co.uk) and 1901 (pay per view Government site) are available on line. Otherwise you will have to source at libraries or other resource centres. - going through Parish Records which will predominantly be in county libraries, but may be available at the Church or at other sites. - obtaining birth certificates using online data from sites such as FreeBMD and 1837 Online. If you look through the messages on the Message Boards you will familiarise yourself with the many methods of study. Also this site gives many links to other web sites including those mentioned above. Building your family tree will take a long time and involve a lot of work and some expense. You will spend a lot of time hitting brick walls and this is where the memebers of Genes Connected can help. They have access to many different sorts of information and will willingly help you past your current hurdle. So first thing is build your family tree, start with yourself and your parents. Get some information on your grandparents either from them or apply for certificates. Get back to the 1901 census and your off. Good luck and do not be afraid to ask us all for help. Gary

I was really fortunate because I've just started my tree and one day took a guess at some names I saw on GC. After e-mailing the lady who had made the entries, it turned out we were connected and within a week she had sent me a tree going back to my Gt granddad x 3 , all the way from the US, that had taken years researching plus photos and all sorts. Now we write regularly! Happy hunting! Aileen

Yes, but I think some people expect to be handed a tree on a plate. Many people have spent a lot of money and time in researching their family tree and as has been said above readily offer help and advice, but this is from the kindness of their hearts. I know this is not really the place to moan, but it infuriates me when people constantly ask for 1901 lookups. Do they not realise that it costs money to do a proper look up, rather than using a decoder? Likewise 1837. I think max is wonderful the way she does lookups for people and then asks that a donation is sent to charity, but at the end of the day she is spending her own money in doing these. I don't beleive she is taken for granted, but I do think that some people take things for granted here. I too have been very lucky to find leads to my tree, but even when I have been sent stuff, I always go back and double check which might mean paying for certificates etc. My cousin gave me a lot of info, but when I set out to prove it I discovered it was not quite right. The site is only as good as the info that has been recorded. There are thousands of people out there who will not have recorded their trees here so its wrong to expect to find links straight away. Patience and perserverance are what are needed. Its worth it in the end!