Someone has put my tree on Ancestry

[Tsu]

At what point though, does the information become your own?  When you have verified it?  Bought the certificates?
It's information that is in the public domain (in most cases) so just because you have done the research doesn't mean the information is yours.

[Anni B]

An upside...

I've never had any hesitation in sharing my research with others.  Yes, when very distant relatives incorporate my painstaking research into their own online trees so quickly that it's obvious they're just copying it is annoying.  Correct research requires double-checking of the sources of info and that is indeed half the fun that they're missing.
But, having had a computer crash and the loss of a lot of paperwork during a house move, I am now so glad I shared.  Picking over various sites I'm finding a lot of my original research in other people's trees - and I can be sure it's mine and therefore OK because they copied everything down to my "comments" on things.

Anne

[millymcb]

Downside....  when people take your unverified theories on marriages etc mentioned just as possibilities and put them in their tree as fact.    Then other people take their info and put it into their tree...and before you know it - next time you go to research that particular event you just come up with lots of people all saying it is a FACT that A married B - referencing each other as a source - when really it all stems from a wild unproven theory of your own....


Which is why I don't mind passing on things I know to be correct but try my best to keep my theories to myself!

 

Milly

[majm]

Hi All,

Have you contacted the "offender" and asked them to edit their tree to a) indicate they had obtained this info from you or b) make their tree "private" and invite family members to have access to it, including you? 

I shared info directly to one of my late aunt's grandsons, including a recent photo of myself outside the home that his late Dad (ie my first cousin) and I had lived in when we were both children.  He uploaded it to his ancestry tree.   Another first cousin spotted it and phoned me to complain as it was clearly identifying me and she was quite put out.  I contacted him, he was all apologies, he had been under the mis-apprehension that his tree was private, and he removed the photo and also made sure his tree was private.    All sorted, and mended without much hassles at all.

Cheers  MA

[kerryb]

Downside....  when people take your unverified theories on marriages etc mentioned just as possibilities and put them in their tree as fact.    Then other people take their info and put it into their tree...and before you know it - next time you go to research that particular event you just come up with lots of people all saying it is a FACT that A married B - referencing each other as a source - when really it all stems from a wild unproven theory of your own....


Which is why I don't mind passing on things I know to be correct but try my best to keep my theories to myself!

 

Milly

Me too Milly because have you ever tried to argue with someone who starts off any email with 'I have been researching this family for 15 years....'

It is very hard to persuade some people that they may have got something wrong, something which I always try to be open to 

Kerry

[majm]

Umm, emails from people researching a family for 15 years!  My Dad researched for perhaps 60 years, and never got past one set of grandparents, but got way past on the other set.  I've been at that one set of his grandparents for ummm too long! But long enough to realise that perhaps that couple told a fib or two to their children, as to even if they were formally married!  Ah well, takes all types!     just wish that my dad's grandparents John and Mary Smith could be found somewheres! MA

[Nick29]

At what point though, does the information become your own?  When you have verified it?  Bought the certificates?
It's information that is in the public domain (in most cases) so just because you have done the research doesn't mean the information is yours.

I couldn't agree more.  You don't "own" your family tree.  It's there for all to discover.  If you don't want to share your research, then don't share it.  Ancestry don't let casual viewers access the details of living people, and that's where their responsibility ends.

[Sylviaann]

There have been a nuber of threads on this subject over the years.

Some years ago someone put my tree on Ancestry.  He made a few mistakes.  I was a bit annoyed that he hadn't put me down as a contact.  A couple of years later I looked again and someone else had taken my tree but I was surprised to find that my Gggrandfather who died in 1851 had risen up and gone to America and married again and fathered several children after his death.  Needless to say I don't take other peoples trees as fact and always check.  I use them as a guide only.

I share my tree now with anyone who wants it as I don't think my family are very interested.  It's up to them to check the details.

I've been checking my husbands family tree which is in a published book and have found a couple of mistakes and a couple of mysteries.

Sylviaann

[LizzieW]

I've been checking my husbands family tree which is in a published book and have found a couple of mistakes and a couple of mysteries.

Just out of interest, is it a Red book?  I have one of those.

Lizzie