Genealogy Chat

Merry - Do I remember your hubby's family is from Barcelona, or have I got confused? (I do that a lot!) If I am right - Do you need any look ups in Barcelona Cemetery next time I go? Dea x P.S. - I thoght you were away on holiday?? Dea x

Roger <What is the point of being on this Site if you are not prepared to pass on information about your family> I would be SOOOOOO delighted to exchange/pass on information about MY family to someone who was genuinely connected to it. Sadly, every contact I have had on here has a tree based on wishful thinking, not research and I have yet to find a genuine contact through this Site. No - I lie! I have had two genuine contacts. For one contact, her 5 x GGM's sister-in-law married a brother-in-law of my 5 x GGF. They had a child who died at birth and the wife died a few days later. Husband remarried, new wife also died in childbirth, husband marries yet again and dies.End of line in 1801. Which part of our mutual trees should we share, do you think? The other was a a similar story - there was no issue and it was the end of the line for my side AND for hers. I gave her the previous two generations from my side. I got nothing in return. As for the steady stream of people who are related to me through a woman born in 1702 - they arent, cos she died in 1704 and CANNOT be their ancestor. My tree has cost time and money and effort.I feel I owe a duty of care to my dead ancestors to get their facts right - not dish them out willy nilly to be tacked onto just anyone's tree who fancies them - how disrespectful is that. Happy to share with GENUINE relatives - if only there were any! OC

I don't think we are reluctant to share info with someone who has a proven link, but we need to check that they have first. As to the objection to the current layout, someone connected to my Mother's side of the family need have no interest in my Father's side as has been said before. I prefer to swop email addys and exchange edited gedcom files wherever possible, or even a descendancy list or ancestry as an rtf file.

Can I ask everyone who has replied to this message. What is the point of being on Genes if you are not prepared to pass your tree on to other people, who are part of your family? I have found many cousins I did not know anything about. And I have used auto reply as it is quicker. But I check all the names and verifiy them before they go on my tree, and the hard ones to find are not on Genes only people who will give me their e-mail address will get that infro.

Hi all I am very new to this site and must say the tips board is the the best board. Since starting I have had a couple of people ask for a look at my tree and only one gave me some nmes that were of use. I started my tree on paper and last year spent a week in London trawling through BMD's and paying a fortune for certificates. I must admit that finding that person you are looking for is a great feeling and I am pleased I can now view the records on line instead of having to travel. I have managed to track back a few generations but am happier trying to find my mum's siblings which has been a long project in itself. I would be over the moon to meet and rellies on here and would share what I have found but I must say to just name collect would take all the fun and excitment out of it all. Tina

I was once contacted on here about a relative of mine who had married someone with a very unusual name. The guy offered me a tree with thousands of names including all the kings and Queens of England and France and said would I like to check it. What am I supposed to do ask if he has any proof Eleanor of Aquaitaine married Henry 11. It was so tempting... I have a strange one at present. I found someone from Australia on a website asking about one of my surnames linked to several other names which I recognised as the spouses of my great grandfathers brothers and sisters. I sent her quite an enthusiastic E. mail thinking she must be related somewhere. She replied sending me lots of new details including a family for one brother who had emigrated to New Zealand that even a solicitor who had had to prove a family will had been unable to find. However it turns out she is descended from the brother of one of these spouses so she does not qualify for a twig on my tree. She has now sent me a questionaire on the details I gave her which is going to take quite a bit of research to answer. What would you do in these circumstances?

I would SO like to find someone on this site who had actually taken one of my lines further back than I have. As I started off tracing all the ancestral lines I have plenty of brickwalls, lots of them being circa 1800. I would LOVE someone to ask why I selected that particular Joe Bloggs and not someone from the next village or born 5 years later. It would be great if someone said 'Okay, you've given me the father's details, but you have a baptism for the mother, so you must know her parents as well' In all the time I've been on this site I have found possibly half a dozen rellies who have actually asked intelligent questions. One of those might have been regarded as a name collector, but as he gave as much as he took, I really didn't mind.

