RootsChat.Com
Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: missjo123 on Monday 26 April 04 14:58 BST (UK)
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Hiya
I was wondering if anyone had found the site genesconnected of any use to them. Ive looked at it now about 5 times and am wondering if its worth signing up for, i know its only cheap for the year, but wondering if that money is worth going towards something else to help me in my research.
Many thanks
Josie
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I found two second cousins which was very exciting. Many people have found relatives. It has not helped me get back any further though.
Depends what you want really. Might be worth waiting until you see someone you recognise but as you say it is very cheap.
Sylviaann
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I have found the site invaluable. I found my fathers cousin who has been researching the tree for three years and had taken the Woodman line back to approx 1590.
Together we have also found a few other cousins who have added their details to the tree.
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I'm on it, I've had lots of emails but no finds as yet. I've made contact with 3 distant cousins all found with a trusty Google and the fantastic Rootsweb.
A wee tip I worked out for genesconnected, if you hover over a name possibly in your tree it gives you a member ID (at the bottom), if you find another possible for your tree and hover over that and it is the same member ID then I'd pay the £5 to contact a fellow cousin.
:'( I haven't found anyone yet :'(
Pam
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I would say that there are sites other than GC where you can post your tree for free, and Rootschat for free where you can get lookups. What extra are you going to get out of GC for your 7.50?
I freely admit to bias. I came to Rootschat after I had been a member of Genesconnected for over two years. My ability to post there as a fee-free member was withdrawn overnight, without warning and without any notification or explanation being put on the site.
GC's customer care *was* abysmal (Making changes without warning, making their members pay for a new year after only 11 months' membership, member-to-member messages not being delivered, site crashes)
I would have to say that I have seen a faster turnaround of queries on here that I did on Genes, and a far greater willingness to bash away at brick walls/answer the simplest question. The moderators on here seem to see it as their job to make sure that no-one is left without a response to their query. Any moderation on Genesconnected seemed to be removing messages with f-words and anything with a web addresses.
I could not for example, have posted a list of useful sites for anyone to pursue, as GC removed any sting with a .uk or .com or an '@'.
I've finished slagging them off now. I'll be back at my census name indexing tomorrow.
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I do have to agree with Pauline that Genesconnected, although I found it invaluable for that one family line, is not really up to much when compared with other sites like this.
I guess the main thing with sites like this though is that the owner and moderators have the same interests as us posters, i.e searching for their family history.
One of my main bugbears with genesconnected is simply that you don't always get a reply from people you email, even if it is a simple 'sorry' and it then makes me wonder why on earth people even bother posting their trees if they aren't interested in furthering their research by replying to queries.
I have to say that thanks to this site here I have been able to break down two major brick walls and the links are amazing.
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Hi All
It seems to be about 5 nil to us at the moment.
Over the years I have tried most sites and found non that suits me or works better or more consistant than this one.
Compared to others Rootschat has only a small membership but is still able to find answers for most quieres even though it is sometime a 'sorry'.
Having said all that I would not knock anyone for trying and Genes and sister site Friendsreunited do have a lot of 'names', however having to pay £7.50 just to see them is a bit steep.
Well thats me done
6 nil
peterbennett
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I have to agree also.I have a friend at work who has been toying with the idea of doing his family tree for a while but was a bit put off with all the fee paying sites and the none fee paying sites.I have been doing my tree now for 3 years and told him i have had more help from this site Rootschat than any other site i have been on.I cant praise Rootschat enough everyone is marvelous and i am so pleased i found them.I might just add that he has joined Rootschat and is well impressed.So as far as i am concerned who needs to pay for anything when rootschat is doing such a good job.Thankyou Rootschat.Anne. ;)
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Hi there
I found Genesconnected a total waste of web space.
I get umpteen queries from people who have the same surname as one of my distant long lost ancestors back in the 1600 or 1700, and their first comment is usually, "I think we may be related" even though my ancestor was in Cheshire and theirs was in Devon.
Do they not stop to think that the furthest anybody went in those dark distant days was usually the next village.
As I said before A TOTAL WASTE of MY TIME and their WEB SPACE.
Chris in 1066Land
and that was before Rootschat ever came along!!
On here I have made some very good friends, done lots of lookups and research for others as my postings show - but have received some invaluable help in return towards furthering my own research from other's on rootschat.
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I think you can still get some use out of GC without paying, I've found some pointers, nothing concrete, concentrations of names etc. There are some good researchers on there - I have to agree on the service side though, shoddy.
Hayho. Rootschat is great, I wouldn't spend so much time here otherwise!! I still use Rootsweb a lot as well. The Cumberland list in particular is fantastic, it isn't so strictly run as others where you get constantly shouted at by Admin!!
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Hi all,
I used GC for a while, without the signup, and I found nothing to help me. Than I found this site. Need I say more?
I occaisionally revisit GC but staill have not found anything to further my research while I have received invaluable help from Rootschat, and made some good friends. You know who you are. ;)
We should remember that Rootschat is still relatively (no pun intended :D) small, the bigger it gets the more help we will all benefit from.
Kazza.
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i've had quite a bit of sucess on gennesconnected but have to agree with others that i get cheesed off with the "HappyGenesConnected error '800a9c68' "messages and also the fact that people just dont bother to reply. makes me wonder if my messages are actually getting through.
i always make a point of replying whenever i get a query.
Also of course, another annoyance is,when you get to share / view a tree the time it takes to load ::)
Basically, the idea of the site is good,tho [incidently the site is down again tonight >:(
talking of moderators and posts,does anyone visit http://www.policeorders.co.uk/ ? now that site has gone downhill of late, totally unmoderated.shame, cos it used to be a good site.
jaq
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I had never heard of it until I read this thread but I had a look. I found a name that could be my 'missing' uncle. I only have a name, place of birth and approximate dob (birth wasn't registered) but the person on GC fits everything that I have.
I have registered because the fee will be well worth it if it's the right person. If I don't get a reply then I'll be very disappointed
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I joined GC last year when I began to look into our family history. I hardly knew how to turn on the computor let alone embark on research.
So I have to say as a real beginner I found it very usefull. However like any site it is only as good as it's members and I think it peaked around Christmas time. Since then it has taken a downturn.
I have to agree with Pauline the overnight dumping of the non paying members was a disgrace, they lost a lot of very helpfull people. I e.mailed them to tell them my views and got their standard reply.
Now that I have found RootsChat I am considering whether to renew my membership, after all it's the cost of another certificate.
Suey
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;D
Hi,
Its been very useful for me. Have found others researching their trees and have been able to get information going back to 1773 from another distant family member.
Worthwhile!
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Hi David,
Welcome to Rootschat - glad you brought this thread back to life. I was contacted by a cousin just last week through GC we have the same 5xggrandparents. It's great fun when that happpens. We are on the same conundrum.
Pam
;D
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Hi All,
I only became a paying member of GC about a month ago, and if I'd found Rootschat earlier, I wouldn't have bothered ;) I've got nothing particular against GC - I've found a lot of useful info on there to help me get started - but this site is far better, in the way everything's organised, so you can look for specific advice, rather than just picking it up by being lucky enough to read the right threads. I was contacted by three distant cousins through GC before I paid to join, and the only thing that would make me stay a paying member at the end of the year, is that the "improvements" GC have made, means it can now be very difficult for a free member to have any contact with a paying one. That said, I've been spending far more time here than on GC since I found you all, so maybe I won't miss GC too much anyway! I think this site is fantastic ;D
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Hi Silvilocks
Welcome to Rootschat
Thanks for all those compliments - the members on here are a great bunch of Lads and Lasses.
The sooner you post your interests, the sooner we can all start looking for you
I can see them all now, twitching fingers at the ready on their mouse ;D
Nice to have you with us
Chris in 1066Land
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...and the only thing that would make me stay a paying member at the end of the year, is that the "improvements" GC have made, means it can now be very difficult for a free member to have any contact with a paying one.
Hiya Silvilocks,
And welcome...
Not sure about the access thing with GC - I've never paid and seem to be able to see everything... Whoops :o
But y'right, this place is better ;)
P ;D
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The sooner you post your interests, the sooner we can all start looking for you
I can see them all now, twitching fingers at the ready on their mouse ;D
Chris in 1066Land
Thanks for the welcome! Interests duly posted - at the expense of the housework, but I can always see when a sacrifice needs to be made ;D
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Hi Silvilocks
You say that you have posted your interests - Where are they?
Board shows you have only made two postings, which are both below
Has something gone wrong?
Chris in 1066Land
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Hi Silvilocks
You say that you have posted your interests - Where are they?
Board shows you have only made two postings, which are both below
Has something gone wrong?
Chris in 1066Land
Trying this as a test... think I have a major problem with the Net tonight ??? I did post in the London thread, but it certainly didn't make it there. I've also had problems on other sites tonight. May not be around much until I've tracked the problem down.
