General Chat

What is it all for, if not for sharing? Recently, I was glad to hear from someone who is not my relative, but who does share blood relatives with me! As I discover more about those particular relatives, I will be very pleased to share the new information with her, and hope she will be pleased to do the same with me.

A distant relative of mine ( we share a 7x great grandfather) has worked incredibly hard on her family tree, and she has been equally generous with the fruits of her research; in fact, it is freely available on her website. I suppose it all depends upon your take on the matter.

Other than including the details of living people without their permission, which is against the rules, the only thing really to be miffed about is someone else gaining from your hardworked research - in which case you shouldn't share it in the first place. All of this information is in the public domain and accessible to anyone. If I chose to, there's nothing at all to stop me researching the family tree of the chap who lives across the road, or Tony Blair, or anyone I care to. Simon

I have only had one occassion where someone was included without prior consent. Speaking through GR to a distant cousin, I mentioned living relatives to explain my conection. When I saw them appear on her tree, despite not being on mine, I asked her politely to change the names to 'Male' or 'Female' and the relavent surname. All personal information should be deleted. This distant cousin was happy to do so. RW

Dorothy - it does rather sound like your contact shares blood with 'JH', and is therefore entitled to include him on his tree!

The last contact put one of my ancestors - I'll call him 'JH' - onto the website, to which I responded. At that time he requested further details, with which I complied, and he stated: 'i am not aware that i have any actual H...... Anscestors - J...... i have down as my 1st Cousin 6 times removed'

Hi Dorothy, Then that is totaly different. When I first joined GR I was contacted by someone who had Brewertons in the Midlands. We exchanged trees but I realised we did not share the same chap since mine had never been married. I was outraged some time later to see he had put my tree, including my name, on Gr. He had decided that it was a 'best fit'. I contacted him and GR and he removed my family. I do understand why you are angry.

If you pass on your tree to others you are giving them permission to add their tree to your own. If you have living rellies you dont want to pass on, then I suggest you only put a skeleton tree on genes and have a family tree type prog for your full tree. or you just pass on names and dates of rellies you rather than let your tree be viewed. Elaine x

think i am missing something... Why on earth would they put your father on their tree if he isnt related to them? Why did you give them access to your tree without first establishing if there was a connection? jess

i cant understand why someone who is not related to you could make it 'fit' if you see what I mean, if you husband or father is still alive, then they can legally object and have their name removed, GR will do this for you

You've missed the point. Neither of the people who have done this are related to me, yet they entered my FATHER - and worse still - my HUSBAND! ANY and ALL of my research findings have previously been freely given to those sharing a common ancestor but publication of someone else's subsequent line of descent should be 'taboo' to any genuine family historian.

Why give them the info if you do not want them to add it to their tree? Again it raises the question ''who owns GGGrandma'' and has the right to have her on there tree answer: ''who ever 's GGGrandma she is'' I had a new contact yesterday. Seemilngly the info tallies- if she adds my bit to her tree and i add hers to mine , we are all happy bunnies, aren't we? Jess

dorothy, i really dont see the problem, I have managed to contact quite a few cousins through Gr and we have all used the info, each one of us adding bits a pieces as we go, as you say, GR is about PEOPLE, so what is the problem. The only way that someone can stop you using info, theoretically, is if they are still alive and dont want their names to appear Confused of Stevenage

Are you saying that you gave someone information regarding their family tree and are now incensed that they have used the info on their tree. Someone contacted me this year and after lots of comming and goings sent me pages of info but said I was not to put it on GR tree. So this is now dead info. I have not put it on tree even though these people are blood relatives. There is no point in giving info if you do not want it used.

I am incensed that my personal research findings have been used to swell someone else's supposed tree. This is the second time this has happened to me on genesreunited WITHOUT MY PRIOR CONSENT and I have asked the perpetrators to kindly remove the offending material which has obviously been plagiarized from information I've entrusted to them in good faith. Their actions call into question ethics of useage of others' research and could result in no further free exchange of information, to the detriment of everyone concerned and particularly subscribers to this website. Family History is not about NUMBERS: it's about PEOPLE and should be treated with sensitivity.