General Chat

Susan, the Ancestry website is responsible in part for it being passed around. The have hints and people can just click on 'add hint' without really taking a good look at it and it is added to their trees.

Huia.

From what has been said, i actually think this is a serious matter . Having said i will share happily, maybe it is not a good idea for people to have all this access to other peoples trees, then they might be encouraged to do the work themselves. If people are so touchy about being informed of an error, even if put in the most diplomatic terms, then I don't see why they are bothering to create a tree in the first place.
It would be interesting to see what Ancestry think about all this incorrect info. being passed around on a plate.

Bridget

you need to download your tree as a gedcom from here. GR will send it to you via email. Put it on your desktop. Go on to Ancestry press family trees and press upload gedcom. You can then chose whether or not to have it separate to existing tree or overwrite existing tree

This is a very interesting thread. I have siuffered on Ancestry so much including being given wrong information that iI am about to delete it completly and try to start again! I know where it started and the proplem was that the surname was common in the palce my ancestors lived and so where most of the first names BUT in fact it hasl ead both myself and others up the creek without a paddle!!

Is there anyway that I can copy my tree on here which I know is absolutley correct to Ancestry

I just need the courage now to delete my tree on said programme

Bridget

I have a private tree on Ancestry. If I am contacted requesting to view, just like on here, I want to know how they think we are connected.

If I decide to open my tree then I ask the enquirer for their email address and send an invitation. Incidentally you can send family members who do not subscribe to ancestry and the can view the tree for free.

Sometimes I don't open my tree but do send related info instead. I only use any other tree as a guide. I have found on one public tree that my father was born in 1765 and was the son of his father who was born in 1876. Not only are both dates a complete work of fiction you would have thought they would have realised the son could not be born earlier than the father.

The trouble with Ancestry is that one person puts some utter rubbish into their tree and the website uses it as a 'hint' and others then click 'add hint' and it is automatically added to their tree. No research done at all. You can then finish up with 160 people or more with the rubbish, and when another person comes along with the correct info and puts it into her tree it is not used as a hint as the majority (rubbish) outweigh the single (correct).

I chose that figure of 160 because that is about the number of people who have my oldest sister in their trees, born in Ireland (wrong) and married to a man b in 1723. I know it is my sister as quite a few of them have or had our parents as well, with dads correct y.o.b. of 1899. What are your maths like? The people on Ancestry are obviously hopeless at maths, or just dont bother to look at what they have added. I have spent an enormous amount of hours contacting people to point out the error and some of them dont believe me. Then there are the ones who have not looked at their tree for 'over 6 months' according to their profile. Some accuse me of being 'rude' for pointing out that they have a serious error in their tree. One person was so angry that she put up a new, malicious tree in which my sisters name was slightly altered, our parents names more altered and I was in the tree as Hujen who was 'allegedly adopted from a primitive tribe of cannibals in New Zealand'. And not only was I my sisters sibling but I was also her fathers second spouse! Another sibling with an invented name was allegedly sold by her mother into slavery.

The funny thing is that if you look at the profile of all the people with these false trees they all claim to have a degree of some sort. They dont say what it is a degree in. I suspect it is in idiocy or innumeracy. One even claimed to be a retired commander of the US navy.

Having said all that, I did find a tree with correct info on one of my other lines and am in touch with a descendent of my gt grandmothers sister, and 3 months ago I was contacted by a woman who found I had Maria Auger in my tree. Maria was my gt grandfathers sister, and this woman is descended from Maria and we have now exchanged photos and other info, so Ancestry does have some uses, but it still riles me greatly to see so many idiots who do not know how to research.

Huia.

Personally I enjoy doing the research, and am happy to allow people to see my tree if it helps them. I hope they check it out first though.
I wonder if anyone has used the transcribed records by Parish Clerks that are on line now. Is that regarded as robbing.? I doubt if many would see it that way, but what is the difference?

IGP

When i originally put my tree on Ancestry as public one some 6 years ago, being naive at the time i didn't realise there were so many ignorant people about that just took info without asking, if i had i would not have made it public.

So as i said i keep it private now, but i will share info.

also i dont need to be told about posting on the internet means i have given permission for all in sundry to plunder the info.

George

Agree with you George of Westbury, regarding lots of people doing same research have incorrect info. on their trees. One in particular is my husbands Gt. Grandfather and Mother. I researched from Records Office, and hav e correct info. on my tree but have seen many variations of same which are all wrong. I informed a few but their response was disbelief.!!!
Many people just assume things without proper research and copy blatantly not checking any facts.
Therefore, i would regard any info. from public or private trees on Ancestry with no certainty of being correct.
If info. is on a public tree then that is just what it says, public.

For goodness sake, either share your info or don't.

If you don't want anyone to see your info at all, then don't post it on the internet in the first place.

If your posted info is public then don't be surprised if people use it as a resource to build their own tree. They are not 'robbing' anything - you have given it to them on the silver plate.

My view is the same as Stephen

I have a tree on Ancestry which is now private.Previously it was a public one but after it was "robbed" without any communication to me i made it private, no way will i make it public again.

In fact when i now look at the number of trees on Ancestry with members of my family on it, in some cases as many as 12 trees, i do smile because the number of errors is staggering some of them have gone down the wrong line completely, and i am not contacting them to tell them where they are wrong, let them contact the person where they have got the info from.

I have an instance only today where 7 trees have one of my ancestors dying in 1905 in Rotherham, when in fact she died in 1928 in Elston Nottinghamshire, i have her death certificate.I know where they have gone wrong, they have picked up a death record for someone with the same name registered in Sculcoates which does not cover Rotherham

One tree even has my Grandmother being born Lincolnshire, but i know better.

If i am contacted i will share information, but not to open my tree, only to provide info on the connection

George

thank you all
very interesting i must remermber to do the same as them
so in the 4 years ive been reseaching my ancestors people that have asked to share my tree could if & when i agree can then go to ancestry & place them on private trees i bet that has happened my partner also genes member has said to me dont be eager to open your tree for people there are a lot that once they have details & u ask them for something no reply i see her point

You could try contacting the person whose tree it is via the ancestry system. Say who you are, how you think you may be related & what information you are looking for... If you are lucky the least you should get is feed back..... Viewing the tree would ,same as on here be down to the tree holder. That is if it is possible

You cant look at private trees on Ancestry only the public ones.

hi
is there anyone that is a member of ancestry as well as genes
i am & have seen some public trees on there but i know there are some of my ancestors on private trees how do i get to look at these
ainfo appreciated