*Don't anyone mention 'virus'. I can't afford to lose a third PC to one!*
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Hi silvilocks,
I am having problems also with net I have braodband but its to slow to catch the cold I've got!! ::)
as to genesconnected its called Genes Reunited now by the way
when I was first starting I found it good and the threads were a happy place but unfortunately there has been lots of complaints lately and anyway I found Rootschat and well need I say more ;D ;D ;D
sandie
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...just to let you in to a little secret, we're bringing out a similar system to them where you will be able to search for links between your tree and other people.. we are still testing it... but the thing is - it will be as free as the rest of RootsChat is... that is of course if you think it would be of benefit to you. :)
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Hey Trystan,
Sssshhhhh!!! I thought that this was our secret !!
I think that everyone knows that we are as bad as them for researching our ancestors.
We are busy thinking up new ideas all the time, if anyone has any good ideas why not let us know !
RootsChat :)
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I am a member of Genes Reunited and have made contact with a 3rd cousin. We have swapped family tree information which has been quite exciting. Since then, I have not yet made any further connections, but am still waiting in vain!!!
I am very impressed with this site, everyone is so helpful. I would be very interested to hear more about the new search facility between trees that is currently in the testing stage. I will be one of the first to use it.
Well done for such a fantastic site.
Jan
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I have posted 78 queries and messages on GC in the last 18 months and had 34 replies. Of the 34 replies 18 were 2nd,3rd,4th cousins etc.
I have managed to 'add' 57 names to the tree.
I have been on Rootschat for I month and found 2 more distant cousins ,recvd. information on lookup requests which in turn has helped me add 44 more names to the tree.Seems like Rootschat wins on average.
Also Rootschat is much easier to use than most Gensites, and it is FREE!
Congrats to the creators of Rootschat
Tom
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hi - i also am a member of GC - i joined in april after finding my mums details on there - after all how many yvonne derhams born in nov 1943 can there be??
quite disappointed though because the contact turned out to be my sister!!! - didnt find out til i sent them an e mail asking if we were related - she thought i was being funny! - didnt i feel stupid :-[
anyway - i have found a few family members, however the atmosphere of the site has changed totally since i joined.
it has become very nasty & you feel obliged to say thank you fifty thousand times to the person who has replied - or might have replied - or even thought about replying for fear of offending someone!!!
i have only been here a few days and already i feel welcome & i know that people genuinely want to help - rather than scoring points against each other >:(
well my rant over ;D
i would only join if there were lots of relatives i recognised!!
pootle26
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I hope Chris has polished up his 'Oracle' because I have directed three Sussex researchers to RootsChat from GC in the last few days..
If they can read my e.mails I'll probably get kicked off the site - oops!
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Using Genes Reunited I found a long-lost cousin who was researching our grandmother's line - very useful. On his own initiative he looked for some information on my own paternal line at Islington and as a result I found, and have met, a half-sister and half-brother whom I never new existed - children of my father from a marriage after divorce from my own mother.
In turn I have been able to help him with some of his own research.
However, I would agree that on the negative side I have come across postings by people who are clearly related to me but who do not bother to reply to emails.
The annual fee is of little importance - I spend much more than that every week on research. I think that all possible lines of family information should be investigated and kept open.
But, perhaps my views are different because I am probably much older than most Rootshat members [at 70] and I am a bloke! I seem to sense that most members are women.
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Hi Suey
Thanks
Wondered where the extra e-mails were coming from
Thught it might have been from my new site - it went live this weekend (Thanks to rootschat & Trystan)
http://www.rootschat.com/history/hastings
Send em all over - will be hapy to help
Chris in 1066Land
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Hi All
Well, what can I say :'(
Got to change my opinion of Genes Connected / Reunited or whatever they choose to call themselves.
Been with them since they started, paid the £5 to register, or whatever it was, but did not pay the 7.50 to re-register - as no enquiries had been forthcoming.
Today I recieved through them, a message from Austrailia from my wifes aunty Gill who moved out there in 1972 (32 years ago) asking if we were connected and was trying to trace her brother (my father in law). - e-mailed her back immeadiately.
This is the first contact we have ever had with her or her family - Wow, cant wait for Australia to wake up so that she can reply back to us.
Chris in 1066Land
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Chris,
What fab news, I am excited for you both. ;D
Kazza.
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Hi
At 9.54am our time this morning, we got a long e-mail from her and some pictures including their new retirement home in a village for over 55's in
Cobram Victoria - Portland Village
They spotted an article on Genes Reunited in a weekly english newspaper - 'International Express' and just tried it out.
The rest will soon be history
They last had contact with the family in the 1970's when her grandmother died.
Great in it
Chris in 1066Land
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That's lovely, makes me wish I had some long losts to get in touch with, I suppose I have, just don't know about them yet. ;D
Kazza.
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It does appear that GenesConected is offline for the moment.
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I think a site is only as good as its members!
I have 'met' some nice people on this site, on genesconnected/reunited, on Colin's tracingyourfamilyhistory.com, rootsweb mailing lists, 1914-1918.net ... etc!
On GC / now called GR, a nice person has put together a list of useful websites, and it does include this one. Someone called Kelly has advertised her own site on GC / GR which I think is totally unethical. Advertise other people's yes - in fact I have advertised this one on GC - but to advertise your own ain't right! (I think).
Joy
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Hi all
I've been a member of GC since its inception, with no results at all!
It so annoys me when ppl do not reply to queries, which must have occurred in 50% of the cases, but that is not the fault of GC.
However, 24 hours after joining RootsChat I have already had help in my research. I rest my case!
I have already recommended this site to a friend.
Rosalyn :)
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I agree totally,
I'm also pretty fed up now they have changed everything. I have not been able to access the site for over 24 hours now, I can't contact somebody I need to as you can now only do this via the site.
Not good enough GC.
Rootschat and other sites will definately flourish, they are more user friendly and don't let a minority of people rule the boards.
Diane
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I have to say, in defending the silent ones on GC/GR, I didn't even know I had messages! I put my tree on it when it first started and the site had been redeveloped and I visited occassionally but I never saw the message centre and there was no messages to me saying I had any contacts waiting.
A couple of months ago I found the message centre and there were about 20 messages, the shame of it! I have now replied to them - one was a year old :-[
Pam
;D
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What a shame you hadn't seen them before, Pam!
Joy
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Only the first contact is through them after that you can e-mail as you would normally.
That change was bought in because people complained that they were not recieving e-mails.
Talking of success i made contact on my first day which i very surprised to do so, and have made several since then but none on my side of the tree which is a little bit annoying :(
Steve.
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Hi again
I had a similar experience to Pam
Until that fantastic message came through last week - I had not heard anything.
Imagine my surprise to go into the message box and find 30+ messages posted in the last 12 months.
I apologised to them all (luckily non were related - just general enquiries) and I explained to them about rootschat.
Since then 3 of those have replied and said they would definitely log on to this message board.
Chris in 1066Land
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Thats been the problem many times, you are supposed to receive a notification that somebody has contacted you. These weren't getting through.
Now you get a message somebody has contacted you but you can only access them via the site. You have to physically write your e mail on the reply to get a personal message going as in the terms and conditions it specifies e mail addresses can't be given out over the system.
Diane
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I only paid my subscription to GC after I had found 3 or 4 names which tied up with "my" names, dates and places. I have succeeded in making contact with 5 "new" cousins, one of whom we recently visited when we were on holiday in the UK. So it does have its positive side.
On the other hand, what I cannot get my head around, is people who have posted their trees, and then do not bother to follow up contacts. In the last 4 weeks or so I have contacted several people with possible connections. Most of them turn out to be blind alleys, but that is to be expected with names like Williams and Jones in Wales.
However, 2 have responded positively, i.e. that there would appear to be a connection, but its left at that. No attempt at confirming the link at all. No further response to messages.
Why do they bother in the first place?
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It makes me think a lot of people see the link on Friends and just put some names on and do no more. >:(
They are not really doing family history. It would be good if they could somehow have a clause making replying part of the terms and conditions. But I can't see a way of enforcing it.
I have had many not reply, one way or the other. Some of my names are not common and still no reply.
Diane :(
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I think Diane is right - I have e.mailed someone four times in as many months, she has a family on GR who are indirectly related to one of my hubbies rellies. I have a contact in Australia who has a lot of info on that particular family, at the end of the day it's her loss but as D ap D says if you're not interested in following up, why bother putting your info in :-\
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I've had some success on GR in particular one cousin who had a mass of information on one side of the family, but am getting pretty fed up with the difficulty in accessing any part of the site save for the home page.
I also don't see the point in people putting no estimated date of birth or area (obviously when the relation is still living that makes a difference) but how the hell are you supposed to know wether a name might link to yours if you don't have a clue where they come from?
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I also don't see the point in people putting no estimated date of birth or area (obviously when the relation is still living that makes a difference) but how the hell are you supposed to know wether a name might link to yours if you don't have a clue where they come from?
I must admit, some of my "lesser" members of the tree also appear as "not known". However, I am remedying this as I go along. The reason is that I didn't enter a date of birth in my "tree programme" as I only have a date of baptism, so I entered this with location in the relevant place. When the Gedcom exported this, there was obviously not DoB or PoB, as these are in the christening info , which is not generally available to view.
Needless to say, I have also corrected this in my tree.
