GenesReunited

[carol8353]

Hello Chris,nice to have you back 

What usually happens is that someone will contact you and say is your Ada Bloggs the one who was the dau of John Bloggs born 1895 and lived in Timbuctoo.
It is then that you know if it is or isn't one of yours,and if there is a possible match.
Of course if eveyone completed all dates and places of births in the same way,you wouldn't have to ask if the details they have match the ones you have.

By the way,I've had more luck with rellies of my pals than finding those of mine

All the best

Carol

[Chris in 1066Land]

Hi Carol

Thank you for that

Nice to be back amongst friends

Chris in 1066

[Paul E]

I blame the dreaded 'auto reply' - its too easy for people on GR to simply click the 'This is not my relative' option, which comes across a little curt and dismissive.  Shame people can;t spare a second or two to type a reply!

cheers

Paul

[sandie]

I did have someone contact me regarding one of my names on GR, and it turned out to be the same family.  I duly sent everything I had and haven't heard a word since.
As for those who use the auto reply, I often wonder whether they 'expect' people to be more forthcoming when they make the contact!

Sandie

[Heather D]

Heck I'm on there often and have never even noticed an autoreply! Not that I'd use it. Even if there is no connection I try to make helpful suggestions (especially for those queries that start "I've just started my family tree and .."), and usually mention Rootschat!

Must admit I usually get two or three queries a week and about a third are good. The more names you put up the better.

Heather

[gazza]

Hi Chris, just to clarify what I meant to clear any confusion. If I have say  hypothetically "Margaret Gibson" in my tree, then do a name search on GR for Margret Gibson. This results in a list of all Margret Gibsons listed by people on the whole site.
I then go through the results & contact those people that have a match  that fit the right age & location etc or  as the case may be.
So there should be no reason for an auto reply saying "Nowt t'do wiv me guv" 
To be fair I have had an instance where someone did this. I thought stuff it and braved whatever wrath came back my way and asked politely if they would explain why they autoreplied.
I received the not unexpected terse "where is it in my tree"!!
Oh well I thought, please god don't let them be related and hold vital clues I need.
However a while later I received a somewhat different response. "Ah I've found him".
Obviously they had forgotten they were even in their tree......
To end the tale, they gave me extra info which allowed me to determine it was the wrong one anyway. But at least it was one I could cross off the list.

[Aussie possum]

I had an experience where I found a common link and the person sent me their gedcom file with about 1000 names in it.  If I had chosen to add the whole bang lot willy nilly, well then 99.9% of them would have been no relation to me, as the connection was only through a marriage of my family into theirs, and the couple had no children together. 
To illustrate the opposite side of the coin of how Genes Reunited can be quite freaky, we made contact from here in Australia to someone with the same family name (and a reasonably common one) in Bristol, and they said no I am not related but I used to live next door to your relative, and put us in touch with the real relatives!

[cath310859]

i have made about 10 contacts with distant cousin's who have sent me photo's  and info on Genes Reunited  i have even contacted two who live in the same town when we have time we are going to get together

[ryan]

Congratulations Cath, that sounds marvellous!

Ryan.