Gleaning - GR

[sarra]

Thank you all for your kind words and advice  - seems I'm not the only one to have it happen to.
I think I will contact this person on Rootsweb - for what it's worth. Also complain to GR  about this person not asking before putting live people in his Tree.  At least get it off my chest. 
Sarra

[Berlin-Bob]

Hi All,

there is a very similar topic here:
Topic: it is MY family tree!!!!!
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,1909.0.html

so I'll repeat what I said there:

Maybe it's the modern equivalent of, or progression from, collecting car numbers i.e. the collecting mania !


As kids we used to collect car numbers, then train numbers. Some went on to stamp collecting, or butterfly collecting, bird-spotting, cigarette cards and their equivalents, and modern kids collect pokemon and dragon-ball cards.

And "grown-ups"  collect  ................   names !!!

"My tree is bigger than yours",
"My tree goes further back than yours", etc, etc.

"Never mind where they come from,
as long as there is a connection (even a tenuous one) let's collect them !!!" 

Bob

[susan p]

You do have to keep a sharp eye on GR.I emailed some one who I thought had a connection suggested they look at my tree,imagine my suprise when two days later I appeared to have found hundreds of relies on all branches of my tree.Very upsetting.Gr must have removed them eventually but they never replied to my complaint.Now I am very careful who I give access to.
Susan

[Gadget]

People have a curious attitude to information they glean .................. The second person had also been stumped, and she has bombarded me with questions, as if I must give her all the data.  It's all part of research, I guess.

This is the thing that really bugs me so much - the you must give it to me and a more or less constant nagging. In any other areas of research, people wait until the results are published (in whatever form) or one might share info with those close to it for their opinion. Again, if I were to use someone else's research, I would acknowledge it by reference in the appropriate way. I acknowledge, where appropriate, wherever and whenever I publish my FH research but many others seem oblivious to this standard courtesy.

Also, as Bob says, the 'train number collectors'. I'm not sure how many people I have in my tree - I don't bother to look. Some are italicised because I'm not as confident of them as of others. It would also vary depending on where I decided the cut off point would be. I would never include any living person (including me) in any tree that was publically available.

I prefer the life stories and local stories so can't fully understand the need for the largest tree in the world.

Gadget

[kerryb]

I don't have the full tree on GR, just my direct line and I only add another generation when I think it might be important or might give me some leads by adding someone.  When someone makes contact with me I give them my web address, as that is public and anyone can look at it.

Frankly I have better things to do than keep updating trees everywhere.  I have the one master tree which gets updated on my website fairly regularly!

Kerry

[zimba]

Gr re living relatives .I had a problem with living relatives on Gr I first contacted the tree owner Who sent me a e mail telling me she was free to put on who she liked and was I silly enough to think this was the only person with this name.
    So I contacted GR and asked for the name to be removed. less than an hour      later the name had been removed.The owner was contacted by GR and told why they had removed the name.As far as I am Concerned this persons tree on GR is like a Halfpenny note book without any pages.==========zimba

[Koromo]

The family tree information across all my lines which I am willing to share stops at my grandparent's (or equivalent) generation. My parents and my own generations are scattered around the world and I do not necessarily know who is living or not - I am not prepared to take the risk.

There is one exception: a distant-ish cousin who is 103 years old! She is appears as "daughter" on any sharable tree info.

[wheeldon]

Sarra, I don't blame you for feeling angry.  How ruuuuddde of the person that you contacted.

I haven't put my tree on certain web sites as I have heard stories of whole trees being copied - sites putting them onto discs in order to sell them etc.  However, I have put my tree on GR, so really the same thing could happen.  I think whichever site you choose to put your tree onto, it's out there on the world wide web and it becomes anyones property. 

I know we don't own our ancestors but I do believe that we own the time and money that we spent on research.  It's the research that is important, a copied tree is useless without any documentation or all the information that you have gained over the years through research.

People who copy trees only have a bunch of names and dates.  I can't see that they would feel any connection to their ancestors.  Also, who's to say the tree copiers are copying the right info?  It's fantastic to make family connections (the reason I stated out in FH) but I wouldn't just take it for granted that Joe Bloggs was my GGGG Grandad just because Jo Bloggs(jnr) has a big tree on GR and tells me this is so 

Someone on GR copied a side of my tree, not through me, but through a distant cousin who had access to my tree.  This person has a connection to my family through her divorced husband?  My worry is that anyone researching may contact this person, who has no research, instead of me 

I think we all know it's the quality not the quantity 

[kerryb]

Wheeldon

That's the crux of the matter isn't it?

Are we in it just to collect names and get back to Adam or to find out how our ancestors lived through social and cultural history and then in turn feel we know them.

I have a feeling if it's the latter we don't just take other people's hard work without asking permission, and adding sources etc.  Or am I being naive??

Kerry