Is your tree online?

ZombieBride

This came up in the storage thread. There are many online storage facilities for our family trees, some that help identify possible family members and information, but there are also risks involved in having your tree online, name poachers (those who add every possible link to their tree) and identity fraud.

Do you have yours online, has it worked for you?


I use to have small bits of my tree online until I got Family Tree Maker about 5 years ago, I find it a lot easier to use than any of the online tree makers.

I have found some of my rough drafts of my tree that were online years ago in other people's trees, copy pasted straight over with errors intact. If I get a piece of information from someone elses tree I like to know where the source it and check that for myself.

pinkypinky

Here's what I do.

I've got a basic direct tree (names and year of birth/death only) on ancestry - in case I find someone researching a direct ancestor. I was burned years ago by on Genes Reunited by a woman who kept insisting she was a daughter of my mother's aunt but her dates did not match up and when I politely explained this, she continued to contact me like I was a new person and it drove me mad.

shanew

not really a simple answer from me - at the moment I have no publicly accessible tree online, although I do have a basic private tree on Ancestry and had one on GenesReunited (not sure it's still active though). I have full, almost current, details on my TNG website but this is restricted access - i.e. invitation only, so not searchable via google etc. I find that most family members are more interested in occasional updates and snippets of interesting research than diving into the full details. I keep a basic list of surnames, occupations and locations online which can be found on google searches - http://roots.swilson.info/surnames.html

Originally I had the AncestryTree public and a few details and photos were taken by someone who later turned out to be a distant relative. The basic details I dont mind, but they copied photos without asking and posted details of living people and of people recently deceased. Both the private Ancestry and the GR trees allow basic searching but not full tree access - unless invited. Both of these have resulted in a few interesting connections.

Both also pop up the occasional silly queries along the lines of 'Do you have a Mary Doyle born in Ireland about 1815 ?' etc. I messaged someone on GR about a possible Yorkshire connection and without showing any interest in the details gave me access to his tree of over 20,000 names! A quick look through and you could see that it was all just copy & pasted together with very little detail and issues with many of the 'connections'.



Shane

ZombieBride

I had the same issue on genesreunited Pinky, deleted my tree from there a few years ago.

Brennans Row

I agree putting personal stuff online is problematic as one has no control over it.

Still I would like to deposit my own research somewhere when I’ve finished it, for all the succeeding generations that descended from my great-great-grandparents.

Mumha

Brennans Row wrote: »

Still I would like to deposit my own research somewhere when I’ve finished it, for all the succeeding generations that descended from my great-great-grandparents.

That's the great dilemma alright...how do we ensure it's passed on ? My Mother's first cousin is 82 and between herself and her brothers did an absotutely massive amount of work on the family history. None of her family have any interest in carrying on the research or even knowing about the history, so she was absolutely delighted that I want to do that for her. She sent me over (from Australia) loads of documentation and I think it's like a weight off of her shoulders (and onto mine !).

Hermy

Two things...

Firstly, after chatting with IrishGathering.ie at the RDS last year I tried using their on line family tree only to discover that once you add a person you cannot delete them which is daft. So I emailed them and they claimed that no such problem exists even though their help video says the opposite! This left me scratching my head as to their motives and since then I've been reluctant to put a family tree on line.

Secondly, I wonder if anyone has come across this site before or can tell me how I might contact the person who compiled the tree. The information relating to the Pelly's is all relevant and it would be great to get in touch with them.

Hermy

Has anyone got a comment re the above?

CeannRua

Hermy, there's a tab called 'Suggest' on that website where it looks like you can leave a message.

Hermy

Thanks ceann.
I have already emailed them via the Contact Us tab and am awaiting a response.
I'll give the Suggest tab a go if I don't hear from them in the meantime.