Genealogy Chat

How many other sites have family trees on line which you can look at by searching names and then contacting the people who you think you are related to. Does the site which so many members on this site are promoting at the moment have this, so we can get different people's trees on view, just wondering if its worth going onto, or is it just another forum site where people are prepared to do look ups for us, which we can do ourselves and have more satisfaction on doing it ourselves.

most people who take genealogy seriously or even remotely seriously have there own family tree programme-some of which are free.....

Well, if you can persuade someone to invite you Roger, you could find out yourself. And yes,on the other site there is a bank of all the members gedcoms and we can also search by village so we dont end up with John Smith from Wanagadoo Aus instead of John Smith from Orpington, Kent. Of course, generally Ancestry also have a tree search facility now that is useful too. Or you can upload your gedcom to Rootsweb for the same . And whilst many old hands enjoy working solely under their own steam - the reason for tips, trying to find and records boards on here demonstrates the need for help for the majority of amateur family history genealogists. (And the Success Board shows how grateful they are for the members efforts on their part).

Well Roger although you may have raised a lot of 'side issues' by your query,that I could respond to until 'the cows come home'!The straight answer is I suppose there are many,it depends of course what the researcher may be looking for,and also perhaps what sort of experience the researcher may have.I can say this for nothing though,that new researchers should be very wary,there is a lot of creeping commercialisation coming in to the general subject of Genealogy. Regards William Russell Jones Cefn Mawr Wrexham.

The Family Tree Forum has a facility where you can upload a gedcom. It automatically does not show living people and you can search for people you are interested in. It is superior to the tree facility on here. You folks must stop being obsessed with TREES!!! There are OTHER WAYS of finding contacts apart from trees! Does Curious Fox use the tree system? No! Have I had contacts through Curious Fox? Yes - and more reliable ones too! Quite frankly I don't want to open up a WHOLE TREE of over a thousand names to someone who only has ONE link with me. If you really must have TREES - then Tribal Pages is excellent and so apparently is the new Ancestry Tree system. Lots of people are raving about it and prefer it to GR. Cheers, Horatia (not obsessed with trees) ;-)

Oh theres Gencircles and Lost Cousins aswell Roger if you want to do hotmatches elsewhere - forgot about that two, I rarely get back to them now. I rarely allow access to my tree as Ive found too many 'name collectors' simply add my people to their trees with no permission on my part.

The feature that you highlight... is ony one way that you can research .if thats the way you like to go about your research , then here is probably the best place for you there are an infinite number of sites thru which you can research family history

themajor problem that this site hasnt adressd is the majority of members finding Hot Matches to be cumbersome and innacurate-casting a huge net to catch a sprat is not efficient and made itself redundant as a facility by being such,as many of us have had to juggle round it or not use it-For instance Ive had to remove all john smiths and consequently my list diminished to a more manageable number.

I use Tribal Pages for my tree and immediately got matches to three other trees, one of which has led to a very useful exchange of information. I also routinely Google my 'difficult' names - have found an enormous amount of information by doing that, including the information that one of my missing, very humble, ag labs, came into a fortune and went off to the Turks and Caicos Islands to become a very well known and documented plantation owner. No one who has him on their tree on GR knew that. I use five different forums for my research needs. Cast your net wide when you are researching - the wider you cast it, the more resources and sites you use, the more chance you stand of finding your ancestors. OC

This is the TIPS board. Could Roger explain clearly the nature of his 'tip'? If not stick it on general. Sylv.

Sylvia, Wasnt the 'tip' to encourage people to check out the Family Tree Forum and its facilities?

You could be right Heather, although I dont think that was done deliberately! Why have you gone from a thinker to a tinker? Sylv.

Thank you all for your comments, one of the replies says I am on wrong thread site, well I have asked for advise and i have some interesting replies For those on the other sites, well I find some very difficult to navigate. This site and others have Family tree, search messages etc. The only reason I am on the other threads are I am not getting anywhere with my research at the moment, and I fancied a change of scene. So I was wanting other sites to see if I could get through the brick wall that seems to be there. If I upset any of you in the process I am sorry, but freedom of speech comes to mind, and that what my ancestors have fought wars for us to have.

I don't think Roger is on the wrong board. He has asked a question and we are giving him TIPS on the best websites to use. By the way Roger. I didn't mean that you personally were obsessed with trees; but lots of people on this website seem to think there is no other method. I just took advantage of your query to make a point. I discovered one long lost relative by sending for her sister's death certificate to get the informants name and address. I would NEVER have found her by any other method as she is not researching her tree. Sometimes you have to think outside the box and not rely solely on websites! Not everyone has a PC and not everyone is researching their tree. Death certificates are very useful.... Cheers, Horatia

Roger You are quite entitled to freedom of speech - and so are the rest of us, too. We have all obviously misunderstood your posting, seeing it as a sort of attack on one other site in particular. You must excuse us all for that misunderstanding which arose from the fact that you seem to be very contemptuous and dismissive of it for some reason. There are many ways to tackle a brick wall, but I have never found that looking at someone else's tree has helped, so I don't hold much store in trees as being the be-all and end-all of research. Far better to ask for help with a specific person or problem than desperately hoping your mystery will be solved by someone else's tree. It rarely is, in my experience. This shared tree phenomenon is very new to most of the old and seasoned researchers - we all got along very nicely without it for donkeys years. OC

There seems to have been a lot more replies since I left fpr shopping this morning!As far as the 'other sites ' go,I like many others use various Sites to search for info,although being a little staid perhaps!I have got used to the way everything works on GR,in spite of there attempts to revamp the Site!I have to say that I particularly like viewing other people's Trees,you could almost say it is a genealogical fetish of mine.Although there is one basic rule I follow;There is little point in adding names to your Tree,to which you have no connection,as there will always be someone out there who will point out the error of your ways! Regards William Russell Jones Cefn Mawr Wrexham.

Well, I suppose there are worse fetishes William!

I will be known as the man with the Fetish after this! Regards William Russell Jones Cefn Mawr Wrexham.

William, I like your way of putting things! I'm sure we're all too nice to give you any stick William! ;-) I'm a bit impatient and hot headed for my sins! ;-) I notice that you are from Wales - but rest assured - I'm no Anne Robinson! ;-) Cheers, Horatia

Wed welcome Fetish man over the other site William! You could fiddle with the village search facility for a change?