Genealogy Chat

Flick

I would not be at all surprised to find that professional researchers do not tell their clients that information has been found on free sites.


There have been times since I joined GR that there have been grave suspicions that someone asking for look-ups to be done by "helpers" has actually been doing those look-ups for other people, and is charging them ............... ie, professional researcher, or quasi-professional research, or someone trying to make a bit of money on the side.

I can think of at least 5 such cases.


and I'm sure they never told the "client" that the information had been found courtesy of other people ....... using services paid for by the unsuspecting "helpers"!


I do have a small listing of such requesters, which I started after getting suspicious of the sheer number of requests for many many names :-D


The one who has since made me laugh at the memory was the one who would post 15 or more (usually more!) threads 2 or 3 nights a week, asking for help with finding a name. It was a different name on each thread ................... so asking for as many as 50 to 60 different surnames a week. :-0

That went on for weeks and weeks last year. I stopped doing it after about the 3rd week, when I began to feel "used" ............... but that person continued to get help from others, until more and more helpers dropped away from those threads.



sylvia


edited ca 4:10 am Jan 10

Thank you for your replies;

Flick - I have done something about it. I have transcribed the parish registers and all the census returns for my village. If everybody did that, the world would be a better place wouldn't it?

What gave you the impression I was not a volunteer?

bmd - Respect. As for certificates, they all cost the same if you buy them direct from the GRO (£9.25)

Flick - GRO certificates will probably be the subject of next weeks rant - stay tuned.

MR_MAGOO - I wouldn't set up a website to make money from genealogy. The point that I am trying to make is that there are already many volunteers doing this work for nothing. All I ask is that they give a copy to a well established organisation such as FreeReg for the greater good. I bet you use FreeBMD. Any complaints?

Flick (again) - Most professionals charge for their time and expenses, not what information they supply. How do you know that bmd is not a volunteer?
You seem to know an awful lot about us.

GlitterBaby - Yes, FreeBMD, FreeREG & FreeCEN are all part of the same organisation. Lets support them wholeheartedly.

"I have done something about it. I have transcribed the parish registers"

- good :-) My OH is an online parish clerk for some Cornish parishes :-) - reminds me, I must give a nudge to OPC thread. - He bought fiches, transcribed them on a fiche reader in a library, came home and put them on the computer, and does look ups; the transcriptions are in the Cornish parishes database (free)
:-)

Your 'rants' are seldom of any interest to me................not sure why I even looked at this one.

True...............I don't 'know' that any given person isn't a volunteer, however, those who are usually mention it - and try to encourage others to join them

A FRIEND AND I DID SOMETHING
WE STARTED OUR OWN WEBSITE
RUNNING NOW FOUR AND A HALF YEARS
TOTALY FREE
WE PICK UP THE COSTS
AND WE HAVE HUNDREDS OF PARISH RECORDS
ON SITE,+ OUR OWN DATABASE OF NAMES

Thank you all.

SylviaInCanada - There's no room for conspiricy theorists here !

Flick - It's been nice knowing you, goodbye.

JoyKM - Has he sent copies to FreeREG? It makes sense to have all this stuff centrally located. Wouldn't it be a pain if you had to log onto a different website everytime you used FreeBMD ? Just a thought.

DIZZI - As above. Where is this website and what have you got ?

TTFN

"JoyKM - Has he sent copies to FreeREG?"

- that would be up to the people that run the Cornish OPC database and free REG.

STEVE

SENT YOU PM

Yes i have used FreeBMD without complaints but i have also spent many hours looking at PR's to make sure that it's correct.

Also doing look-ups for others many from Aus/NZ who have great difficulty in their research.

FREEBMD IS 1837
WE NEED 1700/s & 1800/s

Being able to travel to record offices when I was young, free and single, I appreciate being able to do so much in my dotage from a computer (transcription and research). A £100 per annum subscription seems good value (£2 per week) against the travelling costs and time I used to incur. Not only does the sub help me, but it seems to help the archivists as well - in return for much less wear on their original records they get lump sums from the likes of Ancestry/FMP for access to scan the originals. If you know there are transcriptions out there that just need scanning, could you suggest it to the holders that the rights could be sold on for cash?

