Genealogy Chat

Picking up on Julies point, ID theft, that is cloning someones identity, to obtain brand new credit facilities without the knowledge of the person concerned is probably not that common, although it does get the most press. What is more common, and I suspect happens thousands of times each day is the fraudulent use of cards and bank accounts. A lot of this is self inflicted. How many can honestly admit that they and only them self know their pin number? I have lost count of the times that I have seen relatives and children using cards which clearly belong to others. Even putting a cheque in the post is courting problems should it be intercepted. Think about it, it has all your bank details, a copy of your signature and probably your name and address written on the back.

Michael Watson makes some good points on making sure someone is connected to your family and only passing on further details with a promise NOT to pass the information on. You would think this foolproof but let me warn you even this does not work. Before being a GR member I was exchanging information for several months with someone who had a genuine link with my tree. I had a descendants tree bringing most people forward from 1783 and eventually passed this on saying as a lot of it was recent events please do not pass this on.. With little else to share we eventually stopped writing and I have not given this another thought for over a year until recently. Now I am a GR member but dont have that branch of my tree on the site. Imagine my surprise when someone opened their tree to me and I found my name linked into the other branch. I started to look around and try a few searches, yes everytime just one persons appeared on every match. Now had this person only added information between 1800-1900 I would not have minded. Just for interest I put in a birth that happened in 2000 even that is in the persons tree. I have now removed the tree I have on Genes as I should not like this to happen to this branch also. Most people are just interested in getting back on family history and would never do this but how can you tell? Perhaps I am just a bad judge of people and tend to trust too much, not any more.

The issue of people obtaining your personal details for pernicious reasons through information shared on this web site is well worth considering. But remember that birth, marriage and death records are public and that criminals have been able to gather this kind of data for years. Making it available through genealogy web sites just makes the job a little easier for them. Anyone who is concerned about this issue could perhaps engineer some protection by not entering exact dates of birth, or even bogus ones that would reveal a fraud if anyone tried to use them. Names can also be subtly adjusted. Mapmakers insert minor errors in their products, designed to reveal any illegal copying of their work. You can do the same with your family tree, if you feel that strongly about protecting your research.

Thanks for that idea I wish I had thought of it.

Hi I have sent off queries for lots of people who are not (yet) in my GR tree - I have over 6000 in my home database, and I could not be bothered to put them all here - some are very far out on the limbs of my tree. However, there's enough to show the familial connection. To those I have sent a message, I have never asked for a tree to be opened, only for information if I am on the right track, a few people have kindly opened their trees for me to see if I am heading in the right direction. But I won't appropriate their tree. To those who have not responded to my offers to share my info on our obviously joint family - I just hope one day they decide they might like to know what I know. Di