Another thing that gets on my nerves from time to time is the location. The spelling is atrocious, some people put things like "Wales, England", some use the old counties, some the new, some none at all, some put in the road and house number, so looking for one family in one place involves searching several variations of the one place. I wish GC would introduce a convention that most people could then stick to.
That would save time online and nerves.
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Hi all,
I payed my fee for Genes and was really excited to find other people searching for the same ancestors as me ;D, but 6 months later and apx 15-20 messages sent to others on the site I have received 1 reply :'(. This reply was from a man who said the person I contacted him about was actually his brother in law (deceased) and he would speak to his sister and get back to me, he never did.
I'm not one of these people who just contact anyone with the same surname, but knowing that you're researching the only family with this name in a place/area its very frustrating >:( >:(.
I would not recomend Genes to anybody, I would agree with Chris this site is a waste of money and webspace.
Sorry, starting to rant
Ange :'(
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>:( I have just been reading through (almost) all the genes connected replies. I joined Genes at the very beginning and for the most part have found it very useful, plenty of feedback etc up until the last few months. The face of the site has changed and the tone of some of the replies is almost rude. I won't be renewing my membership and find this site far friendlier.
Lyn
>:(
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Have to agree with you.
I joined about 18 months ago. I renewed in May and wish I hadn't bothered.
Everything has changed for the worse. All the so called improvements have caused hassle. Too much back biting etc., very unpleasant at times. A handful of people seem to think they are in charge.
I've had lots of help in unrelated subjects, re computer etc., but what I went on there for, to connect with other researchers just hasn't happened. :(
Diane
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Hi,
I actually wondered the same, but then I was contacted by my cousin whom I hadn't seen for over 30 years. He'd found me on the site so I had to register to get his email address. For me, it was £7.50 well spent.
I also found another possible cousin but have not heard from him yet.
Otherwise I'm not sure that I would spend the money again- you can get a Birth certificate copy for about the same.
Regards ,Olly
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I signed up and paid my money, but was very disappointed. I think their system is a bit 'hit and miss'. I have made no connections at all. But maybe it is like alot of things, given time and the growing interest in genealogy, the site will improve.
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Amy,
I don't want to put people off Genes, the site itself is useful and it is fascinating to be able to look at other trees when you make a connection. I didn't have a lot of luck at the beginning but have over time found a lot of contacts.
It seems to be the people on the site that have changed, very condescending to newbies which is putting people off asking questions, we all have to start somewhere.
If you have paid your money persevere for a while.
Lyn ;) ;)
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I agree, there seems to be a handful of people on there at the moment determined to cause trouble and bad feeling, it all kicked off again last night.
Not at all pleasant. :(
Diane
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I agree with Lynn and Diane, the users have changed. There seems to be more people there who get offended easily and more self-appointed thought police (PCBUBs) and a lot of threads on the "general topics" are squabbles, apologies, "lets get back to being friendly", etc, etc.
But if you forget the "general topics" and just visit "tips" and "record office", there are, as on here, lots of friendly, helpful people, doing look-ups, sharing useful links and info.
I shall stay there for now, but I won't bother renewing, when my subscription runs out !
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Definately Bob,
I renewed in May and from memory the bad feeling started a couple of weeks previously. I wish I hadn't bothered now.
It's a great shame as when I first went on there everything was so different. I didn't use the boards for quite a few months and then discovered them one day and had a lot of help and tried to help when I could in return.
But as I said a handful of people have totally changed the whole dynamics of it.
Every thread quite quickly turns into a slanging match on the general board.
You don't need it.
Diane
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I signed up and paid my money, but was very disappointed. I think their system is a bit 'hit and miss'. I have made no connections at all. But maybe it is like alot of things, given time and the growing interest in genealogy, the site will improve.
Well, serves me right!!!
The very person I have been trying to get in contact with about our tree, got in touch with me!! Yes thats right, through genesconnected.....
Restores my faith a bit
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... The very person I have been trying to get in contact with about our tree, got in touch with me!! Yes thats right, through genesconnected.....
Restores my faith a bit
I bet that one person read this thread, had a guilty concience and that spurred him/her to get in touch. You never know......
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Genes Reunited have been a great help to me a fairly new member. This is my first look at RootsChat and spotted someone offering to help about a cemetry. So i quickly left a message. I am trying to find my way around looks pretty good. regards Pam down-under
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Welcome to the site Pam, hope you find the information you were looking for, and much more besides!!
Best Wishes
Amy
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Hi Down Under
Welcome to rootschat, we hope that whilst yo are with us, we can help you further your ancestral quest.
I bet at this moment there are several members, all with itchy mouse fingers awaiting your lookup requests
Chris in 1066Land
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I must say I struck it lucky on the site. I have found my Granddad's sister's granddaughter, does that make sense? and my Granddads sister is still alive, just turned 99! so that was great for me, worth my money..
It has a placebo effect with me. When I need my " fix" of information I log onto genes and feel I'm doing and finding something! I also recommend Rootschat while there.
I really do not like their message system.
Thanks, thats my bit for the day... ele..
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I still use Genesconnected as I have found lovely rellies in Australia and France whom I wouldn't have found otherwise, and they have helped me and vice versa trace our familes. I think it has improved a lot recently, and they notify me when I get an email. Only last week I was contacted by someone who has just begun tracing our family, so I have been able to help her. I shall certainly be renewing my subscription later this month.
Su
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I will renew my sub to GR also - in the last couple of weeks I have been contacted by two people looking at names on hubbies side of family, alas no one as yet for my side but I live in hopes.
The name search facility is worth the sub but I agree the message system is pants! I nip over every now and again to have a look round the boards and can sometimes find something of interest.
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I used rootsweb a lot until I found rootschat. I like the formate of this Much better. A lot easier to get around on this site and people here actually communicate with one another. Here it is as of you are talking to friends. And here folks actually Help!
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I just tried that site again. There is one man listed w/info which Might be about my John Jenkins but to even contact him I must pay. What if I pay, contact him and then it turns out the info is Not about my family? I will have paid for nothing. I dislike sites which let you put info in for free but then charge others to see that info. They are making money off Our knowledge and Our work.
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I joined genesconnected about a year-and-a-half ago. I made a couple of good contacts.
I was disappointed that names of very close ancestors appeared on the website, but when I tried contacting the person responsible I quickly found that the same person had put lots of other names on the site - clearly not related to them all. I wonder if it is a ruse to get people to sign up when they see one of their close relatives names?
I didn't renew my subscription!
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Genesconnected: Disappointing!
Just to make the point. I searched for various people including my g.g.g.g.grandfather, g.g.g.grandfather ... down to my own mother (below). I submitted these names, so I know they are there; however, I notice that someone else has submitted the same names, except they are a little vague about places and middle names. I see that the same member is responsible for all of them. Strange! Now the name below belongs to my late mother, so I'm surprised that someone else is researching her family tree. Needless to say, when I mailed this person, when I was a paid up member, I never received a reply. Something smells rotten!
Name: Victoria Cady
Born: 1945
Birth place: Unknown
Added by Lesley - member no. 216878
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I am a member of genesconnected,I have find several of my father's family back to my g.g.g.grandfather,personally I think it's worth every penny of £7.50
good luck
Jane
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I started to add my names to Genes Reunited then wonderd if i was doing the right thing.Has anyone had any dealings with them and do you think its worth a go.Anne.
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I have been a member of Genes for nearly two years but must confess to be getting more and more disallusioned with them as I have a list of complaints, one being lack of response from them.
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I've been a member for a long time and while I haven't made any useful contacts it can't do any harm. You never know when someone might byou.e looking for
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Thankyou both for your reply,i think i will give it a try,anything to sort out this mess of paperwork everywhere.I can never put my hand straight onto something i need i have to search for half an hour and usually give up.Thanks again.Anne.
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Hi everyone I have found 3rd cousins on both of my parents lines through Genes Reunited and people have been very helpful doing lookups, give it a go we all need all the help we can get in this game regards to all, Maureen
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Hi all, just to add my 2penarth. I've been on there for about 9months. It has been both rewarding and frustrating at same time. When people dont reply to queries,(usually because they have given up with site and left) & you know they have a vital link,then it is a pain.
On the other hand I have made some great discoveries on there & met some good folks.
On balance,worth sticking it out.
rgds
Gazza
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We have touched upon this subject before, so I will merge the threads, you will get more views that way.
Kazza.
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Just to clarify, Genes Reunited and Genes Connected are the same site.
Kazza.
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hi
I too have found relatives from both sides of my tree on Genes Reunited and 1 of which never even knew her mother had 17 brothers & sisters!
thanks serena
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Hi everyone, I"m very new to this site and feel I must say how brilliantly friendly and helpful everyone is.
As for GenesReunited, I have mixed feelings. Some of the people I have contacted have been polite & friendly & others have been down right rude. I have had 2 separate replies which I feel were particularly undeserved. No.1- "This is not my ancestor", No.2- "Not in my tree". I dont know why some people take this attitude. Surely they would expect a civil reply if they were to e-mail you or I with a query.
Anyway, you folks on this site are brilliant & I found you by accident!!!!
Regards,Viv!
