RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: joyceabc on Friday 15 August 08 12:40 BST (UK)
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Still hoping for a Genes Reunited member to contact me regarding a Rebecca Powell from Chiswick born about 1882. Information to share.
The member is an Ann Rouse - 58319 if anyone knows of her or can contact her on my behalf I would be grateful.
Joyce
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Hi Joyce,
you are not alone in the waiting game. I am waiting on two contacts from GR.
Disappointing isn't it?
Margaret
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Hi Margaret
I know it is disappointing isn't it? I have seen a couple of messages like mine so I thought I would have a go, especially as I know, in person, the last remaining child of Rebecca, and I knew her myself.
Joyce
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I had one fellow reply a couple of months after I sent him a message saying he will get back to me, still waiting, and I know we are linked.
Drives you crazy.
Margaret
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Joyce,
I have sent a message for you to Ann R on GR and asked her to contact me. Hope you will have some luck!
Regards,
Abiam
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If your membership has expired on Genes, you can't reply to messages. Try sending it again and giving your email address.
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Margaret - I suppose the person you contacted on GR may have been on holiday or similar so perhaps they missed the message :-\ or perhaps it has just slipped his mind, I think I would give it another go.
Thank you very much Abiam for doing that favour for me let's hope she answers you, will wait and see.
Joyce
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I am still a member and have passed on my email address twice to this fellow.
But I will keep at him, thanks.
Good luck
Margaret
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Another reason why I,ve given up on genes, apart from the hot matches, have now un subscribed. Come to think of it I have not always had a reply from ancestry tree owners.
Going back to genes, when I had a reply and there was no connection I always replied to thank them for replying.
helina
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I am another GR person waiting to hear back from 5 people who contacted me. Disappointing I know .... but hey the tree couldn't have been that important if they don't want to get back in touch. Their loss my gain ;D
KHP :D
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If your membership has expired on Genes, you can't reply to messages. Try sending it again and giving your email address.
Fortunately, I don't think this is true :D
I'm not subscribed anymore but I'm able to reply to contact messages (can't see people's trees though!)
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Hi,
I am another GR member as well. I am in the same boat and waiting for replies as well.
I try my best to thank people even if they can't help. Or even if I am unable to help them.
One of them is related to my greatgrandfather's sister. So maybe they don't think it is important but I do.
Oh well never mind. Some are just better then others at replying.
Hope you do get a reply sooner rather than later
Newbe
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I hope I have a reply soon, as I have lots to share. It gets the better of my curiosity to think that someone has Rebecca Powell in their tree and I knew her. Oh well I'll sit back and be patient.
I am sure I read earlier this year that Friends Reunited was now free, wouldn't it be great if Genes followed this way.
Jocye
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This was the main reason I didn't renew my GR membership. I don't know if they still have it but they had a bit in FAQ saying that they were trying to introduce something that let the sender know if a message sent to another member had been read. The person might have left GR for whatever reason, or they might just be rude, you can never tell, but at least you would know.
Grothenwell
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I think people not replying is happening more & more. It's getting so that people - & I know this sounds sexist, but it's mostly men - want info. but they don't want to give or share :(
A chap got in touch with me twice but when I asked if he wanted to share info. I never heard from him again. Another chap who lives in U.S.A. never gave me any info. yet I'd sent him copies of certs. etc Every time I brought the subject up he had an excuse not to send me anything >:(
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I have contacted people too who don't reply it's annoying. I've also shared my tree and found it irritating when these people pinch your tree and add it to their own on genes!
Laurina
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It would be helpful to be able to see if people are current members or not.
Probably a good number of the non-repliers are people who no longer have the email address they supplied when they joined.
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I had something similar a while ago.
I found someone who had my gt aunt Ella on their tree. She moved to Queensland and I'd had absolutely no luck finding her there.
In the end I managed to make contact but I have to admit I was a bit pushy about it.
Luckily he had an unusual surname so I searched for anyone else who had him in their tree and contacted them too explaining my predicament. There were about five of them. It turned out, amongst the five, I had managed to contact his sister, his half brother and his cousin. They all nagged him into contacting me. All I wanted was to see his tree and, eventually, he made contact and I got the details I wanted.
Paul
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It would be helpful to be able to see if people are current members or not.
Probably a good number of the non-repliers are people who no longer have the email address they supplied when they joined.
I agree, it would be good to know if members were current, as here, you can check last log on date etc. If they do not update their current email, it questions if they are really interested in contacts and further info. Some put their tree there, put do not pay for a a sub.
I have let my sub lapse, after a number of years. Initially I found it quite good, but do not use it anymore. If I get any connections from there now, positive or not, I always give a reply. If I/they want to take it further, I pass on my email, then it is up to them.
