Genealogy Chat

Its a load of old cobblers ! and I won't be re-newing my membership. I am not getting at any members so don't get me wrong, Lady Liverpool I thank you for your support, and Jennifer, I don't wish to be rude to anyone, you have got me wrong.
I don't need help or advice with my research, as I did all that 35 years ago in the old fashioned way before computors and the internet.
I am a member of other Genealogy sites and love to help people whenever I can, I am 75 years old and it keeps my old " grey cells" working. I much preferred the old layout of GR you could understand what help people wanted much better.

Well..I hope you mean GR and what they offer you on here and not the members themselves who voluntarily give their services because they want to help...If so please edit your thread as it doesnt sound good...without the help on here I would still be thrashing around in the dark..make the complaint to GR themselves as making it to the board goes nowhere...

Not biting Poirot,it's up to you.

Like many things in life, the more you put in the more you get out.

You don't say how much effort you've made to contact relations. If you do surname searches that often leads to useful contacts. Hot Matches can be very fruitful and there are loads of people on here who are happy to do look ups or offer free advice.

I've belonged to GR since it started and have met distant cousins online and in person.
I've made friends.
I've been lucky enough to find people researching parts of my tree which I can't do easily and in return I've shared what I've found of my local ancestors with contacts all over the world.

I have been helped by kind GR members to research my stepmother's tree and to do one as a birthday gift for my nephew (a Jones....so that wasn't easy!).

So what's the problem Poirot? This site may have its irritating quirks but I think it has been well worth its money for me.

Sue

i have found loads of rellies, i honestly dont know how you can say that about the kind people on G.R. Grrrrr
Carol

Don't let the door hit you in the a** on the way out

I have had lots if contacts and help. So although some aspects of design of the site may be open to improvement, I think it is excellent value for money.

Suit yourself Poirot.

I love it on here

Linda

Sorry, but GR needed a revamp, and will continue to need updating on a regular basis. Public perception was that the site looked messy and was flaky and criticism was made in a recent article in the press.

Hopefully what we are seeing is not just an appearance change, but some re-write of the underlying code to make things more reliable. Certainly, reliability is much better in many areas as it is clear that many of the old niggly bugs are getting fixed.

Despite all this GR is still the second most popular genealogy website in the UK, after Ancestry

After finding many old friends on Friends Reunited, husband did as well. I then turned to Genes, and found the first week my second cousin, we shared a great grandfather.

This started me on family tree, and have never looked back. So I say thank you Genes.

Things are not that bad...just get used to changes.

Marion

I think the community aspect of this site is fabulous!! People go out of their way to help. Thanks to everyone who has helped me in the past and future!!

xx

I don't know why Ancestry are so popular as I never seem to find anything on there. They say they have scottish records but whenever I look for records which I know exist, they don't seem to have them. You can't beat Scotlands People!!

Evelyn,

The main attraction of Ancestry for me is the Census records, and secondly, the BMD indices, although I personally prefer Free BMD and tuse that wherever I can.

We only have the one Scottish relative, and not knowing where he came from gave up on ever trying to find his family, so I can't really comment on how good the Scottish records are.

There are a lot of mistranscriptions on Ancestry - not surprising when you see some of the writing on the original images - so flexibility is the key!
I like it especially as I can now view the Scottish Census indices!

As a matter of interest, Peter - who's your missing Scot and when was he born?

well, I said it before and i'll say it again,

YES, GR was outdated and the boards, frankly looked VERY dated.

BUT would it maybe have been better IF the new look "boards/site" was actually run and beta tested BEFORE it was sent out to the masses???? and all of the niggles ironed out?? perhaps that "The Genes Team" had thought about notifying members before they did this?

maybe as well we should have a section where members can make valid suggestions for the improvement of the site.

I like the way we now can add urls without having to add * or () maybe these can be actually made into Hyperlinks???? would make life a whole lot easier.

nuff said

They WERE Beta tested, but only for just over a week, and members WERE notified as well, albeit by a message on each of the main boards. To be fair, a number of faults were identified during this time, and were promptly FIXED. During the second half of the test period you no longer had the choice to use the new or old versions, it was determined by whether your membership No: was odd or even. This also upset some who wanted to try the new version and could not, and those who wanted to go back to version 1.

There perhaps should have been a second round of testing as a number of people were presumably on holiday at the time, and came back to find the changes had gone live without being given the opportunity to add their twopenneth.

Hi Woody,

He is Archibald Ferguson, he was born around 1810 and the first official information we have on him is for his marriage which took place in Liverpool in 1840. His father is given as Peter Ferguson, Carpenter, and his age as "Full"

On subsequent censuses, he only ever gave his birthplace as Scotland, his age in 1851 was 41, in 1881, 70.

Thanks, Peter

The entries for an Archibald Ferguson are mostly submitted entries and I tend to treat them with a pinch of salt.
However there is an Archibald b. 11/9/1809 in Roseneath, Dunbartonshire to a Peter F. and Jean m.s. also Ferguson. Can't tie them in with a census entry though.
I can only see your Archibald (is he the Sawyer?) in 1851 and 1881 - where was he the rest of the time, I wonder?
If I come up with anything I'll let you know.

Yes, that is him. The family seemed to have an aversion to completing census returns, although they never moved away from Liverpool, as far as we know.

Thanks for your help. It is a start for us.

Peter