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Hi Viv,
Recently I had notification of a possible contact from Genes Reunited. When I visited the site to read the message I found that they now give you the chance to send an auto reply where you only have to click from a list of options. It looks like your people may have taken the lazy way out and done just that. Although I have not received one of those myself I agree that it does not take long to type a few polite words in reply.
Happy Hunting and enjoy Rootschat.
Kind Regrads, Frances
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Hi Viv
I agree with your comments about Genes Reunited. I have contacted people and have received the same answers as yourself plus one NO! which I believe was uncalled for. Also I have freely given information I hold on my many family lines and not once have I received a thank you back - in fact details I gave a contact , which I had not had time to post, was listed under their name - again no thank you. This was a distant relative :( :( I don't mind sharing, don't get me wrong, but a simple thank you goes a long way. Also on Genes Reunited I have noticed that a lot of postings have either no time frame or towns or counties listed. I do not follow up on these and I doubt if these posts receive many enquiries.
This is a brilliant site Viv and like you I also found the site by accident. Everyone is so willing to help each other out whenever they can. One big family and getting bigger by the day ;D ;D ;D
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I have contacted about four people through Genesconnected and I have received four polite replies.
Two of my contacts were able to provide very useful information and one of those went to some trouble to find information for me.
So let's not get carried away, eh?
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I think "some" of the problem is with the auto-response they have. It is impersonal and can come across as rude.
P
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I have been a member of genesreconnected since it was started and paid my subscription as it seems a small price to pay if you can further your family tree. Well I've spotted people who may be related to me by the ancestors listed and emailed them. I've had a 50/50 reply ratio and always nice polite replies from those who have responded. Up until a weeks ago I'd not found any links matching my families but their new improved search facility came up with a match for my great great great grandfather. I messaged the lady who had posted his details. No reply. I started to get a little stressed as it was obvious it was definitely the same person...still no contact...then yesterday out of the blue a really lovely informative email from the lady in question who'd tried to message me back 3 times. She included her home email address in her message to me and we are now in direct contact.
I'm thrilled to have found someone who actually has a link with my family at last, especially as we've never had any direct contact with that side of the family at all. Already I have recieved the family gedcom via email with certificate copies winging their way to me as I type..I only have to work out how to split the family on my side that is of interest to her to return the gedcom and info.
Either ways guess I'm saying I think it was well worth the money as it's added a few more names to my tree and I'm gained some cousins removed that I didn't know about
Del
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one further thought.If you think about,you have to be really lucky to find a relly via this method.I think the percentage of population with a PC in the UK is still quite low. Then out of those remaining with PC's,do they have broadband?(Not a requirement but helps)
Then of those ,do they have time to do research in our busy lives we lead these days?(many workplaces block such personal usage during worktime.)
Finally those % with PC,do they have the inclination or interest in family tree research? From my own experience & reading others comments on various posts not many do sadly. One can only hope it is a genetic thing that sends us on these mad obsessive quests researching our tree's & that others within the tree somwhere share that gene :)
Those that are lucky enough to find a connection I would suggest they go and buy a lottery ticket quickly!
Having said all, that never give up. Each day that goes by the odds increase in our favour..... ;D
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I think for £7-50 you can't go wrong, You only need to pay that if you want to get in touch with someone or post on their message boards, to search the for names is free.
With over 25 million names on the site and over 112,000 added within the last 24 hours you do have a good chance of a match.
Maybe I'm just lucky ;) but i made contact with a researcher who took a small part of my tree back to the 1500'S (with sources) on my first day.
I have made contact with over 20 people researching my tree and several of them have put me in touch with others researching my tree.
But i have had a least half a dozen definite relatives not respond to my messages :'( but i have not let that colour my feelings toward the site.
My subscription is up tomorrow and i will definitely be renewing.
I do find though that there any many people on the site who only have themselves in their tree or just a handful of people, for best results you need to put most or all of your tree on there.
Steve.
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I've got to say I've had about 50/50 sucess from the site. Have had 3 positive connections another 1 who might be connected when she has done a bit more research and am still wait for 2 reply on e-mails. I have sent one who I pretty sure is connected to me which is frustrating
I put rootschat and my site name on my post so RachelK contacted me on here and now we're helping each other :) (with a lot of help from CharlieRalph)
Got to say I have not had any contact at all from the Genes Reunited site though even though they seem to think their system is foolproof
I agree they way people sometimes put things down ie location can make it more confusing
Maybe when more people start searching it will make connection easier
Willow x
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I have no objection to paying for family history research, I have probably paid thousands of pounds over the years on this hobby, but I do find the idea of paying £7.50 for the honour of telling others what I have found and having to pay to help other researchers quite appalling – it is also a waste of money as there are so many free services available – Rootschat, Rootsweb mailing lists, Brit-Gen boards, Ancestry county and surname boards, World Connect Tree, Tribal Pages – to name just a few. I would have thought that most serious FH researchers – those who can help take you tree back some generations who use the internet would be members of one or more of these free sites. They can usually be found through a good search engine.
If anybody wants to see if they are related to me without paying £7.50 for the pleasure my tree is on
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=alwynaphuw (http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=alwynaphuw)
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GenesReunited attracts a lot of newbies who wouldn't know about the other ways of contacting other researchers or using other message boards/mailing lists/newsgroups.
GenesReunited is not a site for helping each other with look-ups (even though you can do that on one of their boards) it is primarily for matching names in your tree to names in other trees.
I don't want to wait for people to contact me i want to contact them and for £7-50 i don't mind doing that, Many people on GenesReunited will more than likely never look further than that site and so will never get to know about my tree or anybody else's. ;)
Steve.
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I reached the stage with my tree where I had most of the direct line sorted out (after a fashion) and am trying to work out what else I can do short of actually visiting register offices hundreds of miles away. I figured that if somebody spots a link to me through GenesReunited, then hopefully they can provide me with more information. The same goes in reverse. I am yet to join as a full member and none of the approaches I had as yet are from rellies, but I have spotted some of my known ancestors in other people's trees so know I can get something out of it.
If a link is established and I supply the other person with (say) the details on 200 mutual relations and get 20 back in return, I'm not bothered about any inequality - I look at it as providing me with 20 sets of details I would have had to work hard for in other ways. It's a bit like giving relatives your whole tree and getting nothing in return. You'er sowing the seed and from tiny acorns...
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Hi Bryanbid. Cahat button ??? What is that please?
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Bryanbid - delighted you found us - I hope everybody who goes on genesconnected mentions RootsChat :) :)
Gazza - I think he means the "chat" button (it's at the top right for people who are logged in)
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Ahh, I see. I thought it was some new genealogy source I was missing out on :)
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My experience so far is, after nearly 6 months on genesconnected and a similar amount of time on Rootschat is that on the genesconnected site most people who have contacted me have been keen to pursue the whereabouts of quite recent - I mean living- and often quite young members of their own families who for one reason or another they have lost touch with. There seems little in-depth interest in the distant past or genealogy itself - the whole approach is for a quick hit and then, as others have found, not even a thank-you or a single word of acknowledgement.
Recently I have been plagued by someone wanting quite sensitive info about a living relative of mine which I am unable to give. This person's messages are, for want of a better description, nothing more than quick text-messages.
As regards Genealogy and Family History, Rootschat versus genesconnected just isn't a contest at all. I really think they ought to stick to their FriendsReunited site, which is quite a good concept.
I must admit I haven't read through all posts on the 7 pages of this thread, so I hope I have not gone over the same old ground TOO much!
Keith
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There are all types of people on GR i myself have helped people with nothing to do with my family or even the area I am interested in. I have seen the can you help and have searched for then and I hope the information given was of help. Sometimes that extra date or person breaks down a wall for them to go on. And I have been thanked.
Sometimes on RootsChat I have been ignored. Even if the information was not what they needed, I did try for them. I have only access to certain areas and do my best.!!
I like this site very much and also like GR I was helped quite a lot in the beginning when I asked on GR. I had felt like giving up. It was from GR i was told about this site. They are always giving the name of sites to help others.
On RootsChat I have asked for help for a friend and was greatly helped. Also One side of my family. My grandfathers sister was found. I was profoundly greatful for all the help.
But for the rest I have been searching for no help. It has not detered me I keep looking and one day I will post again maybe a new member might be able to help me.
I, if I ask on GR say my ancesters name and their parents and siblings and say are they connected .
I do not ask to look at their tree. Usually I am emailed back saying thay are not and good luck with my search.
Kindest Regards
Pam
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Down-under - I looked at some of the help postings you have made - like for Dogwood. Neither you nor the other member who contributed were thanked. I even looked to see if he had ever used the boards again but he did, as recently as 14th January!
Regrettably, quite a few people pitch up on these boards and post enquiries which are answered well and promptly but it never occurs to them to say a simple Thanks. I suspect that I have over 200 postings that were never acknowledged. Such is life and such is society.
However, the pace of activity on Rootschat is furious and hundreds of posts are being answered all the time. Some posts lead to fascinating mini-debates.
