General Chat

I have 26 pages of Hot Matches but I have never had anyone contact me to say I matched with their tree. In the beginning I used to send a message to all of them but now I don't as I now have pages of unopened messages in my sent box.

I have made a couple of good contacts through Hot Matches and found a couple of distant relatives which we now help each other with various aspects and share information.

I have been contacted by other people who reckon that we have a match. Most unfortunately have been wrong, but there have been a few good ones.
I try to answer pretty quickly to all contacts, but can't always do this for a variety of reasons, e.g. my computer or myself are ill!

I have also contacted loads of people and don't always get a reply, at least now I can tell if they have opened the letter or not.

It is really pleasing when you get a reply in the affirmative, very exciting to find a rellie and exchange info.

However one of the most useful replies I had, was from a lady who explained that I had got it wrong, and had purloined one of her rellies as a groom for one of mine!
She also told me who the real groom was!
A reply above and beyond the expected. I was able to correct my tree and find the correct groom (he had transposed his forenames).
So I will always be greatful to her.

Saying all that I haven't checked my Hot Matches recently tut-tut.

I've had lots of good Hot Matches. One relation going back to 1608 was married three times and had twelve children!!

It is frustrating sometimes when people don't reply straight away, but for most of us searching for people in our trees is not a full time occupation and therefore you may not get a reply immediately.
Happy hunting
Sue

HuiaFeelingCold
I find you have to ignore the next one - it is in the total list with no indication of whether you have been previously in touch or not (wasted a few efforts finding I am checking upon a contact from ages back). You have to go back to the list headed New each time.

Thanks for passing on that hint Elizabeth. I used to wish they would list the new ones all together. Now if only there was a way to click on delete and it passes to the next new one. I tried just now but it went to a different one. Ah well, I cant expect miracles on here can I?

Huia.

I have had several useful connections from people contacting me, some of them taking me back several generations - and because of that I do offer information when I think it is a possible for other people. I have even had a cousin who remembered coming to stay with us about 1950 - while I must confess I didn't remember I found her signed in in my mother's visitors' book! and we exchanged a lot of information about our mutual recent ancestors.

You say you took two hours - a short time ago InspectorGreenpen produced a useful hint - when you move to Hot Matches there is a column headed New - if you click on that all the new names come up together in a list. You have to be careful to avoid them disappearing if you move to check something - it is worth having your tree ready to switch to before you start work!

I have made quite a few contacts through Hot matches.

Yes, have made contact with a few very distant connections and been able to help them by sharing my tree. One lady was very helpful to me when I first started and got me back to 1550 with my tree and hers, though the connection is very distant.

Well I've just spent the best part of two hours going through my hot matches. Have discovered that putting in "not known" for a parent with an approx date of birth brings up so many matches I'll have to come up with some other code.
Anyway, I've sent out ten messages tonight to people who match with my tree and it occurs to me that I have never been contacted by anyone else in this way.
I've got a stack of sent messages that haven't yet been read. Has anyone else had success from someone else making contact or am I just wasting my time?