Genealogy Chat

I received a message from someone about a living relative. In my account details I have ticked the 'Hide Living Relations' box so how did they find the person? Lynne

It dosent always work apparently.... infact not much is working as it should right now :( Sheila

Sheila Thnanks for your reply. I think I will email GR and ask them why my relatives are NOT hidden. Lynne

they wont be hidden from you only others ask someone who can see your tree if they have hidden Jeanette

Hi Lynne It only hides them in your tree, you can still see them if you use the name search part. Julie

Jeanette I didn't mean I could see them, the person who sent me a message could. Julie Thank you, I didn't know that. But what's the point in hiding them if they can still be searched! I think I may just remove my tree from here, as many others appear to have done over the past few days due to problems. Lynne

OMG, this is getting way beyond a joke. Im deleting my stuff NOW.

Hi Lynne, I agree it seems daft that you can hide your living relatives in your tree, but not for searching purposes! However, this is not a new thing on GR. It has always been possible to search for anyone in your tree. The only way to truly hide someone, is to change their name to something like Living Living. Chris

Hiding the 'living' was meant to be just that!!!! They would be hidden when searches were done to find matches on this site. Why would I hide the living relatives known to me on my tree and then leave them open to all and sundry to find through the search facility on here???.......It wouldn't make sense. Chris

It DOESN'T make sense, but that is how it has always been. I have deleted my tree altogether because those incompetent *********** at GR will not keep my private information private (which is what their policy SAYS they will do), but even before, it didn't contain any names/dates/places for anyone living (including me), so you could search away, and not find me and mine. What a **** site.

Chris Belle Ringer I was not assuming this was a 'new' problem, it's just that I have never had a contact about a living relative before so was not aware of it. Chris in Sussex I agree! What's the point in hiding them in your tree which can only be viewed with permission then allowing them to be found via the search facility! What a waste of time! Lynne

It's worse than that - the dates of birth for the living relations are still visible on the tree even with the ''hide'' option ticked on. Coupled with the fact that the names still come up on a name search, all someone needs to do is to infer the surname (which will usually be quite evident from the rest of the tree), then couple this with the year of birth (which is displayed on the tree) and then conduct a name search. The hidden name will be obvious as the name search will show that you have prior contact with that tree owner! The name search will give you the full name and place of birth, and the ''hidden'' tree will tell you the full birth date. So not exactly hidden!! You can even double-check by searching the tree for that name and year - you'll get one hit - for ''living relative''. Click on that hit and you'll be taken straight to the relevant box on the tree!

The only way is NOT to have any living relations on GR, I have taken all mine off except myself and even then all the details aren't quite accurate. I don't put them either on my Ancestry Home Page or Tribal Pages so am not too bothered who looks at the tree. I don't think that GR is really the place for your definitive Family Tree, that should be on your own private tree maker. There is no way I could ask all my living cousins, aunts, uncle etc for their permission to put them on public trees. I just use GR for deceased ancestors and have never had a problem, in fact have met some lovely and interesting people, some who turned out to be second cousins etc and exchanged personal information by e-mail only. Jennifer

Im surprised this thread is still here!! All the others revealing the problems on GR security have been deleted!

So they have! Someone must have shown the GR programmers where the delete button is: they would never have worked out all that by themselves.

Titus LOL!!!!!! Chris

I'm sorry, and I hope I don't upset anyone, but I don't see what all the fuss is about. There are lots of problems on GR which really annoy me, because I think they should spend some of their millions employing enough people to run this site properly, but I don't see anything wrong with the name search facility on this site. The clue is in the name of the site - GenesReunited. The whole point of joining this site is to find relatives, deceased and living. If people are not interested in doing this, then they shouldn't join the site. I have made contact with lots of relatives, close and distant, since joining the site. Yes, there is plenty to moan about and the site isn't as good as it used to be, but the name search facility is very good - much better than the 'Hot Matches' idea. Kath. x

Kathleen they are revealing living relatives details - doesnt that worry you at all? They are giving access to your tree details without your permission to people you may have not wanted to see it.

I've only put on my tree people who don't mind being put on. I agree that at the moment GR are sending out access to peoples trees when they shouldn't and people don't know about it. That is wrong. But I don't mind people actually searching on the quick search facility for names in trees. As I said before, it's what the site was meant for. Don't list what you don't want found. Kath. x

Yes - I am going to delete my tree on here and on Ancestry and Tribal too, burn all my back-ups, chuck my computer in a dumpster, change my name by deed poll, and take up lawn bowls instead!