General Chat

I think the sale is actually only for the Friends Reunited section of the brand - not all the different subsites. In all the press I've read on this it is the brand name mentioned and not the company name 'Happy Group Ltd' - and although some papers would refer to it as Friends Renuited to simplify things for readers the qualities and the business press would use a company name if it was the whole company up for sale.

Oh D*MN D*MN D*MN D*MN D*MN..................! I was gonna buy it. :-0((( Always missing the boat me!!! Deanna X

PS. I think the site owners deserve every penny they get for having such a brilliant idea. Friends Reunited is the cash cow - not GR. Gwynne

Hi Elaine, That's why I only keep a very basic tree on here. Just baps, marriages and deaths, date and places. Only a few generations of direct ancestors and no siblings etc. The really interesting stuff I keep in family tree maker. In the past I have seen garbled versions of some of my early research (plus some mistakes) appear on gencircles and world family tree so I am a lot more wary when I share info now. I've also received photocopies of stuff I sent out to other researchers 5 or 6 years ago and had the person sending it claim it as their own research. My handwriting is dreadful and very distinctive. It wouldn't be a problem if people checked the information before adding it. I always try to remember to warn people to do this when I pass stuff on. A recent contact on this site was able to tell me a marriage passed on to me (but unchecked, as yet) was incorrect. I'm happy to share any info I have but there is a lot of bad, unchecked genealogy on the web and I don't want to add to it. Gwynne

Gwynne I thought once you put your tree on here it was the property of Gr to do what they want to do with it? The new owners would have the same rights as GR do now. I imagine they could sell your info now if they so wished ............................................................................ T & C By submitting any material to the content to the Genes Reunited Service, you are representing that you are fully entitled to do so; grant US a non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-terminable licence to copy, modify, distribute, show in public and create derivative works from that material in any form, anywhere; and authorise us to adapt the relevant material in the course of doing so, and so WAIVE your moral rights to object to any derogatory treatment, or to be identified as the author, of the material in question.

Hi Len, You can delete your entire tree at the click of a button if you want to. I only keep a small tree on here anyway, so shan't bother to remove it. Those who want to keep their data their own are at less risk from GR than from Gencircles and ancestry world tree. Bob, I have no problem with sharing information but I'm b*****ed if some firm is going to make money out of my research by selling it on to others. Gwynne

Olde Crone I have Norton Internet security. This incorporates Antivirus Firewall Privacy control parental control. Antispam...which has ad blocking and pop up blocking. I think it can be bought on its own but not sure, but the whole package is far better than just the antivirus, and not much dearer either. Wouldnt be without it. Elaine x

I'm certainly not happy about my family tree and research being any more 'public' than it is now. There is a lot about this site that I don't much care for, e g like Len, my FR membership was automatically renewed without prior consultation because they'd changed the format, and I object to that. I sincerely hope that GR will do the decent thing and give up ample warning of any impending sale, so that we can remove our trees or cancel our memberships, if we wish to do so. I've already signed on with a new site, in anticipation of the worst happening here. CB >|<

saw this on news this morning are they trying to scare us all again as said before these company's are only trying to buy for proffit so where do the members stand?? the members need to know whats happening with all this uncertanty people will start to leave is this what they want. Josieanne

Perhaps we will get adverts between every thread lol! Dx

I am fairly sure that even if you remove your tree, the names you have entered remain - just no longer in tree form but in Name Search. (I am ready to be corrected on this point, if anyone knows different?) If this is not the case, then why do the numbers only go up, never down? And has anyone ever counted to see if there are actually 45 million names on this Site? ITV will not care one way or the other about this point; as I said before, they are buying it as a Financial venture, not because they have a burning interest in Genealogy. I shall probably continue with my membership if it stays at more or less the same rate. However, anymore dancing adverts will probably be the death of me. I too have Norton Antivirus, but it doesnt stop the adverts on this site. When I instructed it to remove all cookies, I couldnt get on the GR Site! Olde Crone

To be honest, I'm not bothered if anyone who buys Gr can use my tree. I'm not even bothered if the subs go up. Id happily pay more than the tiny amount I do now. As for ads..I have an ad blocker from Norton, never see the ads anyway ! Elaine x

I took my tree off a while back now. Hardly ever had any enquiries anyway. I can't see how things will stay the same when it's sold. I think there will be a lot of changes.

Not to happy about the idea of ITV taking over, the pages will end up all ads, and how does one remove ones tree from the site? I'll be keeping an eye on things and if this site starts looking a bit dodgy then I wont be renewing. Talking about renewal, I had my renewal down for yearly renewal but when I checked it had become continuous, wonder how that happened???????????? Len Ps Agree with Susan, didnt put my details on here for someone to make money out of them

Strange isn’t it – When there has been a minor change on this site (like the colour) it has generated vitriolic criticism. I thought that the prospect of this sale would have had our more militant members taking to the streets. I do not begrudge for a moment the success of the Pankhursts. They worked damned hard for it. Good luck to them. I was just trying to bring to the attention of the membership the possibility that if a media company like ITV buys the site (and yes they will own our trees too) they will want to exploit every opportunity they can devise to create revenue. The list of members alone is worth a great deal of money to any company selling into the genealogy market. I am no expert but I bet there are loads of ways that money can be made that the Pankhursts rejected or never thought of. For my part I am paid up to August 2006 so I will review the situation then. I expect that the whole site will have experienced considerable upheaval by then. Whether it is for the better? I will reserve judgement. Bob

Good luck to them both, without them I would never have found family and made so many friends. Well done to you both..........

good luck to steve and julie they fully deserve their success susie

Any site we agree to the terms?? Good luck to them i say. Ive found loads of rellies and friends via both sites and im grateful. Donna

People pull their trees daily on this site and it makes not one jot of difference to the alleged number of Ancestors showing on the Site.If we all left en masse, our trees would remain. Yep, wish I'd thought of the idea first - however, I find I am increasingly dismayed at what appears to me to be misrepresentation - the 'blurb' about this Site SUGGESTS that if you join, you will be able to 'research' - in fact, you cannot do any primary research on here, other than to connect to other members. As Alter so rightly says, any information on here is supplied by other members and we have all PAID for that privilege. GR is a bit like a Village Hall - you pay a fee and they hire you a room to meet with like-minded people. The only facility they provide is hooks to hang your tree on!(And sometimes the hooks fall off the wall....) No matter who does, or doesn't buy this Site, nothing will change for the better. It is being sold as a Financial Asset, not a genealogy site, and if it can be valued at so many millions in its present less-than-perfect state, why would any purchaser wish to spend any money on it? The reason I stay on this Site is for the invaluable help which I have received from the other members, and the good laughs I get, though not as often as I used to. Olde Crone

Good luck to them, yes if we all pulled our trees then it would be worth nothing, but who is going to. I have found lots of connections and have found another definate today, just hoping they reply. I access this site through kiwisreunited and no adverts whatsoever, no macromedia popups, just the basics of the site. Ros.