Genealogy Chat

ITree bandits, name collectors call them what you will. The one AND only way to prevent all your tree info appearing elsewhere without permission is to keep your tree on a family tree programme and just release the parts that are relevant via a GEDCOM file.

Unless you have a full sibling then nobody else will share your entire ancestry and they don't need to have the details of every name in your tree.

A family tree prog allows you to just share info relating to your common ancestors and keep the rest private.

Karen been there twice.I dont even have my grandparents on my tree now.But saying that i am in contact with a lovely bloke who has opened his tree to me and has 26,759 people in his tree and he has not asked to see my tree.When i asked about a certain person that was not in his tree,he said that was a second marriage and not related to him.Think he dont want every Tom Dick and Harry. Annie

Some people need to get a life! A similar thing happened to me too. In my case they were a distant relation of a distant relation and not even blood related to me.

I think some people do it because they like to know how *they* are related to *you*. But copying your kids details too, that is probably over the top.

Evenin all.

I've often heard people on here complaining about tree bandits ie people who, without asking, copy your entire tree onto theirs, but never been a victim - until now!

The last 3 people I have shared my tree with have all done just this - even down to my young children!

Apart from matters of courtesy, this has now rendered my hot matches completely useless, as every time I get the same 3 names with 30+ matches!