Genealogy Chat

I have been very lucky with hot matches.When I first joined about 3 years ago,I had some right away,and got 23 photos sent to me from a 2nd cousin.
I was so pleased,as our great grandmother and grandfather's photos were there,and they were ones that my mother had in a locket that was stolen with some other jewellery from her dressing table a few years ago.
I could identify most of these pictures for my 2nd cousin,as he hadn't a clue who they were.

I have had other matches that have proved to be correct,and although I hadn't had any for a long time,2 weeks ago,a branch of the family that had been puzzling me,came up with a match!!!
It has made the day of some of the cousins I have always known,as I printed off the info and sent it,and they have located the actual street,and walked down it.

Although it can be a chore trawling through hot matches,I think it is no worse than trawling through parish registers etc......and is now much easier to delete than it was,when it threw you back to the first page!

My motto is...NEVER give up.

Brenda x x

Sometimes a person thinks they know where an ancestor was born but they can have it wrong. One relative (plus others who got the 'info' from him) had our gt grandmother b in Bethnal Green, when in fact she was b in Wotton under Edge in Glos. I was able to send a copy of her b cert to prove it.

My mother thought her other grandmother was b in London when she was actually b in Essex. The family moved to London when she was a small child, so the grandmother probably thought, herself, that she was b in London since she grew up there. Once again, it was only when I got the b cert that I was able to prove from the correct parents that she was b in Rochford in Essex.

I have found a lot of my 3rd cousins through hot matches, even some 6th cousins! And relatives for my OH as well.

I love finding relatives, even if they are as remote as 6th cousins.

Huia (in NZ)

I tend to agree with Chris if no POB it goes in the bin.
I have had success with hot matches, unfortunatley they tend to be all the same lines,I don't tend to initiate a response to these, however, I will share info if anyone requires it.
It's the brickwalls I need to hear from but never do, it's so frustrating!

I've had a reasonable amount of success with hot matches and the way i see it, even one successful match that breaks down a brick wall is worth it.
The problem is too many people expect them to match the PoB as well as the DoB. In practical terms that wont happen. Generally computers are stupid. If you or I look at the following list of PoBs for an ancestor born in Portsmouth (as an example), you and I will see them as the same place, whereas the computer will see them as different because it just matches a string of characters:
Portsmouth; Portsmouth, Hampshire; Portsmouth, Hants; Portsmth; Pompey; etc, etc,etc.
The list is endless and that's before you bring in typos.

The only way to make it work is to force you to select the PoB from a list. Problem with that is that any list that includes EVERY place in the UK will be too-o-o long to be practical. So they will reduce that to just big towns and cities. Personally I'd rather be able to specify a village outside somewhere large, especially when (in the case of common names) there may be hundreds in the big city!!

Rob

I've had mixed results with hot matches but I have found a third cousin I didn't know existed and another hot match gave me siome info I'd been trying to find for ages. I think it's a case of swings and roundabouts although I do agree it's really frustrating when none of the places of birth match.
Barbara

I have a system...

For a one name match

If it not only matches for name and year of birth but also matches for place of birth-
I will 'keep' it to follow up when time allows. This will mean spending time searching Name Matches to see if the sender has a wife, parents or siblings listed that haven't yet appeared as a Hot Match.

No place of birth-
Then I send it to the bin!

I have had success with Hot Matches in the past but less so now as my tree on here is only my direct line ancestors, Grandparents, GGrandparents ect (no siblings or additional children). Having said that I have recently added 1st, 2nd wives, husbands and it is from them the most recent Hot Matches have been generated.

Chris

I've switched my hot matches off, they are a waste of time in my opinion. I never even reached 'H' where my main surnames are, I only ever received A's and B's!

Sam x

Depends. I discard all single matches without looking but another member with more patience asked if an ancestor, who she had,born Hull could be the same as mine,born Sunderland.
Now that seemed a silly question but actually she did not know where the ancestor was born.
BINGO!!! my g/gran,previously a brickwall.

I've just trawled through the first three of eight pages of hot tips (that's about 160!) and not a single one has matched on place of birth. Is it really worth the hassle?