I have found on GR that it is pretty sterile. You make a posting and every few months someone pops up and,seeing you have a name in common with them, asks if you know where their father went when he walked out. Or someone says "I am interested in the Jenkins family in South Wales". 8)
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I agree with you Hack - sterile is a good word to describe genesconnected. However it's functional and after a year I'm still averaging one new contact a week ...some who want my info, others who can add to it.
Rootschat is just a different animal. I've "met" loads of great fellow obsessives, learnt an awful lot and been able to feel I'm making a useful contribution.
As for those who don't says thanks, well I just bypass their queries next time round!
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I have recently been contacted by someone from GR, turns out my Great Grandpa and her 2 x Great Grandpa were brothers, we have given each other several names for our Trees, the biggest bonus for me was a photograph of my Great Uncles daughter and her hubby :D
As for the folk looking for living rellies, I think that has come about because of the name change of the site from Genesconnected to 'reunited.
I agree with Heather though, GR is a very different animal.
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Suey - that was very perceptive of you. Thank you. Of course - it started out to find people with common ancestors and then they grafted on Friends Reunited or something like that. That is why there are so many people looking for their sister or parent. I am glad you have done so well there ;D
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Hello Hackstable
You are right RootsChat is fast and furious. I do enjoy it immensely, and Gr is quieter. Different type of site, but also caring people like RootsChat. With the fires round Perth WA members posted their worries and were we safe. Quite often on the General topics it can get heated. I Keep away from these threads if I can.
I suppose I should go to the common room to ask this.!! But how do I take my threads off? I have one in about four counties. I am waiting for certificates and would like to take them off in case I have new information to add. I do not want to update. A couple have been on for months with no answers.
Kindest Regards
Pam
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Hi - my two 'pennorth, for what its worth...
I only started with genealogy in November 04. I thought GR would be a good place to build my tree for free, and wasn't immediately interested in contacting others. Eventually I realised that there were quite a few common surnames / places and dates of birth and I bit the bullet and paid my subscription. It was well worth it. I think the site is a bit cumbersome at times, but I have managed to further about six of my lines through GR, including one which unearthered 13 siblings of a ggg grandfather that I knew nothing about (he died young and appeared on only the 1861 and 1871 censuses, away from home).
So, good value - but the mesaging system they use is abysmal.
As for Rootschat - its in a different league! This is a place for interesting discussionand debate, and its members seem to have a genuine interest in helping others, which is rare in this day and age. I wouldn't have been able to get so far without the patience and help of people here.
I've got just about as far back with all lines as I can with census data, and I guess will shortly have to start looking at parish records - and I just know Rootschatters will be able to give me tips and guiance on his.
So, both sites have their value - but for different things!
Paul
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I have just been waiting weeks & weeks for a reply from a gentleman there. Finally got a reply today. It was a bit odd as he had several surnames I was interested in .I thought I must be onto something here or again a strange coincidence!(or a wind-up)..But it turns out he published 33,000 names on GC! So no wonder I got so many matches.
He said he has removed the data now as he got swamped with emails.I wonder why? :D
How on earth does anyone amass 33,000 names in their tree? ???
Has anyone else anywhere near this number?
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A little over 1% :'(
(I suppose if you establish a link with someone else you could in theory add all of the names from their tree into yours. But why would you??? ???)
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HURRAY!!! I have heard from another "distant rellie" via GC. She is a descendant of one of my GGG Uncles who emigrated to New Zealand.
We are going to swap information by email very soon.
That makes 5 very positive contacts that I have made.
Jan :)
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Great news Jan :)
The one nice thing about GR is that you get the occasional message out of the blue from someone who has just registered and 'bingo'. It makes up for all the time spent waiting for certs!
I too have had about 5 positive links, including someone who was able to provide me with a letter written by an uncle of theirs who was in his 80's when he wrote it in 1976, outling how the family came to live in Eston, Durham - which confirmed everything I'd researched and more.
£7.50? Priceless! :)
Paul
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I agree with you Paul :D Definitely worth the £7.50 fee ;)
Two of my contacts only live 40 miles away from me so we are hoping to meet up and swap notes - should be an interesting day :)
Jan :)
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No-one has yet mentioned the blank forms that GR supply for download. These are great for filling in roughly the trees you have so far, especially the Fan-shaped chart.
I must go back to GR - I don't think I have learnt how to use it properly having read all your messages. I spend too much time on this site !!
Mary
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Hi Josie,
I have to say that I have received more help/information in the one week I have been using this site, than I have in the year with GC, so I would say stick with Rootschat.
Sandie
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I've had 2 contacts from distant cousins through GC, one of whom very kindly emailed me copies of an amazing letter written in 1822 by my gggg grandfather about an inheritance - "diamonds and other finery of the same Sort enough to make one Sick" ! - which is absolutely priceless, but the GC site isn't a patch on Rootschat. I've been able to fill in a lot of gaps in my tree thanks to the wonderful helpful people here. :)
Minn
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I too think Rootschat is way ahead of GR, but I wouldn;t want to rule out GR for its potential to make links with other people searching your direct tree.
Paul
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I registered both here and on GR - on GR i have found two contacts both 4 th cousins, one who has managed to fill my tree back to 1711 - id got to 1845
i have to say though, i wouldnt excpect the site to help in the way this site has already - so yes was worth my money
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Having rather maligned GenesReunited about 40 postings ago, I feel I must eat humble pie somewhat, as over the last couple of days or so two individuals who are directly descended from my gt-gt-gt-grandfather Sherwood (through a second marriage of his) have been in contact with me through this site. Very exciting it is, too...
Having admitted that, I still believe Rootschat to be beyond compare!
Keith
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Hello all.
I think GenesReunited is a brilliant web site. Although it cannot compare to the multitude of friendly faces and remarkable resources that RootsChat can boast, I think it was definitely worth my £7.50. Every penny of it, in fact.
Although my own tree has not expanded phenomenally, I have helped several people expand their own trees by sharing my research with them.
I have been in contact with: my Dad's cousin, my mother's cousin (each one of many, I might add!!), my Great Grandmother's brother's Graddaughter in Oz, my Grandmother's cousin's Grandson (his family originates from Staffordshire but he actually lives down the road from me in Exmouth!!), a man who is descended from my GGG Grandfather's brother and another man descended from the same family (descended from my GG Grandfather's brother) who was actually born in the same city as I, Exeter!!
Amazing.
Ryan.
;D
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;D ;D
Since my Dad bought my membership for Christmas I have found:
several people researching the Ferry family from Bethnal Green, ;D
someone researching my Beare family from Bethnal Green, ;D ;D
someone researching my Kearney family from London, ;D ;D ;D
someone researching my Aburn family ;D ;D ;D ;D
a couple of people linked to my Roblett family from Hertfordshire ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
someone who has solved a brick wall and is researching the same Thorogood family from Hertfordshire ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D and....
someone who is researching my mother-in-laws family and has helped me go from about 8 names on my husbands tree - to about 90 !! This lady was first in touch with my mother-in-laws cousin about 20 years ago but lost contact when the cousin died.
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
I'm now getting information that you could not get from anywhere else - however good the official records are - where would they tell you that Uncle Will was a dapper man with a somewhat squeaky voice? Or that Uncle Billy refused to take his daughters to church ever again because of all the comments they got on their lovely long hair ! Or that although an uncle couldn't read and write (although used to 'read' the financial times (upside down!) he owned several pubs in the East End? And used to be a boxer? Or someone died of fright because someone jumped out on them from behind a hedge :o
That's not to say I haven't had a lot of help from Rootschat - because it's top of my list! - but I have found actual 'contacts' through GenesReunited.
Helen x
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Hi everyone,i found this site [rootschat]the best so far,i've tried the rest and found the best,Raine
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I joined GR a couple of days ago in the hopes of knocking down some brickwalls I've had for a long time.
I've already had quite a few contacts but nothing on my early 20c/19c direct lines or slightly collateral which is my main area of interest. Still it's early days so fingers crossed ...
I have shared some info and got back another 4 generations to 1620 on one branch which is nice. I don't mean to sound surly and ungrateful but it's not my particular family research aim - to me it's juat a few more names and dates for Ag Labs ;D
A very different beast from good old friendly informative helpful Rootschat(ters) ;D
Regards
Jonathan
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I currently have 7 people that have direct links to my family on Genes Reunited, the most exciting would be my fathers brother's family and the most distant would be a three shoots of my family from the early 1800's in the last three days I have had three emails and one of them was from another family who I can now directly link to my Grandfathers cousin. Good luck with your research
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Melanie's right - there's a lot of value in Genes Reunited - its the perfect complement to this site!
Paul
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But it turns out he published 33,000 names on GC! So no wonder I got so many matches.
He said he has removed the data now as he got swamped with emails.I wonder why? :D
How on earth does anyone amass 33,000 names in their tree? ???
Has anyone else anywhere near this number?
I've just viewed the tree of someone who probably has around this number maybe more! GR lets you view names in the tree at the rate of 100 per page, and I had to click through literally thousands of names before I reached the 'H's, where my link was lurking. (There were at LEAST 2,500 'B's). It must be someone who has switched from railway spotting to ancestor spotting. :) Never mind the quality...
