Genealogy Chat

Considering the Find Ancestors and Find Living Ancestors boards.

We have had - over the last umpteen years - advice from lots of people saying "Don't put living people on your trees".

But now, when people come on to the Find Living Ancestors board asking for help with this person or that person, they are advised to search trees ...

Hmmm. Confused? Yep, me too.

Jill

If you hide the details of living people on your tree, they remain hidden if you give someone else access to your tree.

However they can still be found if someone searches all trees for a name with a year of birth.

Kath. x

I know that's the theory Kathleen - it's the advice on the boards that I find confusing - and if I find it confusing heaven knows what the newbies must make of it all ... !

I mean, you don't really need to put anyone living on your tree on here at all - on mine, apart from me, the rest are long gone ... but there have been threads in the past about people adding children - which is worrying.

Yet, if people are trying to find living people and we generally either don't add them or hide their details then anyone looking for a living person won't have much joy will they?

I'm going round in circles trying to think of my preferred logical view on this one!

Jill

You are quite right, it is confusing.

However, based on my own experience of this site, and with access to several hundred of members trees on here, I would say that almost all of them have living relatives on them. Only 10-15% at most are set to hidden.

And, don't forget also that the majority of members never look at these boards so they wouldn't be aware of these discussions.

My advice is do whatever you feel comfortable with and don't be swayed by others.

Although they are looking for living relatives,they often know parents and grandparents. So the advice is often to look for common ancestors who might have information about the relevant people.

I was recently contacted by a newbie. She gave me access without me asking and as she is only about 40, her children and parents were all there for me to see. I sent her a long email explaining how to hide living rellies and why we do it.

She said she was so excited at finding a possible rellie for her dad who knew no one that she had not even given it a thought. She hid them all the following day.
She was that quick to hide them that I never even got to make notes and when I looked again it was completely hidden as she had not put death dates in so it asumed they were all living.
That backfired a bit on me didin't it. lol :-)

To get a idea of how many members include living just do a surname search.
Births
Parker 1995
Renyard 2006
Smith 2010
Cave 2004
etc.
I cannot find any advice from Genes other than "hide living relatives",which only hides in the tree not in a surname search.

Thank you all.

I think my main worry is on the Find Living Relatives board, which I'm sure most of the time is full of quite genuine requests to contact someone you've lost contact with.

But, even just the one request that is not so innocent or genuine could cause serious problems ... perish the thought! (I believe there was an incident a few weeks ago which may be why this has been on my mind recently?)

Jill

As I said earlier, based on my personal experience of accessing trees on here, most members have living relatives shown.

So what?

Why should I be concerned about what others choose to put on a public website? Not my business.

Do what YOU feel comfortable with.

Am I missing something? Surely pre 2005 living rellies' details are available to all and sundry on BMD's - and certs are available for all and sundry to purchase also. Agreed don't put schools, employers, photos and other personal stuff out there but so much is available in the public domain that the 'hiding living relatives' (although irritating when details appear in other trees) is really is not really an issue.