Uneasy about online tree

[suttontrust]

  I discovered yesterday (because I got an "invitation" to view it) that my cousin's husband has uploaded his and her family tree to Ancestry.  Now this includes a great chunk of information on his wife's side of the family that he got from me.  I can't complain about the tree being online, since I have it on the internet myself.  What irks me is that my research has been taken and assimilated into his (he has it on GR too) without any sense that he ought to ask my permission.  It includes information about me (though not dates).  Now that it's on Ancestry I feel that I've lost control of it.  I don't want to fall out with them, having only just made contact with my cousin again after many years, but I feel that there should be an etiquette around this sort of thing.

[sue 1950]

I agree with you about this, people should ask permission to add this information to their tree on line.

[Nutty1966]

Hi

I agree, permission should be asked for.

Just a thought did the relation know that it would become public etc once he had 'uploaded', is he new to FH, maybe you could explain to him the shortfalls, and hopefully no disagreement will occur. 

Hard situation to be in, since you have just reacquainted yourselves.

Merry Christmas

Jane

[Ecneps]

This has happened to lots of us I think, best thing is to grin and bear it, and just think of what they've missed out on, we've had all the 'fun' of doing the actual research.  
I was a bit disconcerted to find myself on a tree on GenesReunited recently and when I queried this with the tree 'owner' and he sent me his tree, it included almost all of my own research.  My own fault, I naiively uploaded trees to Rootsweb some years ago, complete with all source references, and though I later removed the trees, they are now on ancestry in their World connect section and apparently cannot now be removed from there at all.  I don't mind at all passing on my hard-researched info to relatives, but am not too happy about all and sundry seeing it  

[raysdaughter]

Oh how I agree with you.  I have had the same thing happen to me. I was contacted through Genes by a nephew of a cousin of my husband.  He asked if he could view my tree and gave me permission to view his.  Unfortunately I didn't view it straightaway as I was away from home.  On my return I did view it and the tree consisted of one person - him!!!!
I then received a message through Ancestry and when I looked at it there is a large chunk of my family going back 3 or 4 generations!!!  Whilst I don't mind him publishing my husband's links to him (although it would have been nice of him to ask) I do object to my family being hijacked in this way and of course he will not now answer any emails I send him through either Genes or Ancestry.

It will teach me to be more wary of who I let view my tree in future.

[trish251]

Whenever I share information with other close or distant family members I tell them that a condition of having the data is that it not be placed on the internet. I have shared with a couple of folks who have asked about the net & todate I have been OK with those sections going online but stated no living folks are to be included.

It seems to work without problems as long as the conditions are stated BEFORE the information is exchanged.

Thus said, if one of them suddenly decides to "publish and be damned" there would be nothing I could do. Once information is uploaded, or given, it is in a very public domain.

Trish

[Ecneps]

Yes, I was a bit daft putting my whole tree on rootsweb
the idea at the time was to store it there just in case I lost it if my computer crashed......I know better now!!!!!!

[redmr2red]

I don't agree.  

I've put together my Family Tree with help from lots of members of the family, one cousin gave my maternal grandmother's side complete.  It saved me heaps of time.  I also had lots of help from kind people on this forum.  Following your logic, I would have to ask 100's of people for permission before publishing.  What if one of them said "no"?

I have done heaps of personal research, paid for lots of certificates too, half is my hard work, the other half is the hard work of others that I very much appreciate.  

However I came about the information about "MY" family tree .......... research, gift, shared, paid for, located on the Internet, my family tree belongs to me.

Well that's what I think, Kevin

[panda40]

I have my tree on Ancestry but made it personal. All that appears is the persons name and year. If someone is interested they have to email you via Ancestry. Only if you allow your tree to be a public tree can all and sundry see all your research. It pays to go into tools and change to personal. That way you controll what information and access people get from your research.

Merry Christmas
panda