Paul
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Paul,
After joining GR quite recently, I was initially pro-active about searching out possible matches for my ancestors. Unfortunately, I came across a number of people who replied something like - "sorry (or not as the case may be ;D) I have so many people on my tree, so I'm not able to respond, if you find a definite connection with any of mine let me know". One individual did let me look at their tree which had thousands of seemingly dispirate people on it (looked like a data dump from the IGI or somesuch) and the one I was interested in had no meaninful connections or data.
On the other hand, I have had a little bit of luck too.
But I'm curious why one would do such a thing??
Yours wonderingly
Jonathan
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The 3000 relative thing hmmmm makes you wonder.
I have to admit though I have had great luck on genes connected but on Sunday I sent DH to the library to look something up (In BC Canada we have ancestry.com total membership at the library) and while he was away I googled a name I have been searching for........the results came up as a newspaper article from Australia 1895!!!....it cleared up no end of doubt and gave me tons more info. so from now on I will check out every source and keep my mind open!!
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I just joined GenesReunited a week ago and I finally have a contact in my father's family. And it wasn't from my father's WADSWORTH family either. I swear no one in that family is doing any active research anymore. :P I've lost track of how many queries and emails I've sent to people who I know have the same family members and I've yet to get an answer.
Anyhow, I digress here, the answer to my query came from the CHIPCHASE side of my father's family. In fact, the fellow that answered is the grandson of Thomas, my grandmother's younger brother. I am extremely excited and can hardly wait to exchange information with my new cousin.............Nancy
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I joined Genes Reunited about 6 weeks ago and have had excellent success. I have only had one or 2 people contact me that have not lead to anything of significance. Mostly I have made contact with other people, most of which have had posotive responses. The really great find was someone who contacted me, and is a descendent of my great grandfather's brother. She has been most helpful in sorting out a discrepancy in the exact parentage of my great great grandfather.
I must admit I browsed the site first, and had about 4 or 5 possibles, before I decided to join.
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I joined GR late last year and after a few weeks was contacted by another member expressing interest in one of my families. Gave him all the info I had , some I hadn't had time to post, as well as access to my tree. He posted what I had given him , but when I was granted permission to view his tree, found that a lot of his 1000's of names were just that, with no places or dates attached. ??? ??? It appeared to me that he was only interested in gathering names and needless to say I received nothing in exchange. At least I am getting to know my families by learning about their lives, work etc and this adds to my enjoyment of this obsession called genealogy ;D ;D ;D
Juddee
PS I did meet a rel Jabawak ( fellow RC ) through GenesReunited
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When I joined GR last November, I uploaded my GED file to the site. A fair number of people in my tree have - for example - 'born ABT 1855' along side them, when I'm uncertain of their exact year of birth. I found that with uploading my GED to GR, the year of birth field was automatically changed to a blank, and it's been a real pain to amend this problem. I think this may be why there are so many blanks throughout GR. Whatsmore, for each person in my tree that I have not linked with a spouse, they have automatically been given 'Unknown Unknown' as a partner on my GR tree.
>:(
Otherwise, GR is fantastic. I've had tonnes of success!!
Ryan.
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Ryan
Thanks for that explanation of the missing years etc. I've replied to quite a few of those unknowns, and never receiving a reply, have given up only contacting if the dates or places are shown. The tree I looked at only went back to mid 1800s with dates etc. The names before that were just names to the early 1700s so he may be relying on other people's guesses assuming without any verification. And that is a NO NO in my book :o :o I learnt early on that you always check out any information whether oral or printed :) :) :)
Juddee
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It's evident that you're a very wise lady, Juddee. I'll have to follow your lead and only contact people who have dates and/or places with their relations.
Ryan.
:)
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I haven't joined yet, but have had about a dozen enquiries. None of the first bunch were of any interest - they seemed to be from people sending messages to all rellies with a particular name with no qualification. However, in the last week, I had a message from a lady who sent me a census transcript that was invaluable as it was for a very common name. This relates to one of my brick walls and I was able to go back a further three generations in no time at all as not only diid I have the names, I had the places of birth of the parents, hitherto missing.
I think it's definitely worth leaving your data on GR as it only takes one contact to provide you with some information to make it worth while.
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I have on ballance found it useful and I have discovered three lines in my family that share a common ancestor. The funny thing is we have ll reached the same brickwall!!
I have also managed to find a branch in Canada that I was unaware of, so for me it has been good!
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I've just heard from someone in Australia who is researching my family and has sent me a package of info through the post - so has to have been worth the subscription!
Paul
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Another contact in the last week has led to me finding a 3rd cousin once removed who was able to tell me about my links to the landed gentry and the inevtiably better information that is available about them. I now have the name and date of birth of a 12 x great grandfather ! She has also been able to fill up loads of holes elsewhere in my tree. I'm fast revising my view of Genes Reunited. You need to think long - enter as much data as possible and be prepared to wait a few months or even years for a reply. Anyone researching part of your family tree will stumble across what you have done at some stage.
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I agree with some of these reservations, but have made useful contacts with 3 people including one who is not related but took the trouble to contact me because she used to know my great-uncle - which is more than my father did as he only met him once! She has come up with all sorts of reminiscences and interesting peripheral details, and now seems to be researching that part of my tree as avidly as I am! Very useful to a newbie like me ...
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In the last couple of weeks I've had two contacts - on who isn't related (wrong area) and who could well be related when we go back a generation or two
E-mailed her back but haven't heard anything since. The suspense is killing me lol!
Willow x
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I've never been contacted by anyone actually related to me through GR, but in researching the trees of two friends lately I've had staggering success. For friend "M" I found 3 people related to her, one of whom had done the research right back to the 16th century on a couple of lines. For friend "G" I have, in less than a week, found 3 of her distant cousins, with information I didn't have, though without having got any further back. The point is that when a site like GR is genuinely useful and popular it attracts more and more people and so the connections proliferate. If we could persuade everybody with a family tree to put it on a single site, how easy it would be - but it would probably take the fun out of it.
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Hi all
I joined GR a year last oct after a recommendation from some cousin contact, but did nothing as too busy searching ancestors. Rejoine last oct 04 and within 3 days had 3 thrid cousins, contacts thick and fast until Christmas and then has been steady since then, but still contacts in some way once a week to a fortnight. Well worth the Upload your gedcom and wait for the action :D
bye for now ancestor calling!
John Rowley
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Hi John
What went wrong with your posting???????
Paul
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I used the surname search in GenesReunited and then searched for them in Friends Reunited and contacted a second cousin that way. I don't think it is worth paying the extra money as most living people who are listed on GR are also listed on FR.
Sue B :-*
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Hi Paul E
Do not know what happened to my post as Ticker contacted me. I use netscape 7.2 on win98 and I can read everybody elses post ok and on rootschat. did not seem to have a problem the first day I joined. I have broadband modem connected to a router which has a hardware firewall but should not cause a problem. I'll see if this post is successful! Seems Ok in preview!
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Hi John - that seems fine now
cheers
Paul
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>:( grrr >:(
I hope nobody here is guilty of this annoyance.( I doubt very much any of you are)
Getting auto reply from people you contact on that site saying "this is not my relative" when inquiring after somebody they have listed ! :o
Why list them if they are not bloomin well related!
If they are in the tree at least they know who else they related to if nothing else. Some info given is better than none. Sometimes the smallest most insignificant piece of information to them can be a vital clue to ourselves. If nothing other than to rule the potential relly out of the possibilities.
Rant over....... :)
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I've never been contacted by anyone actually related to me through GR
Me neither. But I live in hope! I havent had any relations on any sites I've joined. Wonder if that's because we're all in-bred.... :-\
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Hi Gazza
Forgive me, but the way I understand it, you are reading it the wrong way round.
If someone contacts me who has a Joe Bloggs in their tree, and I have Ada Bloggs in my tree. then when I reply I am saying that 'Joe Boggs is not my relative' - not that Ada Boggs is not my relative; as she obviously is because she appears in my tree
I am sure someone will correct me If I am wrong
Chris in 1066
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Hello Chris,nice to have you back :-*
What usually happens is that someone will contact you and say is your Ada Bloggs the one who was the dau of John Bloggs born 1895 and lived in Timbuctoo.
It is then that you know if it is or isn't one of yours,and if there is a possible match.
Of course if eveyone completed all dates and places of births in the same way,you wouldn't have to ask if the details they have match the ones you have.
By the way,I've had more luck with rellies of my pals than finding those of mine :(
All the best
Carol
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Hi Carol
Thank you for that
Nice to be back amongst friends
Chris in 1066
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I blame the dreaded 'auto reply' - its too easy for people on GR to simply click the 'This is not my relative' option, which comes across a little curt and dismissive. Shame people can;t spare a second or two to type a reply!
cheers
Paul
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I did have someone contact me regarding one of my names on GR, and it turned out to be the same family. I duly sent everything I had and haven't heard a word since.
As for those who use the auto reply, I often wonder whether they 'expect' people to be more forthcoming when they make the contact!
Sandie
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Heck I'm on there often and have never even noticed an autoreply! Not that I'd use it. Even if there is no connection I try to make helpful suggestions (especially for those queries that start "I've just started my family tree and .."), and usually mention Rootschat!