THERE IS ANOTHER VEIW TO THIS
WHY ARE SOME FANATICAL ABOUT
KEEPING THEIR TREE SO SECERET.
IF WE ALL SHARED FACTS LESS MISTAKES
MAY HAPPEN
WE SHOULD HELP EVEN IF IT TURNS OUT
THEIR NOT CONNECTED

Thanks for you replies,

MR_MAGOO - Doing look-ups is very noble and should be applauded but wouldn't it be nice if people in far off places could do there own look up's.
I think that is a goal worth going for.

DIZZI - Yes, we need all of it.

Ivy - Good points. Unfortunately little empires become big big empires and so their operating costs rise. I don't think the biggies would ever hand over their transcriptions for free. It's going to be up to the army of volunteers up and down the country, us little people, to collectively do something simple like send a copy of our transcriptions to a free organisation before sending it anywhere else.

DIZZI - Yes, I could never see the point of putting a tree onto a public website such as Ancestry and then tell people thay can't look at it.
Everytime I look at a public tree on Ancestry, I see the same mistakes copied from one tree to another. I never copy info from other peoples trees unless I can also find the corroborating paperwork.
I was once sent a copy of someone's tree that went back to the 1530's. Very interesting but toyally useless as it had no source citations on it and could have been a piece of fiction.

TTFN

I actually agree, I think FreeReg , Freecen and Freebmd were great ideas.

I think people volunteer to be helpful & would appreciate many people benefiting from their hard work.

hmmmm .............

Slartibartfast posted:-

"SylviaInCanada - There's no room for conspiricy theorists here !"


I guess that I'm not welcome then?


However, I would point out that you are accusing me of something that I never said :-D



What I posted is not a "conspiracy theory" as I'm quite sure none of the people suspected of "using" free help on here "conspired together"

Nor did I conspire with them

nor do I think they conspired with anyone else



If you want to accuse me of anything ..... accuse me of suspecting ABUSE


.............. in other words, abuse of the goodwill of people willing to help others, for free.


I don't give one little d**n if someone uses GR for professional gain.


I do care if they are using me, and taking advantage of me.


I don't for one minute believe that those I suspect ever told their "clients" that help had been provided by people other than themselves.






sylvia

Oh dear...! I can see this little forum developing into one of those where you are only welcome to post if you agree with what is said.

So far in, dare to offer an alternative opinion and you become a conspiracy theorist or nice to have been known member, how rude is that.....! What's next, I wonder.

InspectorGreenPen - On the contrary, Everybody is welcome to make contibutions to this discussion. It's a public forum, not my personal space. My only objection is when people go off at tangents and start talking about other things. The discussion here is about how nice it would be if all the volunteers that have transcribed parish registers over the years had given a copy to FreeReg or suchlike. Look at how useful to everyone that would be. Perhaps you disagree, perhaps you think it would be a bad idea or have a better idea. We would all love to hear it. Better than leaving comments that don't really help the proceedings.

Sylvia - I will get out my old copy of Butterworth's before I say anything in future and get my definition's correct. You obviously didn't detect it last time but there was humour in my voice when I said it. I promise not to try and be amusing again. It's so hard to cater for all tastes.

Love you all.

Hi

I'm sorry, no, I didn't detect the humour


Maybe I should have used :-) or even :-D



But my comments were not really at a tangent ................. as this site runs on volunteers, who sometimes feel abused


just as I'm sure some of the volunteers who work on parish registers etc may feel abused .......... or the FHS's that worked on the transcribing feel that they are being used, often for profit by professional researchers.



sylvia

Slarti,

Anyone would think you'd killed someone. So much vitriol out there ... Fellow researchers, it was only a suggestion.

Sylvia - Your views on professional researches are well documented on this forum. Perhaps it will be the subject of another rant in the near future.

Lindsey - Thank you. I've always been amazed at the negative comments people post on this (and other) forums. It dosn't take long before personal and snide remarks appear.