I have also been in a position, were you do not get any replies to requests, but think of it as their loss, they cannot be that interested anyway, or do not want to help or share, which is the foundation of FH.
Cas
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It just occurred to me that another reason that they haven't replied is because they could have died. My cousin has his tree on GR as well, and just recently died, and I guess if a person has died GR might not have been informed.
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Indeed. I had some correspondence earlier this year with someone who was ill with heart trouble. I know this because delayed replies would come with apologies and brief references to the illness. There has been a long silence, and I am afraid my correspondent may have died. :-\
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If they do not update their current email, it questions if they are really interested in contacts and further info.
Perhaps, but they may just have forgotten. Many people don't use their main email address when they sign up to things, for fear of spam. There could be lots of people out there wondering why they never get any messages from GR!
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It just occurred to me that another reason that they haven't replied is because they could have died. My cousin has his tree on GR as well, and just recently died, and I guess if a person has died GR might not have been informed.
This also happened to me, with a first cousin, he had put his tree up and a lot of details matched, My dad's much older sister moved to London and married there. This was her son.
I had no reply for a long while, then out of the blue I got a lovely reply from his wife, my cousin had died, it was very sad, but she said how he would have been delighted with the contact, and connection, so how could she help.
She helped me fill in a number of details of my Aunt and her family after she had left home and married etc.
We still keep in touch via email, so it can be positive in some cases. Although, I do understand, some may not know details of hobbies, or would not want to carry on.
Cas
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I had a reply from one GR memebr the other day.
It said being an 8th cousin of the person they were looking for was a bit far back but thank me for the reply.
Newbe
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If they do not update their current email, it questions if they are really interested in contacts and further info.
Perhaps, they may just have forgotten. Many people don't use their main email address when they sign up to things, for fear of spam. There could be lots of people out there wondering why they never get any messages from GR!
Possibly...but not in my experience for a serious researcher of FH. Goes back to what is the point of putting info or requests up, if not checked, or messages are not accessed ???
Bit missing the point really, why bother in the first place. Others connect with the info and get no reply. I bet there are are quite a few, to put it mildly, that have a free tree on GR, then forget about it.
Although, as mentioned here, there are circumstances where they cannot reply.
I left it there a while ago, but still reply, even just to say.... sorry no connection.
Cas
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"I had a reply from one GR memebr the other day.
g an 8th cousin of the person they were looking for was a bit far back but thank me for the reply.
Newbe"
I've known people who are only interested in their direct ancestors & don't want info. on the other family members ??? A person doesn't live in a bubble. Sometimes knowing things about the family can add interest to your family history :)
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Yes, and it can help you get further back with the direct ancestors, with clues such as middle names etc.
But let's face it, it's a hobby that people pick up and then often put down for a while. I do myself. Other things in life have a habit of interrupting.
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I do think that there are a lot of people on GR who are not very committed to family history and only have their immediate family recorded. I have been in touch with a few who are "researching" the same lines as me and have virtually nothing on their tree.
I have only the bare bones on GR but if anyone gets in touch with me I am prepared to share from my main one. I have had a couple of really good experiences. Very annoying though when you get no reply!
I have recently had contact with someone who was almost certainly my first cousin's daughter. It turned out that I was correct. My aunt, her grandmother died when she was only 26 so she hasn't got much info from her grandmother's side and I was able to help her. Our family was last in contact more than 30 years ago and that was only a very brief vist from her uncle to my mother, before that it was more than 50 years.
So GR can be good!!
Ellen
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As for people replying to queries you send to people on GR,whilst there are always those who you might be waiting as if forever for a reply,there are also those who you wish hadn't bothered to reply!As a general rule I always used to give access to my Tree when sending a query of a person in someone's Tree;However as may be the case sometimes you may be enquiring about someone you have not as yet added to your tree,and I got fed up with receiving that literally stupid reply of;"This is not my relative"!So now I have changed tactics and unless there is an obvious connection no longer grant access to my Tree ,and no longer receive such replies.
Regards
William Russell Jones
Cefn Mawr
Wrexham.
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A GR member contacted me a few months ago and I replied that we did in fact have a match (cousins by marriage). I have not heard anything from them since. Which is a shame as it is on my late Dad's side of the family who we have not seen/spoken to for many years.
Angel
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My latest G.R grouse is that recently i was contacted by a very young member [ i was allowed to see their tree] they had over 3 thousand on their tree and i found that a bit 'iffy' at such a young age but nevertheless the person they where enquiring about was deffinately 'one of mine' so i offered to send them more info about this person. Offer accepted and i sent quite a bit of information on to them. Haven't heard a dickie bird since. Their tree has vanished and not a 'ta' in sight. To add to that, the fact that i didn't have time to note anything from their tree from the short time i had access ::)
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That's a new trick. And a nasty one. >:(
What is it with some people? ::)
meles