New people appearing on my Ancestry.co.uk tree without my permission ?!

[kob3203]

I've just created an Ancestry Support account and asked over there too.

[groom]

When you add a record from Ancestry e.g. a census record, have you ticked other people rather than just say the head of the house? If you do that, it automatically adds all of those to your tree.

Otherwise, as others have said, no one can add to your tree unless you've invited them as an editor.

[kob3203]

I'm 99% certain that nobody else has ever been invited to share my tree until about a week ago.
I'm 99% certain that the three people I invited about a week ago were invited as guests.
I'm 99% certain that none of them had accepted my invitation before I cancelled them.
I'm 99% certain that nobody else has access to my account.
I'm 99% certain that I haven't ever added any records to my tree that would automatically have added these people.

Conclusion: Maybe I added them myself ages ago and totally forgot.

I'm 99% certain that I didn't add them myself.

But if I'm wrong on one of these six 99%s (and I think I must be, excepting a major glitch at Ancestry) then I think this is the most likely one.

So.

Is there any way to tell when a person was added to the tree ? I think just the sequence in which they were added would be enough.

[ThrelfallYorky]

I've never ever invited anyone to view or join my tree. When people have contacted me with specific enquiries, I have responded by typing out the information they want, but not giving any access to my tree.

[kob3203]

My tree's been public from day one, around 2008, but I hadn't invited anybody to share my tree till last week.

There were two main reasons for inviting people to share last week:

1) Being a non-paying member I can't contact other members. However, when I received a bunch of photo hints which were clearly identifiable as my great uncles and aunts I discovered that I could contact the user by inviting them to share my tree.

2) My sister doesn't have an Ancestry account but wants to see my tree, and I noticed that Ancestry don't offer free accounts on their main page any more. But by sending a non-member an invitation to share your tree they are able to create a free account.

And I'm now fairly sure that the mystery adder-of-people was myself, eight years ago! I noticed that two of the 'new' in-laws had profile images. Profile images that I'd cropped and uploaded in 2008.

Do I feel stupid ?   

[*Sandra*]

We all have those "moments" ............................

     
Sandra

[Douglas P]

... I discovered that I could contact the user by inviting them to share my tree....

Thanks for the tip. I'd been wanting to contact an Ancestry member but didn't realise it could be done without a subscription.

[Billingham]

I have three relatives who can see my full tree including living relatives.  I NEVER give permission for them to edit the tree.  Much safer to ask them to message you if they notice an obvious discrepancy so you can check it out and, if necessary, alter the details yourself.  If you have been working on your tree for years and someone mucks it up unintentionally it can cause you a lot of heartache and time putting it right.  Hope you find out what happened. 

Helen

[kob3203]

I'm now almost certain that I added them myself eight years ago, and simply forget. I'm trying to track down an old GED export that would confirm 100% that theory.