I was in contact with a new fourth cousin and she was telling me about her immediate ancestors......she got very cross with me when I said I didn't really want/need ALL the details of her full ancestry as I was only related to the one particular branch. Later I discovered that she goes off on all sorts of tangents on her tree covering hundreds, if not thousands of people to whom she isn't related. It's not that she doesn't do the research.....she does......but sometimes I'm not quite sure WHY???? She wanted to do my hubby's tree herself (she admitted this to me), but I foxed her as, firstly, he is half Spanish and getting his Spanish tree together has cost us a fortune and has been extremely difficult to do....secondly hubby's ''other'' grandfather is a solid brickwall of decades standing.....My cousin said she would still have a try at hubby's tree. I haven't heard from her since! Merry

Hi Jill, I work backwards as far as I can go on every line, then find the descendants of ancestral siblings. I generally only follow non-blood lines where there is a specific aim, for example, as my Weatheralls are traced (by me) back to Wensleydale in 1676, I have looked up any available info about the relatives of spouses, working on the assumption that most of the inhabitants of the Dale would be connected in some way. As for my Allchin line (Alcherne in 1475) I am collecting all the Allchin info I can as a One name study sideline. I have well over 1,000 of those and am in contact with lots of distant cousins through them.

My online Tree contains only blood relatives and their spouses. My offline Tree has just crept over the 18,000 mark, and no, I haven't checked them all. As I see it, this is a ''Work in Progress'', and it is to be hoped that those who follow me will continue to work through it and confirm the info I didn't. However, it seems silly not to accept any info which is offered, so I have strayed off the direct path somewhat. although I did resist the temptation to hang someone's 10,000 name Tree on to mine by a single marriage,

55,000 names - LOL! Just work out how much that would cost in birth certs alone - then add the marriages - then add the death certs - OC

Glen I keep meaning to ask you - everytime i see your name on here. Do you keep the same knickers on from one Christmas to the next? Are they itchy?

Not daft at all Sue, I feel the same myself. Cheers, Horatia

This might sound daft, but I feel as if I know my ancestors as I have spent a lot of time trawling and digging for them. Surely if you're just a name collector you have no affinity with them. They are just names on paper. Sue

The ones i find amusing but sad are the success stories,the 'i have been a member for less than a week but this site has told me my tree back to 1550 with over 6000 names..............' Yeah right,you couldn't even verify someone else's research for that in a month. The ones i really think are worthwhile replying too are the typed requests from someone with maybe 100 names,and still looking at their direct line, (who have a marriage into my direct line),i have had some great exchanges with people in this situation,and when they find that they are first cousins two or three times removed the connection seems to spur on research. Glen

Hi Jill, Yes, I know that many people open their tree with 'no strings attached' but usually one or two messages will sort out if there is a connection. If the person being asked about has the same parents, children or spouse then you usually have a match. No need to open trees willy nilly when a few pertinent questions can find out if there is a match. However, everyone must do what works for them; but as long as people don't get above themselves and act as if they have the God given right to see my tree then I don't mind. Cheers, Horatia

Some people open their tree to me even when I've NOT ASKED them to! Then, because they have given me the dubious honour of looking at their 'research,' they seem to think that I am duty bound to open MY tree - WRONG! Cheers, Horatia

I've not only suffered in past from showing some person my tree but they copied my tree with (not deliberate) mistakes in and added their own mistakes as well . So they must have looked at my tree copied the names and then made up the places and dates of birth. So they have produced a tree with twice as many errors in that probably is of no use , because it doesn't tally with reality. What's the point , you may as well post Cinderalla's tree. Kim

The automated requests and responces are fantastic. You can request information from anyone with a matching surname and deny information to anybody with a match on full name, date and place of birth with the press of a button. What is the point? Both of them annoy me. When I contact someone it is always with good reason, and I always take time to provide them with informtion. There may or may not be a link but what I want to be able to do is prove or disprove it. Being able to exclude a family line is very useful as well. To get an automated responce or simple 'not mine' responce is a sign of ignorance and yes your probably dealing with a name collector. Its just as much use as the majority of postings on the forums.

Myra There is no way that you can see if a person you have contact on here is a full member. Having said that.......... If someone makes an initial contact with you on here then, at that moment in time, they are a full member. Only full members can make initial contact. If you make initial contact with them and they are not full members they can reply to your message and can then continue making contact. Hope that makes sense Chris