Genealogy Chat

................but who has the biggest Tree. Actually I dont want to know except how does one manage large Trees with all their documentation. I,ve just noticed someone has in excess of 777 names on their Tree.............Wow!

Someone let me look at their tree recently and they have over 20,000 names. I can find similar names in both our trees but have no idea how they are connected to the tree owner.

Somebody opened their tree for me the other day and my heart sank - 38,000 names! I'm sure they have researched the tree quite well, but I had to do a fair bit of searching to locate the name I was linked to.

As Rutland Belle says, it is often hard to locate the connection between the person you have got a message about and the tree owner - if I was e-mailing someone about, say, a relative called Alice Hurst b. 1794, I always try to put in the message that my connection with her goes straight back from my dad until you get to my 4xgreat grandad Joseph, and then Alice is Joseph's sister.

Never mind the quality, feel the width.

Well I find it difficult to manage 1000 at present until I have more experience but I have been given permission to view a tree with no less than 35.000 on it , can these all be genuine ?

One tree my family is on (but not on Genes Reunited) had 150,000 on it the last time I looked some months ago.

Checking a hot match on this board, I found it hard to work out the relationship of the owner of the tree, to the person we had in common, (my great great grandfather).

. So I queried, as I find the trees hard to navigate.

The owner said, my tree has grown so much lately that I cannot tell you what relationship the person is to me.

I had on very large tree of someone who has all of my Ancestors down to details of my living relations AND myself but when I enquired how he fitted in to my tree he said we are connected through Mary ^^^^ in 1657 , incidentally there is no such person in my tree

I have about 1,000 on mine. But, these include my tree - all branches, my OH's tree - all branches, my son's tree (ex-husband's) only just started on that one, a cousin of my OH (the other side of my OH's tree) and an aunty of my OH (who became interested after seeing what I'd produced for OH's mum and her brother - aunty's husband).

So mine's a wide tree and most of it only goes back to about 1800 at the most. Bits go back a bit further but not much.

I'm also doing a One Name Study but I don't put those on here.

Jill

Oh - and like Harswell I know them. I may not have every detail of all their siblings, but I have lots of info on direct lines - all of them!

I had a tree opened to me with >68,000 names...lol

I have 370 on my tree on another site but only researched 230 odd properly. That has taken me 3 years!

Sue

And don't you just love the ones who are really badly behaved and manage to get into the papers one way or another? I'm thinking of my bigamist and my suicide at the moment (two completely different men by the way). That really adds interest.

Jill

68,000? No!

The paperwork for my lot is taking over the house and OH is threatening to divorce me - how on earth would you cope with that lot? Doesn't bear thinking about!

I have just over 1,000 names on my tree however to make it easier I have split it down to 3 main trees.As others have said I try to get to know these people where they lived what they did etc.
Ian

Jill,

That person can't possibly have supporting paperwork...lol

I know exactly what you mean about the house, I file mine when we can't actually see any of the dining table :-))

Sue

I think the details help make it more memorable. I've been over the church records and now I think of 4xgreat grandad George Hurst as "the serial godparent" (honestly, every other baptism involving his relatives . . . there he is as godfather!).

I remember feeling very stunned when I looked at a transcription of some burial records thinking "got you!" when I found a distant relative - only to feel very odd when I scrolled across the page and saw "hung herself" in the notes. (And another little boy in another parish record whose burial record noted "casually drowned" - I think casually means accidentally here.)

I don't think of great-great-great grandad Willday as just "Edward", I think of him as "Edward Willday, dodgy accountant, convict and chicken stealer"! (But also as the man who registered his own son-in-law's death, and someone whose niece bled to death after childbirth.)

Having the extra bits adds colour and help you remember who they are and where they go in the family tree. And there are lots of stories if you know where to look, or who to ask.

I suppose not Sue - but that's the way I work so that's the way I think others work ... I have managed (so far) to keep the paperwork out of the dining room and the bathroom and the kitchen. But, there are bits everywhere else!

I know what you mean Kate. I remember getting so fascinated by my OH's cousin's 3 x gr grandmother - who had one child before her first marriage, then married twice more, then died aged 42 - and I still cannot decide whether or not she had a hard life! But part of the fun is untangling those marriages and all the strands of a life like hers. (Even though she's not one of my relatives!) OH's cousin was suitably impressed by her as well so it made it all worth while!

I always remember when I first started some five years ago now someone sent me their Tree with 1300 names on it.I thought at the time it was huge!Now I've got over 5300 myself,although I strongly suspect the very large ones are as a result of people merging Trees with someone else.As far as my own Tree is concerned I have only merged thirty people in this way,and all those are directly connected to ancestors.

Regards
William Russell Jones
Cefn Mawr
Wrexham.

Marie from oz.
I have been invited to view many trees in the last 12 months some of them have been Huge, I have found with most it is impossible to find the names you want and also the film always stops, then I get this note on screen that says there is an error, so I give up as it has taken so long to start ,I could have gone away and had a meal before it was ready to view. .I wish it would say how many relatives were on this particular tree before they down load it as i would rather not view trees that are so large.
I dont really like complaining as I am happy with Genes Reunited and every one is so helphfull especially all the members who give of their time to help others Regards to all Marie.

Thank you all for your imput which made very interesting reading. Still cant imagine how I would cope 1000 plus names. I began searching for direct blood line but if mine is to grow.......someone mentioned Width,................back to more trawling then.
Be lucky