Genealogy Chat

I agree, Lynn. I've had a tree opened to me and when I explored it I found the owner had included their children and in the notes section for each had detailed the schools and colleges each had attended.

That could potentially be very dangerous, especially in light of Madeleine McCann's disappearance. All it takes is one person with bad motives to access such information and who knows what could happen?

I have seen a few trees on here that give birthdays, birthplaces and even job descriptions of living people.

Libby, I find the trees on Ancestry can be a pain. A lot of people have my sister b in Ireland and m to a man 204 yrs her senior, with a child b 180 yrs before she was. I have contacted 2 of the people and one has removed the misinformation. The other says it is on his 'to do' list, but it is 2 or 3 weeks since he said that. He works as a systems analyst for a mortgate bank. Would you take out a mortgate with them?
I am thinking of including him on my tree, marrying him to somebody who was b a couple of centuries ago and giving him some children b in some ridiculous year. I will tell him I am going to do it if he does not correct his misinformation soon.
Unfortunately I cannot contact the other people with the error as I do not have a subscription to Ancestry.

I agree with you all, and I suspect that we all think alike in that we wouldn't just lift someone's tree and put the details into our own. From my point of view, my tree has to mean something to me rather than just being a list of names. I have received some valuable leads from people's trees but I always do my own research to confirm any details I recieve.

I also keep my main tree on the Family History programme in my computer and add details to the genes tree as I confirm them. This means that I don't have to include all the information on the Genes tree if I don't want to.

I always include as much detail as I can when I contact people on the site and I have found that the majority of people who contact me do the same. If they don't give me any details I don't share with them.

As to ID theft, I am not sure that there are sufficient details on trees (addresses etc) to make this easy, and I would have thought there are easier ways to get hold of the details required. I really hope I am right about that ....... I shall be worrying now!

Somebody who is distantly related to my husband copied everybody from my tree into his and I now find he has put it all on Ancestry. The source is given as Genesreunited. No mention of the research I did or the money I spent. I feel a bit peeved about that. I dont mind sharing info with my relatives or my OH's but I feel it is going too far to take everything, even unrelated people and add them to your tree.

I have complained quite a few times to Genes about people contacting me without any matches to my tree. Now I'm very wary and quiz why they want to see it. Why DO they want to see it?

Most mutter something about thinking they had a relative of that name around that time. What use is that? I would need more info that just Uncle Joe, living in Toytown around 1850, before I give out any info.

So be wary, anyone can search the Whole Site for any name with any date, without having that person on their tree! If I don't have a little green tree on my tree, or one without their name, I don't share. Even then, I check that the name, birthdate and place on birth is the same as on my tree.

I also don't want my list of shared trees to grow. It's diffcult enough trying to remember who is related to whom, without another list to remember!

A lot of people seem to think if you share your tree, you are allowing them to copy everything. But it is only polite to ask and thanks after doing so.

Perhaps, Genes should put a specific copyright clause in their membership agreement !!!!!! So that copying can only be done with express permission. But I think Genes would say that if you share your tree, that is permission granted.

I have been researching my family tree for years. A few months ago, let someone view it who not only copied it out completely but also cut and pasted my notes into her tree without any acknowledgement. I don't mind sharing information, but I have backed up all my research with certificates at some cost. It's a bit irritating to have my painstaking detective work simply reproduced without a word of thanks. I recently found a mistake in my tree which she has also reproduced. I don't feel like telling her about it, but that will only result in many others copying it incorrectly. That's a problem with GR. This has happened to me several times now. I have stopped showing people my whole tree now, but it is a shame.
Lyn ( feeling grumpy today)