it is MY family tree!!!!!

[Gadget]

Well all these stories have now more or less convinced me that my ideas for my website are correct. I am going to make it just a series of stories about my ancestors' lives, occupations and local history and not put my tree up at all.

Trees, on there own, are not all that interesting to anyone but ones family anyway.

Gadget

[MarieC]

I agree one hundred percent, Gadget!

I am slowly making my website in the way you describe.  If you have names there, people will find you anyway, by Googling names.  That has happened to me, and been very profitable to both of us.

And yes - trees by themselves are not of great value to most people, and are obviously vulnerable to hijacking by these dishonest people!!

MarieC

[ymfoster]

I think a lot of us have had bad experiences of people passing off our research as their own, ...... I had all my files on Gencircles a few years ago & could see where people copied mine from the information on individuals being identical regarding dates or no dates.

I now just have my ancestors on the Net & that restricts connections to the main names in my tree & not all those distant connections from cousins & spouses so far removed. 

[Berlin-Bob]

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

ps.
very similar theme here:
Topic: Gleaning - GR
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,169132.0.html

[goggy]

Thank you ALL!
Very offputting in some ways,very heartening in others,the idea of passing the baton to a descendant in the safest possible way stands like a lamp in the dark to me.

Where I have been able to supply details of my wants and needs,Rootschatters have come through with all available info,Ihave thanked them,as far as I can recall,and not claimed the results as my own work.

Where my info on other subjects may have been of help to others its given, with good wishes.

I have received also,almost my full 'bloodline on one side of the family,my thanks always to my benefactor.None has been used to further my own ambitions or for fleeting fame,it's kept in the family.
I well realise that the work and expense that goes into the research and document gathering,and also the joy of breaking thru' any brick walls.Also the anger and frustration of having it all nullified by thieves and plagiarists.Yes,thieves,for such they are.

Searching etc;on the web,that is where my search started,all offers of easy "Jenny Ology" were bypassed,(I'm an old soldier+merchant seaman!)nothing was taken from these sites except notebooks,spare paper note's,well youv'e all been there !

My search started because a woman spent a large part of her comparitively young life,and died in an Asylum,from info gleaned from all above mentioned sources I now have a better understanding of her life and situation.

Since gaining that knowledge I've been a happier camper and now enjoy my short spells on the infernal machine!!
Sorry to gab on,but someone did start this!!!
                 Goggy.

[ymfoster]

This topic takes my mind back to when our daughter (only child) found out her Grandfather had other grandchildren,
she was quite upset & said "but he's my Grandad !! "  as if they'd stolen him   

Yvonne

[biddybarracks]

We should form our own Dead Rellies Club   

I think Dead Rellies Society sounds posher!  lol

Hey, there! When someone gets the Dead Rellies Club/Society started, sign me up! By the way, has anyone else ever experienced this: not only do I feel possessive about my dead rellies, but when I connect with other descendants of theirs (i.e. distant cousins) that I have found trawling the internet for genealogical info, I get possessive of them too! 

[sheddyg]

Well, this is a subject close to my heart!!!!

I, too, have had my fingers burnt many times with people either passing off my work as their own without even a small word of thanks or just disappearing altogether so I never know what happened to all my blood sweat and tears! In most of these cases I have got very little in return (in the way of information) and I am left wondering just why I bothered. It has made me very cautious when meeting other researchers.

I try to remember why I do this. I want to share. I don`t want my ancestors and rellies forgotton forever. I want to meet family members, however distant, and feel a part of something special. Connecting with others is surely a basic human instinct. And this is such a unique way.

Also, most of this information is in the public domain anyway - so, really, how can I be so possessive!

As much as I try and limit what I put on GR, it is really the only place where I have met other researchers of the same families. I feel that unless I put a few more names on every now and again I am limiting my chances.

So now, before I part with any info, I ask or answer queries with the following included:
               Please be assured that I will not pass on any of the information you give me without asking your permission first and I trust you will do the same for me. 
A very dear distant cousin said it to me and it really made me think !!!!

Sheddyg

[Burrow Digger]

I have been lucky - I have not yet been "burnt"

The very first time I made contact with a distant cousin online (through Rootsweb), I sent them my family tree for that particular line back to my gt gt grandparents. They sent me back the WHOLE tree - with all the known descendents from my gt gt grandparents and their siblings as well. That was one tree that was literally "handed to me on a plate".  My line had been lost to them and they were very happy to have a new piece of the jigsaw to add. 


The next few times have been through RC and while the info has been welcomed, it's just been in small drops (a few photos and documents) which I still have to confirm, buts thats the fun of genealogy isnt it?


I still have one major brickwall that I hear nothing but a DEAFENING silence on. 

BD