Genealogy Chat

I have, in the past, let people view my tree. But no more. I let someone view my tree last week and this morning quite a few of my rellies turned up in my Hot Matches. They have just been copied straight from my tree to theirs. I suppose if you give permission to view you must expect that. I must admit I wouldn't and would ask the person concerned if they minded if I did that. The thing is I wouldn't just trust their research immediately and would just use it as a base to check on first. Linda

After reading what's been going on I've tried to delete my living relies, I put a few on to print a copy of my tree, now I am finding it very, very difficult to delete them, can any one expian in simple terms please, Debbie

On the other hand: The more contacts you have and trees shared the better to check the data therein. And a connection can come up from an unexpected direction. Example of the first:: I have access to two trees for the same family, but on comparison find that one has a line as descendents of one person and the other shows them as descendents of that person's brother. I have informed them of the discrepancy so they can each check their own research. In the second instance I had a contact which initially seemed not to be a connection since it turned out that their subject was born in Leicestershire and my one in London. However, the contact kindly sent me many pages of information which not only had some new information on the London branch but also established a connection between a Leicester person and another on my existing tree. In turn I have been able to pass that on to another of my contacts with a more direct interest in that branch. So I feel that sharing can produce far more than being protective of 'my' tree, as long as you establish a definite connection before opening up.

Hi all, Thanks for all your input, there seems to be a balance between sharing & being over-cautious. Seems that a few 'name-collectors' out there have put loads of people off but.. I'm happy to say that I've had a few interesting PMs too that are all for sharing. Whatever we decide to do (share or not) let's stay polite about it - I've had a few 'This is not my relative' replies to hot match requests and I don't think it's fair :c( It would be good to have a reason given ie yours was born in blabla and mine in thingy or something a bit more definite than 'this one's not mine'! Happy hunting & sharing Sarah

Sarah in France: I think that I'm right in saying that the chap whose great great grandfather was your great great grandmother's brother would be your third cousin. With nothing removed!

Does anyone know if it's possible for someone to effectively download my tree if I give them access, or would they have to copy it, if they so minded, individual by individual?

Thanks Andrew, It's good to know that neither of us have anything removed (lol) Sarah :-)))))

Unless, heaven forfend, they have some way of hacking into the site, each entry has to be copied, line by boring line. Which is why these copied trees are very dubious. The guy who filched my tree seems to have made quite a lot of typos.

I take offence to that Sarah, having only used this site for 3-4 months : (

Jane, What do you take offence to? Sarah