Gggrrrrrr!! Private Tree on Ancestry photos copied

[Greensleeves]

Dave Dee, other people's trees can often be useful as a guide but if you just help yourself to their trees that is not research, and you are assuming the information they contain is correct, which may not be the case.  Some trees are total nonsense and by indiscriminate plundering of trees you make a nonsense of genealogy.  I have numerous ancestors  who lived their entire lives in a single Suffolk village but, according to some trees on  Ancestry, emigrated to the USA and died in various states in prosperous circumstances.  All total and utter nonsense.  So it really depends on whether you want a tree which shows the truth, or whether you just want a load of names and dates which are spurious, meaningless and totally without foundation. I must say I quite favour the device on Ancestry of putting in the odd  error and see how far it gets....  Serves you right if you copy it without checking.  If you'd contacted me before helping yourself, I would have happily pointed you in the right direction.

[Greensleeves]

Complete your family tree, Dave Dee?  Whoever completes their family tree?  Not sure I've ever met anyone who has done that.  However far you get, however many people you have on it, there is ALWAYS some other branch to pursue.  And when you get stuck, there are always plenty of people here who you can help until such time as you can break down that brick wall and get a couple more generations back.

[Dave Dee]

I don't think that would worry me, as long as my own beloved grandparents were not "slagged off" in any way

I think you have mentioned that twice, so obviously, and understandably, feel strongly about this. However, since your tree is public, you have no control over what anyone who copies it, and adds it to their tree, puts. If they decide your grandfather is a bigamist or your grandmother had several illegitimate children there is nothing you can do about it and that information would then be out there for others to copy and spread.

Agreed. But it would be on their own heads. Looking at this logically, I doubt if my deceased grandparents would be caring about it, and anyway, as long as the good people on Ancestry could benefit from my tree, all well and good. I continue to be happy for my tree to be public, and, if there's anything too sensitive, well, as somebody earlier has suggested, it just ain't going on there.

[Dave Dee]

Complete your family tree, Dave Dee?  Whoever completes their family tree?  Not sure I've ever met anyone who has done that.  However far you get, however many people you have on it, there is ALWAYS some other branch to pursue.  And when you get stuck, there are always plenty of people here who you can help until such time as you can break down that brick wall and get a couple more generations back.

Greensleeves, what I said was only a joke. Did you not see the winking face after my comment?

[youngtug]

I continue to be happy for my tree to be public, and, if there's anything too sensitive, well, as somebody earlier has suggested, it just ain't going on there.
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            There are some very good researchers about, given a snippet of information you may be surprised what they could find.

[Dave Dee]

Dave Dee, other people's trees can often be useful as a guide but if you just help yourself to their trees that is not research, and you are assuming the information they contain is correct, which may not be the case.  Some trees are total nonsense and by indiscriminate plundering of trees you make a nonsense of genealogy.  I have numerous ancestors  who lived their entire lives in a single Suffolk village but, according to some trees on  Ancestry, emigrated to the USA and died in various states in prosperous circumstances.  All total and utter nonsense.  So it really depends on whether you want a tree which shows the truth, or whether you just want a load of names and dates which are spurious, meaningless and totally without foundation. I must say I quite favour the device on Ancestry of putting in the odd  error and see how far it gets....  Serves you right if you copy it without checking.  If you'd contacted me before helping yourself, I would have happily pointed you in the right direction.

Greensleeves, you're dead right about some trees containing "total and utter nonsense". Seen plenty like that! Only the other day, I saw someone in a tree who was born, then died aged about 4 years of age, in, say, 1850, and then was miraculously resurrected, to appear posthumously in the 1861 Census. When I started (almost 5 years ago), like most of us, I suppose, I believed the information in other people's trees all to be accurate. I soon found out how wrong that was! After that, I checked everything before putting it into my own tree - or at least added a note to say something or other needed confirmation. Thanks for the advice, though, much appreciated.

[Jomot]

I think the problem is that Ancestry (since that's who we're talking about) has two basic settings - all or nothing. 

The consensus of this debate - whichever side of it you're on - seems to be that those who take their research seriously are perfectly willing to exchange information with those who are doing the same.  The only disagreement is regarding the current 'wide open' mechanism which results in far more takers than givers - many without the courtesy of a request or acknowledgment and often mangling years of work to make a square peg fit into a round hole. 

There will always be those who are happy to let anyone help themselves and do whatever they like with it, and others who will be offended by such an approach.  I'm in the latter category.

What perhaps the 'everything should be open' camp don't 'get' because its not in their personal make-up is that often an emotional investment goes into these trees.  They aren't just a giant jigsaw puzzle to some of us, and just as we guard & protect our living family we also guard & protect our deceased.  Dave says he doubts his deceased grandparents would be too bothered about being branded a bigamist or having illegitimate children and he's right - but if that was my grandparents, both of whom I loved dearly, then I would be bothered about it.  Very much so. 

However, regardless of that aspect of things I must admit to being very nonplussed at the apparent belief that just because someone pays a sub to Ancestry its their God-given right to access personal family documents that may have a very deep meaning to me, along with information I only have because I also paid subs to various other sites to obtain it.  I'm happy to share if you introduce yourself and ask, I just don't think you should expect to simply walk in and take it without any thought to how I might feel about it.  To me that's just basic manners, and if you cant display those then why should I give you anything at all? 

Unfortunately its this "I'm entitled to have whatever I want and I don't give a stuff about you" attitude that underpins why so many trees have gone private, mine included.

Anyway, I'm leaving this thread now as I too am uncomfortable with the tone of some of it.

[groom]

What a brilliant and well written post, Jomot. I think you have summed up exactly what most of us who have made our trees private think. It certainly isn't a case of being selfish, as perhaps has been suggested in a few posts.

[doddsie4]

       I agree that many members have switched from a public tree to a private tree for the very reasons you have outlined.     I got so utterly fed up with it a while ago that I actually switched to a Private Tree - but then, after a couple of weeks, I thought that this was just giving up on my principles, and the Ancestry principles, that the idea of the site is to share.      So I made my tree public again and decided to stick with the solid principle of sharing.

       I can see what you are getting at, though.     

       By the way, I can remember discovering from the Salvation Army what had happened to my Grandfather's long-lost sister - and I wept tears over the letter they sent me.      You'd be surprised how emotional I am about the people on my tree.