Ancestry Trees-Public/Private?

[wrjones]

One would have thought that the benefits of having a Private Tree on Ancestry would be merely to keep the details of perhaps "living relatives" private?

However as I have found out just recently,people wishing to view a so called Public Tree do not get to see all the info contained within it.

I contacted someone just a few days ago and to my surprise they said in return messages that they were not able to see all the info in my Tree even though it is a "Public Tree".For the first time ever I had to go through the procedure of giving them "full access" to my Tree in the same way as one would if it was "Private".

Would the question of whether the person I contacted was a subscribed member of Ancestry or not be a factor in this?

Regards
William Russell Jones.

[Alexander.]

Like virtually all sites, it is Ancestry's policy to withhold any information on trees pertaining to living people (Of course, occasionally a few people slip through the net, usually when no date of birth is entered). This means that Public trees and Private trees will not show the details of living people, unless the owner grants permission to view this data. It should not make any difference whether the 'viewer' is a subscriber or not, but if they are not a subscriber they will not be able to see any of your tree unless you give them the necessary permissions.

I only ever give close family members access to all the data that includes living people. Most of the time there is no reason for the person looking at my tree to need to know my exact date of birth and all my parents' info, etc.

[wrjones]

I must admit that perhaps with a few of these things I didn't read the full terms etc when uploading my Tree.However my main point is that given Ancestry's policy towards living people;Why is there any need for such a thing as a "Private Tree"?

Regards
William Russell Jones.

[Alexander.]

I think private trees are for people who do not want all their family information (however far past) made accessible to just anyone. This is particularly a problem on sites like Ancestry because there are so many people who just take other people's trees and import them into their own databases, without even thinking about it. With Private trees you cannot do that.

I keep my One-name study tree "public" because that contains very distant branches, and because I want to get in touch with as many people of the name as possible. However I keep my main tree private just to be on the safe side. People who have a genuine interest can contact me then.

Alexander

[mofid42]

I used to have my trees public until I got thoroughly fed up with those people who just like to copy all your photo's and documents but will not answer any messages or share anything in return.
For example someone copied all the photo's of my mother. As I'm an only child I wanted to know how they could be connected. As their tree was priavte and also set not to show up in the indexes I sent a message but never received a reply.
I wasn't too comfortable with the idea my mum's pictures were on someone elses tree who won't communicate with me so after that my tree went private.
Now having it private forces anyone genuine to contact me and hopefully puts off the time wasters.
Its not that I'm mean....I'm more than happy to share, but as far as I'm concerned its my tree, my work so I wish to retain some control over it.

[wrjones]

I can see a good reason now perhaps why some of the Trees I come across,are shall we say a little suspect.lol

I follow your reasoning.One thing I would be very wary about is giving anyone "editing rights".

Regards
William Russell Jones.

[Plummiegirl]

My tree on Ancestry is Private and all people who can view are Guests.

Would never allow anyone to edit any part of my tree which has taken hours and a fair bit of money to get the accuracy I have.

On GR I have given people permission to view my tree only to find ALL my family suddenly on anothers tree even those not related.  For instance my Irish Family would not need to appear in the tree of a distant relative of my English Tree.  My Mum was Irish so my fathers G/g/g/grandparents would have no connection to her whatsoever.

After this happened a couple of times, I now no longer give anyone access to my tree unless they ask me specific questions about a specific ancestor and then it will take a few back and fro messages for me to ascertain the connection is right.

There are far too many people out there who think this is a cheap hobby and look to use others hard work to build up their trees.  I am more than happy to share my research and copy any BMD's I have for most people but not for the 'tree scrumpers' or those who wish to have as big a tree as possible.

I am now going to sound very mean:  You only have to look to see how many people repeatedly ask for look-ups on here and GR.  I am more than happy to help with 'free' look-ups for people but there are some who have been doing it for years at others expense.  I currently pay out £100.00+ pa for Ancestry and around £80.00 for FindMyPast (both full for my uses within the UK).  Now I know this is a lot of money but this is my hobby and all hobbies come at a cost.  Even when I first started I realised that I would need to take out membership to at least 1 genealogy site and went originally for Ancestry (then succumbed to FindMyPast).  But there are some out there who do not even go for the free trials and then use that time constructively.

SORRY TO RANT - I am a pensioner on a limited income, but I budget to find this money. 

[giraffe]

there are some who have been doing it for years at others' expense. there are some out there who do not even go for the free trials and then use that time constructively. I am a pensioner on a limited income, but I budget to find this money. 

Same here, Plummiegirl, if I can, I help with some of the 'less knowledgeable' questionsI do, but not being an expert, these are few and far between, and Rootschatters usually beat me to it !! However, I must say that this site has taught me more than I could ever have imagined, BIG THANK YOU ROOTSCHAT!
giraffe 
 

[mofid42]

There are far too many people out there who think this is a cheap hobby and look to use others hard work to build up their trees.  I am more than happy to share my research and copy any BMD's I have for most people but not for the 'tree scrumpers' or those who wish to have as big a tree as possible.

. 

I once had two people in the same week copy all that they could from different parts of my tree. When I totalled up the value of the certificates and other documents they had copied I was horrified as it ran in to several hundred pounds. (Turned my tree private since then)

 I was also very disappointed when my contact messages were ignored because for one part of my tree it was the first time in six years I had found anyone else researching that family.

Luckily since then I have found another contact who has just started her tree and she is more than happy to work with me and swap and exchange. Between us we are well on our way to solving a family mystery which I very much doubt the other person will manage to do on their own.....so its their loss as far as I'm concerned