Genealogy Chat

Margaret in Burton on Trent, STAFFORDSHIRE has just mentioned on the Gen Board about this (I have asked her permission to put the info here and then not waited for her reply!!! lol).....see below in a minute..........and THANKS to Margaret for pointing it out xxx......******UPDATE******....Important....see Margaret's message at the top of page 2 (it's the first one on Page 2).

If you go to My Account details you will see GR has now made it possible to privatise your tree. Unfortunately they have messed up (in my opinion!), because if you tick the box you will remove identifying details from all those on your tree who have no date of death AND were born up to 120 years ago (YES, 120!!!!!). Now, many people must have relations on their tree born in the 1890's for whom they have no further info after 1901 and therefore no death, yet these people are going to be dead now. If these people are effectively wiped from your tree when you click the Privatise button on Account Details, you may lose the link to a new cousin contact (''Is that my granny on your tree??'') What do others think? I'd say think carefully before using this tick. They should have made it 100 years. Merry x

I think what they should think about doing, is having a list of everyone in your tree who is under 100 with no death and maybe you could tick yes or no if you want them showing?

Hi Merry I saw that thread and immediatly thought thats a good idea, then realised how many people would be hidden! Apart from me the living people on my tree are written as My Mum, My Husband etc and kept to a minimum, which is I think a much better way to control who's details are hidden. I'm just waiting now for hot matches to pick these up! Rachelxx

I wasn't going to use that option on GR for that very reason. Tribal has a similar thing, if I remember rightly, which also works in reverse. When I first did my BiL's tree and uploaded it to Tribal, he e-mailed to ask who all these living great-aunts were, because he wasn't aware that there were any. I'd given the command to hide the names of living people , but if you don't enter a date of death, it shows them with the name 'living'.

I think a list of either everyone who would be privatised, or the option to change the number of years (or both!) would be a good idea..... More useful than Hot Matches!!! I wonder if GR will click the box themselves when they get a report of someone having living people on their tree with no permission? Merry

It's a good idea but as you say 120 years is a bit much. I just put living as the first name for all my living rellies and no info. It would be a good idea to be able to select who can an can't be seen. That way your mum can be hidden who wants her privacy but grandma who wants to be found can be seen. I also think we should be able to hide ourselves if we want. Toni

I privatised my tree before I put it on here and chose 90 years as the cut off point. I had a man pm me saying ''I see you have a Joe Bloggs on your tree.....could you tell me who his parents are, please''. I looked on my home tree and saw I had two people named Joe Bloggs, but one of them would be privatised, so I gave him the parents of the other person. Imagine my embarrassment when he replied, ''Oh, that's my great-grandfather, then.......and THE OTHER Joe Bloggs you have is ME''!!!!! Ooooh cripes!!! When I looked, for some reason my home tree had refused to privatise this one person!!!! And he's only 65!!! Luckily he was not bothered (lol) so I privatised him straight away................. Merry

Gillian.....do you know how long they have had this ''new'' feature? I don't......you woudn't expect them to TELL us!!!!! lol Merry

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I'm not trying it either!! We need to find someone with a tiny tree and with just a couple of ''non-dead'' people, born about 1900, to try it. If it's a disaster, it wouldn't be too much to correct manually. Anyone up for that?????? Merry

Looking forward to that! Merry

I have about 35 peeps as living on my tree between 90 and 120 who are not living if someone would like to look for them!

Give me a couple of names/year of birth, then! Merry

Ellan Elizabeth Wyatt 1902 Evelyn Mavis Blewitt 1900 Eliza Wyatt 1899 William J Rees 1898 Emily Louisa Andrews 1897 Elizabeth Jane (Rickards) Stephens 1891 Austin W C upjohn 1890 (I might show up as Rachel or Lunar)

Those all come up when I search for them (you show as Lunar!) Are you going to try the Tick now? Merry

Except Emily Andrews and Eliza Wyatt, who I couldn't find! Merry

bugger the box is already ticked! am checking my gr tree: Ellan Elizabeth Wyatt 1902 - in tree no death Evelyn Mavis Blewitt 1900 - in tree no death Eliza Wyatt 1899 - in tree no death William J Rees 1898 - in tree no death Emily Louisa Andrews 1897 - in tree no death Elizabeth Jane (Rickards) Stephens 1891 - in tree no death Austin W C upjohn 1890 - - in tree no death Looks like it's not working on the searches then, i'll as my cousin to look at my tree on the weekend and report back.

I missed out Ellan Wyatt when I looked before. I can't make her show up either........So it's about 50:50!!! Sounds about right for GR! Merry (off out now)

I have just checked and the names are still there when you do a name search. That means that they will still show up in hot matches. Where the name is privatised, it is only when someone has access to your tree. My husbands tree is separate on here and I checked on some of his rellies. So, people will still be able to pick up the info, but not see it if you give access to your tree. Margaret

Oh right, Margaret, I get it.......so it's not as drastic as I first thought! Just that if someone gets a hot match and you let them view your tree, they won't be able to find the person!!! Maybe I should change my initial message??? Merry