Don't people realise how much it hurts

[mofid42]

No I haven't physically lost them and one of the main reasons I uploaded scanned copies to my tree was in case anything happened to the originals but to have that amount of value copied all for free by someone else without my permission or consent was heart breaking, to say nothing of all the stories written by me that were also copied which contained years of research using a variety resources.

Unless this is has happened to you it is hard to appreciate exactly  how upsetting it can be. If I had had a dress design or a novel copied in this way I would have had the law on my side but a geanolgy tree has no protection

[Sloe Gin]

No, I really don't get it.  It is disappointing when people don't share, or don't reply to messages, but I really don't mind people copying chunks of my tree.  It's no skin off my nose as they haven't deprived me of anything. 

I have still had the great pleasure of doing the research, which I don't regard as "hard slog".  Yes, there has been some expense, but that's offset by the anticipation and excitement of discoveries.  None of this has been taken away from me, but someone who just copies large portions of family trees has missed out on all of that.

What does upset me a bit is that I can't interest my family on one part of our tree.  There are only three of us descended from this branch, but they just aren't into it, so I have no one to share this part of the journey with.  I so wish I had started it a few years earlier when our parents were alive.

[Rishile]

I so wish I had started it a few years earlier when our parents were alive.

Oh - I wonder how many of us have said that before 

I know I've lost count

Rishile

[Guy Etchells]

No I haven't physically lost them and one of the main reasons I uploaded scanned copies to my tree was in case anything happened to the originals but to have that amount of value copied all for free by someone else without my permission or consent was heart breaking, to say nothing of all the stories written by me that were also copied which contained years of research using a variety resources.

Unless this is has happened to you it is hard to appreciate exactly  how upsetting it can be. If I had had a dress design or a novel copied in this way I would have had the law on my side but a geanolgy tree has no protection

No you are wrong, you have copyright and database protection, but it is up to you to chase it through the courts and prove your case.
Cheers
Guy

[mofid42]

To Sloe Gin

Don't get me wrong ...its not that I don't like sharing, I'm more than happy to. My cousin and I share every scrap of info and I have several other distant relatives who connect to mine or my in laws tree with whom everything also gets shared

I think the reason I found what this particular person did so upsetting was the way in which it was done....at the time I had been almost exclusively working on that section of my tree for six years trying to solve a family mystery. During that time I had only come across one other person connected to it but their tree appeared to be dormant, not used for years, so when  I thought I had finally found someone still actively researching I was very excited ...at last I might have someone else with whom I could discuss the problems and share the triumphs.  
 Of course I was disappointed when they didn't answer any of my messages but I could have lived with that...what made my disappointment worse on this occasion was when I discovered exactly what they had done ...used the free trial only to access my tree so they could take copies of all my work.....something  akin to bank robbers devising and carrying out a heist....it was the thought that their actions had been deliberate and planned in that way that made me genuinely feel like I had been robbed
I can't help but think that type of behaviour despicable and dishonest....why behave in such a callous selfish manner.... Surely sharing and discussing is to everyones benefit?

[Rishile]

I think what needs to be considered more is that one person’s ‘tenth cousin, three times removed’ is another person’s grandfather.

There is an online site about a branch of my family and the website host and myself share Gtx7 grandparents.  Obviously her direct line is more thoroughly researched than my direct line but she does have information on there about some of my line.  I first contacted her because she had my grandfather’s death as 1911 which was when he was 10 years old.  This was obviously not the case or I would not be here.  She accepted that she should have said ‘After 1911’ as she had no further information about him after the 1911 census so the error was just one small word.  She corrected her site and everything was fine.  But that one small word meant far more to me than it did to her ‘twig’.

I also feel that people who ‘steal’ information from other’s trees are missing out on so much.  The feeling that you are ‘getting to know’ your ancestors is not something that can be done by copying chunks from someone else’s work. 

Rishile

[J11]

Sloe Gin,

I know how you feel about your family not being interested in one part of your tree.  My family have no interest in any part of our tree!  I'm doing an in-depth search on the direct line of my Grants and the lives they lived.  All our family records and photos were lost in Hurricane Hattie and the ensuing tidal wave in the 60s so it is a real start from scratch.  Every time I find a reference in a book, something they wrote or a photograph or picture I am so excited.  My husband occasionally indulges me, the boys say "Very nice, Mum" and my mother and sisters express mild curiosity but no-one shares my thrill of the chase.

My husband has just seen this post over my shoulder and said it's not true that they aren't interested, just that they don't share my "obsessive interest".  Hmmm!

[Nick29]

I so wish I had started it a few years earlier when our parents were alive.

Oh - I wonder how many of us have said that before 

I know I've lost count

Rishile

I don't think my parents would have been very cooperative if I'd been researching while they were alive.  My mother was very straight-laced, and wouldn't talk about any 'misdemeanors', which included her own !  My dad left home very young - his mother died when he was 6, and he was brought up by an aunt, who was only recently widowed herself, and he wouldn't talk about his family very much. 

[flipflops]

I so wish I had started it a few years earlier when our parents were alive.

I DID

I started asking as a child (not that there's much chance of me having written it down) but might have remembered a thing or two. All I got were the standard put downs  Mum DID once say 'I could tell you a thing or two about THEM if I wanted to' but seemingly she never wanted to because she never did, even when I was  a mother myself