Fed Up With Genealogy Tree Thieves

[Inchworm]

I have made some good contacts over the past few years through Genes Reunited. Even found branches of the family that had been long forgotten and resurfaced.
However this one takes the biscuit. Someone new contacted me about one of my distant relatives. Interesting, I thought, as I too didn't know much about this side of the tree. I replied and then looked at his tree, as he had given me access to it. It was a carbon copy of my own tree, right down to the last detail. Even the same amount of people in total. He had all of my husbands family there too !!!
Where he had got it from, I do not know. I am wary of letting people view my tree because of this. I can only guess that it has been passed on through another GR contact. How rude !!!!!

From Angry Inchworm 

[phrishy]

I sympathise, that's as good as mine!  I contacted somebody as she had an exact match on her tree, but after a discussion it transpired that she was only researching this person in an attempt to find somebody else of the same name, so her tree was not linked to mine at all.

Then a real cousin asked me who it was who had MY family listed - there we were, my mother and father, even my own name.  I contacted her again, furious, and gave her two days to remove us from there before I got in touch with GR and really caused a stink.

I did get an apology and she agreed to remove her tree and prune it considerably before it was put back but she wanted to keep my branch, minus my close family, because of all the research she had done on it, as it might just help somebody else.

My response to this was truthful ..... her tree wouldn't help any other researcher since it had a major error in it!!  I think that stumped her.

[Inchworm]

How can these people just steal our trees?
I had over 1000 relatives in mine to which 98% would have been meaningless to this person. What is the point of that? They are not even interseted in checking out the details. What are they trying to achieve? Beats me !! 

[bodger]

Hi Phrishy, I hope it was a tree stump that you used, sorry to say i had the same problem on GR, a "lady" has 2500 + names, she just connects with any link no matter how tenuous. bodger

[Emsworthy]

I must confess that I'm sitting on just over 3000 names in my GR tree...OK, so it includes people very distantly related to me, but if I've been able to prove marriages and add further family groups, then I have done - they did all exist after all.

The thing that gets to me is when I get a message just saying 'can I see your family tree'...no explaination at all as to who they want to see...normally gets a questioning email sent back!

So far I have been quite lucky with the people I have shared my tree with - I usually get a message asking whether they can add info to their own trees from mine...I don't mind that one little bit!

Regards, Emma

[jim1]

We were discussing this on another thread last week.I think some people just like to collect names,so poach as many as they can from others.They don't know anything about them because they haven't done the research but that doesn't seem to bother them as long as they've grown their tree a bit more.It's annoying and I think everyone is wise to be cautious.

Jim

[7igerby7he7ail]

I have had numrous requests to view my tree, usually via GR, but some others as well.
I send a polite reply asking them what it is they are looking for specifically. 10% reply and it is this 10% that are genuine.
I had one very distant relative [at least 24 steps away] contact me DEMANDING that I release information to her about her own family. I told her that the info was freely available via the IGI etc and if she put her hand in her pocket that she also could get it via Ancestry etc. Uncharitable of me I know, but a lot of my research has taken me years of hard slog.

If a genuine family member turns up [I have had a few in the past] I am quite willing to share.

Tom G

[phrishy]

I hope it was a tree stump that you used

 

I'm in total agreement with Emsworthy in that I've shared my tree willingly with people who, after a discussion, it's confirmed that we have a connection.  But as with Gensleuth, somebody who demands access would be refused.

The person who added my unconnected family to her own actually had over 10,000 entries - to my mind a clear case of being a name collector only.

[Indaloman]

If everyone is so annoyed by people 'stealing' their trees (how you can steal public domain beats me) why take the risk of being upset and publish??