GenesReunited

[Frances]

Hi Viv,

Recently I had  notification of a  possible contact from Genes Reunited. When I visited the site to read the message I found that they now give you the chance to send an auto reply where you only have to click from a list of  options. It looks like your people may have taken the lazy way out and done just that. Although I have not received one of those myself I agree that it does not take long to type a few polite words in reply.

Happy Hunting and enjoy Rootschat.

Kind Regrads, Frances

[juddee]

Hi Viv

I agree with your comments about Genes Reunited.  I have contacted people and have received the same answers as yourself plus one NO! which I believe was uncalled for.  Also I have freely given information I hold on my many family lines and not once have I received a thank you back - in fact details I gave a contact , which I had not had time to post, was listed under their name - again no thank you.  This was a distant relative    I don't mind sharing, don't get me wrong,  but a simple thank you goes a long way.  Also on Genes Reunited I have noticed that a lot of postings have either no time frame or towns or counties listed.   I do not follow up on  these and I doubt if these posts receive many enquiries.

This is a brilliant site Viv and like you I also found the site by accident.   Everyone is so willing to help each other out whenever they can.    One big family and getting bigger by the day 

[denben]

I have contacted about four people through Genesconnected and I have received four polite replies. 

Two of my contacts were able to provide very useful information and one of those went to some trouble to find information for me. 

So let's not get carried away, eh?

[Boongie Pam]

I think "some" of the problem is with the auto-response they have.  It is impersonal and can come across as rude.

P

[fluffnco]

I have been a member of genesreconnected since it was started and paid my subscription as it seems a small price to pay if you can further your family tree. Well I've spotted people who may be related to me by the ancestors listed and emailed them. I've had a 50/50 reply ratio and always nice polite replies from those who have responded. Up until a weeks ago I'd not found any links matching my families but their new improved search facility came up with a match for my great great great grandfather. I messaged the lady who had posted his details. No reply. I started to get a little stressed as it was obvious it was definitely the same person...still no contact...then yesterday out of the blue a really lovely informative email from the lady in question who'd tried to message me back 3 times. She included her home email address in her message to me and we are now in direct contact.

I'm thrilled to have found someone who actually has a link with my family at last, especially as we've never had any direct contact with that side of the family at all. Already I have recieved the family gedcom via email with certificate copies winging their way to me as I type..I only have to work out how to split the family on my side that is of interest to her to return the gedcom and info.

Either ways guess I'm saying I think it was well worth the money as it's added a few more names to my tree and I'm gained some cousins removed that I didn't know about

Del

[gazza]

one further thought.If you think about,you have to be really lucky to find a relly via this method.I think the percentage of population with a PC in the UK is still quite low. Then out of those remaining with PC's,do they have broadband?(Not a requirement but helps)
Then of those ,do they have time to do research in our busy lives we lead these days?(many workplaces block such personal usage during worktime.)
Finally those % with PC,do they have the inclination or interest in family tree research? From my own experience & reading others comments on  various posts not many do sadly. One can only hope it is a genetic thing that sends us on these mad obsessive quests researching our tree's & that others within the  tree somwhere share that gene
Those that are lucky enough to find a connection I would suggest they go and buy a lottery ticket quickly!
Having said all, that never give up. Each day that goes by the odds increase in our favour.....

[Steve Ley]

I think for £7-50 you can't go wrong, You only need to pay that if you want to get in touch with someone or post on their message boards, to search the for names is free.
With over 25 million names on the site and over 112,000 added within the last 24 hours you do have a good chance of a match.
Maybe I'm just lucky but i made contact with a researcher who took a small part of my tree back to the 1500'S (with sources) on my first day.
I have made contact with over 20 people researching my tree and several of them have put me in touch with others researching my tree.
But i have had a least half a dozen definite relatives not respond to my messages but i have not let that colour my feelings toward the site.
My subscription is up tomorrow and i will definitely be renewing.
I do find though that there any many people on the site who only have themselves in their tree or just a handful of people, for best results you need to put most or all of your tree on there.


Steve.

[Willow 4873]

I've got to say I've had about 50/50 sucess from the site. Have had 3 positive connections another 1 who might be connected when she has done a bit more research and am still wait for 2 reply on e-mails. I have sent one who I pretty sure is connected to me which is frustrating

I put rootschat and my site name on my post so RachelK contacted me on here and now we're helping each other  (with a lot of help from CharlieRalph)

Got to say I have not had any contact at all from the Genes Reunited site though even though they seem to think their system is foolproof

I agree they way people sometimes put things down ie location can make it more confusing

Maybe when more people start searching it will make connection easier

Willow x

[Dolgellau]

I have no objection to paying for family history research, I have probably paid thousands of pounds over the years on this hobby, but I do find the idea of paying £7.50 for the honour of telling others what I have found and having to pay to help other researchers quite appalling – it is also a waste of money as there are so many free services available – Rootschat, Rootsweb mailing lists, Brit-Gen boards, Ancestry county and surname boards, World Connect Tree, Tribal Pages – to name just a few. I would have thought that most serious FH researchers – those who can help take you tree back some generations who use the internet would be members of one or more of these free sites. They can usually be found through a good search engine.

If anybody wants to see if they are related to me without paying £7.50 for the pleasure my tree is on
  http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=alwynaphuw