Genealogy Chat

It seems as though Anthony Adolph will be available once again.........



http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards/board/announcements/thread/1349672


Personally, I don't think Mr Adolph actually DOES answer any family history questions - he simply points people in certain directions for reference.


Much more help is freely given by the members on these boards who use their time and expertise to help individuals - often to great success.


It would be good if Mr Adolph could pass on the information that there are members who are willing to do more detailed and in-depth research on behalf of others - and point folk in our direction. :-)


Cx :-)


Edited to correct spelling of name.....ooops... :-D

Going to agree with this.

Perhaps he thinks that a route to find info is all that is needed to answer most questions..

The members that help on the boards have a vast range of knowledge and most times can solve a family mystery.

Probably time for GR to donate his fee to a charity

No-one who has contacted him has ever said he was of any real help - in fact, the reverse is true

Realistically an hour is not enough in any case, 6 people maybe ask a difficult question that can only be answered in very brief generalities in their 10 minute 'slot'.

I think it would be far better to leave helping with the queries to GR members and let AA use an hour of his time to write a monthly blog, with a more in-depth look at different topics of his choice ( or GRs).

Okay an hour is not enough time to go chasing up infomation.

But his attention was brought to one thread on the boards that he might have accepted as a challenge to help with off site. This sadly did not happen. His rating among helpers would have go up.

Will not post the link to that thread as most helpers on the board will know the one I mean.

i seem to remember that 2 or 3 years ago, GR and Mr Adolph DID promise they would make a point of referencing the help that was available on the Baords from members.


I haven't seen much evidence of that happening, though.


I like RR's suggestion of Mr Adolph writing a weekly (or even monthly) blog with in-depth examinations of various topics.

I think GR only have him on here so that they can say that they employ a professional family historian.

FMP have faced a lot of criticism recently. One of the grievances being that they don't have anybody that knows anything about genealogy.

One thing that bugs me about GR though is the way that they publicise the fact that members of this site are so helpful. It's like GR are trying to boost their income on the backs of people who help out for nothing more than the good feeling that comes from knowing that you've helped somebody.

Graham


their boosting of the members' help given on this site came about because there was a huge outcry some years ago, about 2008 / 2009, about the fact that they did NOT acknowledge that all the help given on site was NOT provided by GR, but was due to the goodheartedness of members helping members


Their advertising was full of the help that could be found on GR, without any mention of who and how



The outcry was so bad, that GR agreed that they should acknowledge that it was indeed the members who provided the help, for free ............ and even apologised for not having done it before :-)


I think that was about the first apology members had received :-D



It was a couple of years after that that members started asking why Adolph did not acknowledge all the help given on the Boards by members, and why he did not include directions to how to use the Boards in his "advice" to people asking questions.



I don't know whether you have ever read any of AA's advice???

He basically just gives advice on where to look to find the information :-)

He certainly does not find the information and solve the problem.

AA is window-dressing for GR

I often find the advice he gives is vague or simply wrong and have emailed Genes in the past to say so. I do think, though, that it's better to point people into finding the information themselves rather than asking questions on here and having it all done for them

I do agree .................

............ it would be much better to teach people how to find the information fro themselves ..................



but so many members just post anything and everything they can find.


I sometimes feel quite sorry for people, especially newbies, who must feel overloaded with all the excess information that is sometimes posted, with little explanation as to how it might fit with their query, or where it was found.

Well I didn't find him any help at all when asking where I should try to find info on my German grandfather and his family who came to the UK in the 1880 ,s

My grt grandma died in 1907 and that time they were living in SE London with a married son . By 1911 Grt grandfather was no longer there and I haven't found his death in the UK

I was asking about what would happen to Germans living in the UK in WW1 and was hoping to find if any of the family were interned but the answer I got was very vague and no help at all

Perhaps it would be better for GR to state that AA will give general advice during his sessions but, if people would like more personal assistance, then they should post a query on the Find Ancestors board.

I agree about people doing the research themselves but, it is occasionally obvious that there are some for whom that can be difficult and a helping hand is needed.

I also agree that reams and reams of information must be very overwhelming for the new researcher - some thought should be given to how much a person can take in at any one time - especially when it is all new to them.

Thank you for the response. :-)

The problem is Cynthia, that it is so much easier for helpers to reply to specific questions about particular people than to give general instructions.

There is a request here today for help on how to find information. So far all the replies have been to ask for names and dates. Hardly anything about how to do it.

I think the problem is that people want to solve problems for people who post - almost as though it's a race-rather than just give them advice

I think you are correct .......

..... but a large part of the reason is that there are so few people posting requests these days, and a lot of people wanting to help :-)

Hi everyone,

Anthony Adolph will be on hand from 12-1pm on Tuesday, 24 February to answer your family history questions.

Further details will be announced on Tuesday.

The Genes Reunited team.

It is now almost 1pm UK time, and where are the further details?

'tis only Monday Jacqueline..... :-D

Oh dear, losing the plot!

Time to lie down in a darkened room!

:-D


I got worried when I read your first post, Jacqueline ..................... time's passing fast enough as it is :-)