Re: Genes Reunited

[behindthefrogs]

I have over three hundred contacts established through GR and most of them are very good.  I do find it tiresome when I find some who has X married to Y and I have X married to Z and I explain this situation.  I present my evidence and ask them for theirs to get the reply that they know they are right because they got the information from someone else.

The major problem with having a large number of contacts on GR is finding out their surname particularly for married women.  GR uses their maiden name in its message system but their married name in the contacts list.  If you receive a message saying that they have given you access to their tree it then involves a major search to actually access that tree.  Unless someone knows better.

David

[Ian]

I've certainly made a few good contacts but most seem intent on getting as much information from me without offering anything in return. I suppose, on balance, its been worthwhile for the few good ones though.
I'm very new to this kind of research so I expect some of my research is faulty especially with those families on the edge of my own. I It worries me that my mistakes will just be copied - maybe I seek the reassurance that I've got it right! If someone said to me that I had made a mistake or two and then pointed out where I had gone wrong then great...its part of the learning curve. Sadly its often, "Thanks very much for that" and just gets copied into another tree.
On the subject of "hot matches" - does anyone else get matches for say "William" or "1837" as well as for surnames? Maybe my gedcom file loaded incorrectly?

[Rena]

On the subject of "hot matches" - does anyone else get matches for say "William" or "1837" as well as for surnames? Maybe my gedcom file loaded incorrectly?

I doubt there's anything wrong with your gedcom - the Hot Matches are only located via names and years so it's up to us to sort the wheat from the chaff.  If GR chose to match places of origins I would have missed quite a few Hot Matches from the city of Hull.  For example; Drypool and 'Sculcoates' are parishes within the boundary and thus if other researchers had used those latter place names I would have been denied knowing other people were researching my family.

The further back we go when families followed a naming pattern and we come across several cousins named after grandparents it can be very daunting choosing our direct bloodline and it is a boon if we can link to other researchers coming up to meet us from another branch so that we can compare and maybe eliminate incorrect assumptions. 

Quite often stories handed down are also a boon and I always ask contacts if they have any old family stories.  We've made holes in a few brick walls based solely on fitting these into the puzzle;  e.g. "she married beneath her, he was a gardener" (!);
"he was away at sea months on end, children were starving and she left him for another man" (1811 brick wall blown open).

good luck to us all,
Rena

 

[Simon G.]

I usually complain about GR, and certainly it has it's fault (the "new" tree system and hot matches being most notable)...but I've got a lot of information from it, and am quite happy with that.  Just been contacted with a descendant of my great-grandmother's brother this week, so I can't complain really.  Really helped to clear up a few points I'd been having issues with.

[fek33]

I must admit I have found GR quite helpful.

It does infuriate me when people ask for information, I reply, then I hear nothing from them when I ask them a question.

A couple of instances :

One lady asked me for info, I sent her details (didn't let her view my tree), emailed her photographs and newspaper articles.  I have heard nothing since. When I viewed her tree (out of curiosity) she had put all my info into her tree. 

After this I definately wouldn't let anyone view my tree.

I heard from someone who was looking for his long lost cousin, who was in my tree - they contacted him and had a family reunion.

So there are good and bad points about it.

I must admit RootsChatters have been fantastic and a great help and I felt great the other day when I was finally able to help someone else for a change!! 

[Bill749]

There is no way i could have ever found the 3000 ancestors and their descendants , without these wonderful researchers   

Eek!  You'd have a huge task to check the accuracy of all that research, Spring - can you really be sure they are all correct?

Bill

[Springbok]

Bill of course there some conflicting bits of information, but I am not in a position to physically check dates from the 16/1700s. I always put these into my personal programmes with the sources and a Note to show two dates or whatever.

Fortunately quite a few of the branches have been done from differant angles by a  distant  dedicated rellies.Such as Church records and gravestones., with another concentrating on old records in Kew etc.

Yes I do have a gripe with the attitude of my latest attempt at a contact on GR....(Will use thick head as opposed to what I'd like to call him) After the two fantastic ( and via the same name too!) contacts where we are all stuck with this George,  The gent said he had no further information about this name. Well hang on, has he just picked this name out of thin air, he obviously had no info on descendants but surely he could have given a couple of siblings names...There are three of us on GR all trying to link up our branches and it is sooooooooo frustrating

Had to get that off my chest, but truly I have every reason to be greatful to GR

Spring

[Blondie1]

I have some good results from Genes but recently I contacted someone who never answered but opened his tree.  When I looked at it he had downloaded all my tree to his.  I have unticked all my boxes and make sure until I know they are related that I do not tick the box.

[lindylou2_2002]

I am finding Genes less helpful than it use to be. What is the point of hot matching one person? There are so many pages with only one match and it is very time conduming tring to whittle the pages down. I have had a few really good contacts probably about 10 or 12.

I dont like it when you are just asked for for someone to view your tree, but not providing infomation first I find that really rude. AS do I find not replying at all really rude. I do find that I am doing a lot more giving than reciving nowdays.

IMHO, I dont have a problem with people copying infomation on to their tree from mine though. Also when I do look at peoples trees I dont asume that if the info matches it must have come from me in the 1st place. If I found the info out somebody else probably did too.