Must admit I usually get two or three queries a week and about a third are good. The more names you put up the better.
Heather
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Hi Chris, just to clarify what I meant to clear any confusion. If I have say hypothetically "Margaret Gibson" in my tree, then do a name search on GR for Margret Gibson. This results in a list of all Margret Gibsons listed by people on the whole site.
I then go through the results & contact those people that have a match that fit the right age & location etc or as the case may be.
So there should be no reason for an auto reply saying "Nowt t'do wiv me guv" :)
To be fair I have had an instance where someone did this. I thought stuff it and braved whatever wrath came back my way and asked politely if they would explain why they autoreplied.
I received the not unexpected terse "where is it in my tree"!!
Oh well I thought, please god don't let them be related and hold vital clues I need.
However a while later I received a somewhat different response. "Ah I've found him".
Obviously they had forgotten they were even in their tree......
To end the tale, they gave me extra info which allowed me to determine it was the wrong one anyway. But at least it was one I could cross off the list.
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I had an experience where I found a common link and the person sent me their gedcom file with about 1000 names in it. If I had chosen to add the whole bang lot willy nilly, well then 99.9% of them would have been no relation to me, as the connection was only through a marriage of my family into theirs, and the couple had no children together.
To illustrate the opposite side of the coin of how Genes Reunited can be quite freaky, we made contact from here in Australia to someone with the same family name (and a reasonably common one) in Bristol, and they said no I am not related but I used to live next door to your relative, and put us in touch with the real relatives!
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i have made about 10 contacts with distant cousin's who have sent me photo's and info on Genes Reunited i have even contacted two who live in the same town when we have time we are going to get together
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Congratulations Cath, that sounds marvellous!
Ryan.
8)
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I have been a member of GR for about six months now and have found a cousin and a second cousin,plus many enquiries.
I cannot critcise them because I have had no trouble with the site at all....with what I have read I must have been lucky.
Bryan
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Hi,
I have only found a few people and have been on it for quite a while now, put all my family tree on and they wiped it now i seem to have two of everyone, did make some good contacts through it, for the money i would give it a go! Sandra ;D
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Recently I've been extremely lucky and found lots of distant cousins of people I'm researching. What's most frustrating, however, is finding what are obviously the people you're looking for but not getting any response from the people who put them on the site.
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i have had that problem i think it's when people fill there tree in but don't become members so they can't reply i think there should put something next to the names to say that they aren't members at least you would know why they didn't reply
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I didnt know you could do that,put a tree on without being a member. Well,you learn somethin' new everyday :)
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I'll tell you another annoying niggle. People who keep uploading their tree nearly everyday. It makes it appear that there are thousands of new names added in "1 last day" for the surnames your interested in, only to find that it is the same old names again & again...... :(
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FWIW, non members can and do (as in this case) reply. They can't originate messages or view other people's trees. I keep meaning to join. but ...
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The latest 'niggle' on GR is that if you send someone a message you have to un tick the 'access to your tree' box. If you don't you give them automatic access to your tree! I don't mind sharing but not to all and sundry for no good reason >:(
GR did this once before but got so much flack from the members they reversed their decision - it seems they've snuck it in again without warning >:(
I had four contacts via GR in the last week - I now have access to 3 trees which have no relevance or interest to me whatsoever :(
I'll tell you another annoying niggle. People who keep uploading their tree nearly everyday. It makes it appear that there are thousands of new names added in "1 last day" for the surnames your interested in, only to find that it is the same old names again & again...... :(
Gazza - I did'nt spot that one ???
Suey
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My daughter and I (who live 200 miles apart) have been using GR for a couple of months now, on the same non-fee-paying account, and find it an excellent way to keep each other up-to-date with the tree (easier than emailing gedcoms every day!). So we're using the GR tree as our primary repository of information - though I take care to download the gedcom file every time it's updated, just in case we get bumped off the site as has happened to some others. The several contacts we've had from others have been a bonus: we've managed to transfer a couple of these into direct email exchanges off-site, to join exchanges already generated through rootschat and rootsweb: we now have two separate areas of the family each with 3 or 4 distantly related people copied into the discussions.
In summary we have found GR quite useful mainly for managing our tree. It has generated contacts - and there are two or three GR members whose trees overlap ours in critical areas. Tempted to pay up - though since making much more progress through rootschat and rootsweb, it's still not our first priority ! At £9.50 it's nearly three times the price of a will that I downloaded last week from the National Archive which gave me invaluable primary information as well as an insight into the family history. Sure, without paying we can't initiate a conversation - but once we've been contacted by a member we can reply without any problems. Just have to avoid using the @ symbol or '.com' etc when supplying email addresses!
- Steve
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Reading all these comments has mostly confirmed what I though about GenesReunited, kinda 50/50.
Someone has posted my great-grandmother as part of his tree, but does not respond - so infuriating ???
Also someone once did ask me for my e-mail address, why they didn't give me theirs concerned me - I thought for security sake it would be nice if admin could have a "send this person my e-mail address" button, but they don't, so
How should one go about it - change the @ to at, but the .com should one put spaces between the letters? or is there a better way?
Thanks
Wendi
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Someone informed me that my paternal great grandfather and maternal grandmother were part of their tree...........well they weren't.....but they wouldn't have it!! :o
I crossed referenced several times as I thought I was wrong..........even though 4 of us in the family are compiling the tree and we all checked.
So I have 2 rellies in someone else's tree!!!.............even though the next generation does not tally!! ::)
Sue
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So far I have made 20 connections via GR, with people I would have otherwise never "met". For some it can be a bit hit and miss, but for others (like me) you can have a brilliant time exchanging info with people from all over the world! Just two days ago I made contact with another of my Mum's cousins!
Ryan.
:)
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I have only had good experiences with GenesReunited. I have made valuable contacts there. I also back up my tree there from FTM.
Jane
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Same here, only good experience - as far as the community is concerned.
A pity about their technology though. It's taken them a long time to get the new tree script working properly, and even now it fails from time to time. Also the gedcom download can be temperamental. Also, they say they don't want people to exchange email addresses, yet they don't provide any mechanism for people to send each other attachments such as scanned certificates, photographs, etc., so you have no option but to offer, and to ask for, email address information. - Steve
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Two things, whats this I hear about GR taking over the 1901 Census from the PRO ? Good eh ::)!
and...I had to resort to them yesterday for my 'fix' and had a look through their Records Board.
I noticed that lookups were being done but in a lot of cases no relationships, occupations or place of residence (where listed) was being given ???. The recipients of the info still seemed pleased with their replys though. Also they don't give any reference numbers, is that a Copyright issue?
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Yes, I have found GR useful too and have made a connection with about 4 users who are linked to my forebears. In the time I have been a member I have sent numerous e-mails to them and have received not one reply - although this is promised.
I don't remember how I found Rootschat but am so glad I did. Such helpful people and it's so much fun too. I always come away happy from using it !
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Hi everyone,
I must admit I've found GenesReunited quite useful.Had some significant finds on it.
On the whole those I've corresponded with are very polite but there are a lot of people who seem to use it to just get the relevant tree info off you and then just s-d off(sorry about that- :-[) without a reply.
These people never say thank you or return the complement of opening their trees for you to look at.I've had such a problem with it that I've got slightly neurotic about it I'm afraid and now never open my family tree until I've had some info off the other person.God thats awful of me but they just cheese me off. :-[ :-[ :-[
On the other hand,this site is wonderful and I've never had less than very helpful correspondence.
A big thank you to anyone who has helped me in the past. ;D ;D
Trisha :) :) :)
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I'm pretty much the same Trisha. Personally I love GR, but I only open my trees to people who respond pleasantly/with relevant information. It's the safest bet, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Ryan.
:)
P.S. I'm still having bags of success with GR ;D
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What good advice about not opening up ones family tree until some response. I had given all the information I had on a fascinating branch of my family to a fellow who promised repeatedly to tell me what he knew about his link. That was about a year ago now and I am still waiting to hear ! He gave a couple of promises but they came to nought. So disappointing.
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GR has been fun I admit....maybe I'm a little impatient with the amount of times it needs fixed...especially when it must make a small fortune. Mustn't grumble though, I can always vot with my feet
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Went into GR this morning and found that all my ' new tree ' had disappeared apart from single names. Will I ever get it back ???
As I have said before I have never had a reply to any e-mails. Shall I just be patient and see what happens ? :'( :'(
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Hello Emmeline
I have made some terrific contacts over the past few months on my Tasker line after years of stumbling around in the dark.
But one chap who made contact was given info on another family branch, which I hadn't had time to add to my GR tree and he was given access to view it. On viewing his tree all he had was thousands of names, with few dates places etc. Me thinks he had another tree somewhere with all the relevant details listed.
Despite e-mailing him a few times, have had no reply so have cancelled his right to view my tree >:( >:( I think that is fair.
Cheers Juddee
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Dear juddee - Glad to hear that you have had success with your Tasker line on GR. I have made contact with 2 ladies in England ( through GR ) who have links to me - that has been very successful.
With an experience such as you had I think you were perfectly within your rights to stop access to your tree.
