Genealogy Chat

I agree wholeheartedly with sharing helpfully whenever possible - in fact, I have just done so - but I still resent the fact that private and personal information that would never be in the public domain is on a person's site.

I am with Mick on this - I cannot understand why so many people grudge the results of their research which they have made available being used - and apparently appreciated - by others. My information is not an invention patented by me, I haven't any rights to it, I make it public for other people's research and an grateful to those who make information available to me

See General Board

" Why oh why do people copy others trees"

for recent debate on the subject.

I am a little confused as to what a "Stolen Tree" is!

I too have researched my tree for over 20 years beginning at a time when there was little or no information on the Internet which was still in it's infancy. However I do not consider the tree I spent so many years researching to be my personal property.

I did not invent my tree, it already existed. All I did was uncover what was already there. I simply put together the many pieces of public knowledge available like a jigsaw puzzle. Due to the years of research, my tree has grown to a reaonable size. It has roots, trunks and branches but I am none of these. I am but a small living twig on the end of my tree. As a twig, there is no way I could have control over the mighty tree.

There are probably many other twigs on the various branches of my tree that are researching the same tree right now. Will I still own the tree or will it belong to the other twigs? Could we all own exactly the same tree except for the bits on the end? When I analyse my tree I find the concept of my personal ownership one that mystifies me. Despite all the years of personal research I have done, I make the tree as public as possible including on Ancestry. That is the purpose of my tree. I am proud of it and my research. I want the rest of the world to see it whether they are related or not.

Parts of my tree are as a result of shared knowledge. The people I have shared knowledge with know that I will make the none living part or it publically available just as I know they will do the same with my knowledge. If someone wanted to withhold information, I could simply research it myself. Research takes longer than verification but the result are just the same.

The one thing I never do is never to knowingly have any living relations on my tree. If I have doubt as to whether a person is deceased or not, they are not publically displayed. Why do I need living people on a public tree?

Am I not offended if someone who has a very distant and tenuous link to my tree copies it. That is their problem not mine. I like to regard the tree I have researched like a technical manual. If I need information on something I have no knowledge of I visit my public library. There I can find information on numerous subjects that others have researched that they pass on to others. That information has been made public. Is the tree that I have researched any different?

Even if I did not make the tree I have researched public, sooner or later some other twig on the tree will.


Michael

Harrowing this may be, but the other member hasn't actually done anything wrong. The only provisio to this is that if there are living persons involved, then you can ask for their names to be removed on the assumption that they have not given their permission. (In fact I'm not even sure if GR still apply this rule)

The best advice is never to publish whether on this or any other site, information that you you prefer to keep private - just leave it off altogether.

In my experience, most members are completely genuine and are only interested in their immediate family lines. Over the years I have allowed over two hundred members to hae access to my tree and only one distant relative has ever wanted to copy parts which were not really relevant to her family, but so what.

The only one name collector I have come across got the bums rush.

Please don't be put off and certainly be cautious - but not everyone out there has an ulterior motive.

I agree it is annoying and can be upsetting, too.

I can empathise from experience: I sent a GEDCOM to a quite new relative who unfortunately then included all my information in his family tree programme and then sent a GEDCOM to another who has put it all on his site.
This caused tremendous upset in my family not just for me - why? - because of the many names of living people, including children, and much personal information that would not have been found in the public domain. Eventually the owner of that site removed a few names but refuses to remove more. Since then, I do not send GEDCOMs.

On this site I only have some direct ancestors.

There is a lesson to be learned, by not having your whole tree on a public site like this, only keep a skeleton tree here and the rest on a family tree program on your computer.

So sorry to hear this has happened to you. It's a risk each one of us takes everytime we open our tree to someone. Thank God the general population has morals. Perhaps instead of the violation you may be feeling you can eventually turn it around to feeling proud that your research was so good someone else wanted it, but probably not yet. Please don't let this unfortunate event deter you in your research, but perhaps close your tree off from others until each is confidently vetted.
:(

I am sorry you feel this way.Unfortunately to most people viewing includes sharing.
A couple of quotes.
"A secret shared is no longer a secret"

GENEALOGY IS FOR SHARING. YOU ARE WELCOME TO USE ANYTHING FROM THIS SITE,
PLEASE TRY TO GIVE AS WELL AS TAKE.

Beware of letting other members view your personal "Family Tree" before asking a few pertinent questions. My family tree was stolen on Genes Reunited. It took me over 20 years of personal painstaking research to put together all my family members so it especially galling to see them all appear on another member's so called "Family Tree" when I know that he is not related to me in any way. The rogue individual involved is fully aware that we are not related yet he refuses to delete them from his "tree". Worse still my complete tree is now also showing on Ancestry.com. How this sort of behaviour can be tolerated by Genes Reunited is hard to imagine as it does nothing to help those tracing genuine ancestors. My GENUINE tree has now been removed from this site.