Still, when we are so far from our roots it is great to have sites we can go to in hopes of finding out more !
Kind regards and happy searching.
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Emmeline,
Apart from that one episode, and a few terse NOs, the majority have been friendly in their replies.
Just wish I lived closer to the UK ;D ;D
Cheers Juddee
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I've found GR to be generally good, and have made some excellent contacts. However ... recently two mysterious people, of whom I have never heard, have become attached as spouses to two people on my tree. I cannot remove them because an error message comes up stating "You do not have access to this tree".
One of those people had a unique name on GR, so I was able to contact the real owner of the tree, who is also unable to remove the person. I've given that person access to my tree, and she finds that she can get into her own tree from the 'ghost person' on my tree.
Whilst this technical problem is annoying, because my tree is now corrupted, I am much more troubled by the fact that it is extraordinarliy difficult to get a response from GR help. On messaging for the third time, I've been told that my problem has been passed to the technical team, who have a turnround time of five days - totally unacceptable.
Has anyone else had similar issues?
Sarah
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However ... recently two mysterious people, of whom I have never heard, have become attached as spouses to two people on my tree.
...
Has anyone else had similar issues?
Sarah
Hi Sarah
Welcome to Rootschat! Hope you enjoy your time here!
Well, I frequently have problems shaking people off at parties (or should that be the other way around?!! :)) but this problem seems very unusual.
Wonder where these ghosts came from? I thought only the tree-keeper could alter it. Sounds like GR have a real problem on their hands with this one! Good luck resolving it.
cheers
Paul
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Hi Sarah.
Just wanted to let you know that, allow I love GR, the same anomaly occurs on my tree too. My GGGG Grandfather John Muscutt has a mystery spouse (a man!!) named Brian Johnson. How odd is that?? ;D
Cheers.
Ryan.
:)
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i have been a member of GenesReunited and Friendsreunited for two years .
I have found several relatives and connections to the other marriage surnames aswell from this site aswell as a few from rootschat.
I have found a cousin of my mothers who she hasnt seen for 50 years by using genesreuntied. They will be meeting soon.
You only get out of a site what you are awilling to put into it.
GenesReunited have request pages and community pages but several people dont know how to use them so they dont bother.
If you add your family tree into it then you will get someone who is a relative.
Anything which helps you to get to your goal has to be good.
A small charge is worth it if you use the site regularly.
Dave Boyce
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Well I have just send my cheque away last Monday to join Genes Reunited so I don't know whether it was worth it now after reading all these comments. ???
I have had contacts from 3 or 4 distant relatives so I hope to view there trees and get further back. but i would definitely say this is THE BEST site that i have used for family research :) ;) :D and I just starting using rootschat on Saturday 29 October 05.
I would recommend this site to everyone 8)
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...just to let you in to a little secret, we're bringing out a similar system to them where you will be able to search for links between your tree and other people.. we are still testing it... but the thing is - it will be as free as the rest of RootsChat is... that is of course if you think it would be of benefit to you. :)
Has this already happened how do you search between your tree & other peoples on Rootschat
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Hi As a newcomer to Rootschat I too have found a brilliant site and found some relatives already. ! or 2 appeared on genes as well, ;D now that does cause some laughs and confusion :) :) I do have to stick up for genes tho' as i have found a great many rellies and the Cosford site, another great site for West Suffolk. On Genes I put my partners father's name in and got a hit straight away. Our xmas card list has grown with 4 cousins & families--large families-- a sister & half sister & neices & nephews. 2 more cousins who we are waiting for a reply from. Two family re-unions and lots of laughter.So some are better than others but, the more you give the more you get. Good Luck & Happy Hunting where ever you look :D
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Have recently been put in touch with a 3rd cousin in Australia via GR!
Merry Christmas all
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My full membership came through last Sunday and all the contacts that I had where no more forward than I was. ???
I dont think it has been worth it as yet. :-\
Hope it gets better :)
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Hi Sarah.
Just wanted to let you know that, allow I love GR, the same anomaly occurs on my tree too. My GGGG Grandfather John Muscutt has a mystery spouse (a man!!) named Brian Johnson. How odd is that?? ;D
Cheers.
Ryan.
:)
I think once you give someone else access to your tree, they too can update it
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As far as I know that isn't true.
Where did you hear this mc8?
Ryan.
:)
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As far as I know that isn't true.
Hi Ryan
It isn't true! ;)
Best wishes
Ticker
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Having read the posts I must admit I was totally surprised. I joined Genes Reunited about two years ago (before it changed its name) and I have never had error messages, and 99% of messages I have sent have been replied to. I have found several descendants of lost relatives there, one only two days ago. Any suggestions I have made to the Genes people has been politely replied to and in one case acted upon.
I have to say though that Rootschat is far more helpful, but I believe that Genes Reunited has its place too. Especially if you're at the other end of the world from your research.
Sue
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As far as I know that isn't true.
Where did you hear this mc8?
Ryan.
:)
when you click on shared trees and view relations, you get the option to view / edit details. I haven't wanted to tinker with anyone else's tree-but I guess this option works...
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I too have noticed that is says 'edit' where you mentioned mc8, but if you click on it you can't actually edit other people's trees. So you see, there's nothing to worry about there.
Thanks for replying.
Ryan.
:)
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Hello suepernz - As you will see from my previous mails on this thread I have never had a reply to any of my e-mails to G.R. :o - not one.
As you are in N.Z. too and have had no trouble in that direction I must try again sometime.
Apart from that small annoying fact I am quite happy with them. Regards.
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Happy New Year All
I've found GenesReunited quite interesting - have found several connections on the "fringe" of my family which have been helpful. I also made a lady in the States very happy by being able to supply her with photos of a mutual relative she didn't know existed! For serious research you can't beat Rootsweb of course! GR is quite hit & miss but you never know when you'll strike it lucky.
Leigh
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For serious research you can't beat Rootsweb of course!
Sorry, but I beg to differ, and I think many people will agree with me that Rootschat beats Rootsweb any day for serious research.
Mary
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If we are drifting in to Rootsweb chat it really depends on what list you are on.
Some lists are excellent others are a minefield of sarcasm and unpleasantness. Some are just dead - no posts at all.
Another feature with Rootsweb is that it makes your email address public a fact that sadly killed my email addresses in the past.
As Rootsweb is a collection of disparate news groups brought together under the banner Rootsweb I'm sure we all have different experiences. It would be a bit of a hijack of this thread to go furtehr.
Pam
:D
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It has to be said that both RootsChat and Genes Reunited are leagues above RootsWeb. RootsWeb is stale, old hat, etc....
I thought I should mention that recently, via GR, I have discovered my Mum's Uncle's mystery daughter he fathered prior to marrying my Mum's aunt. This lady was adopted soon after she was born and never knew her biological parents. She's been searching for family for years and I'm the first person she's found. Thanks to me and GR she now has heaps of info on her father's family including photographs ;D
Over the holidays I've also made contact with 2 people descended from my GGGGG Grandfather David Yeldham, and 2 others descended from his brother George!
Ryan.
:)
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Whoops Mary - didn't mean to offend!!
Of course I meant RootsChat - have never looked at RootsWeb, just got blurry eyed by reading all the posts.
Leigh
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I joined FriendsReunited and GenesConnected for the first year and watched how things went.
My tactic the following year was not to re-join until I actually saw a name I was desperate to contact . In the case of FR - I saved three years subscriptions ;D ;D
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Whoo hoo!! Two close relatives in one day ;D That hot match thing must have worked for them (and me)
Sharon
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Heyyyyyyyyyyy The hot match thingy on Genes has just found me another rellie. The more the merrier. :) :) Coppernob
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Up date on new rellie found on Genes His 4x great grandfather and my 4x greatmother were brother and sister. So what does that make us ???? Still love the friendly helpful people on Roots :) :) :) Coppernob
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I would have to say family obsessed relations ;D
My two are both a great grand parent's siblings descendent's so are only about my second or third cousin, (I can never tell which is which)
Sharon
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Up date on new rellie found on Genes His 4x great grandfather and my 4x greatmother were brother and sister. So what does that make us ????
If you did want an answer ;D 6th cousins
GGGG are brother/sister
GGG are 1st cousins
GG are 2nd cousins
G are 3rd cousins
grandparents are 4th cousins
parents are 5th cousins
Trish
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Hi Trish251
Thanks for that will relay that to new 6th cousin on the other side of the world. Glad someone knows I seem to have trouble keeping that in my head ::) ;D Coppernob
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I have been a member of Friendsreunited for Years, signed up with GenesReunited @2 Years ago, I was contacted by 2 Cousins within a few weeks of registering (one moved from SA to USA years ago & I lost track with their branch of the Family!).
In the last Year I have made contact with 4 more Cousins, each of us has been able to swap Info to further Our Research & Knowledge!
P.S.
I read in this thread that some have had trouble with Genes not allowing the posting of Web addresses?
I have Never had any Problems, Apart from the Pages full of spurious Hits which I reported to the Admin Bods. In reply they told me that they are in the process of updating their Server so that More Parameters could be Included thereby reducing the number of false Hits!