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I have just recently come back to GR and I would agree that GR have definitely improved, however I have sent out five requests to members for information on my family but without any reply's.

Keith

Have the messages been opened? ie the blue envelope gone? If so, you might get a reply, or wait a week or so and send a polite reminder.

If the message hasn't been opened, the person may not be active on here any more, however you might get a reply, eventually.

many members have left



many members have probably changed their email address, and not notified GR


many have lost interest


many have probably become incapacitated or died



This is a perennial complaint ................ this is the 3rd in a week that I know of -)



There really is little that you can do about it ................... except keep an eye on your Sent messages and see if the envelope has disappeared, which means the recipient has opened your message

........ actually the little envelope is green :-)



but anyway ................ if there is an envelope showing to the left of the person's name, they have not opened the message

Welcome to the Community boards Keith.




(I'll let Keith know that he has replies to his query) :-)

Keith knows how to find replies

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards/board/genealogy_chat/thread/1345326

i have the same problem also but on one of my requests the envelope was opened and they did not reply. you would think that being polite they would answer i sent another message but envelope not opened this time

Some of us come + go off here in intensive bursts if i see a mail just before i go to work I read but don't answer and may not return to site for a couple of weeks it's not necessarily rudeness.
Hope you get some replies eventually Keith and seagate .

You know ...................


a lot depends on HOW you ask the question


Many of us have been once bitten twice shy by people wanting information from us.


GR provides an option of an automatic message ....... which basically says "Please open your tree" or "Please may I see your tree"


I do wish they would remove that automatic message ......... because most of us will NOT respond to it.


If you send me a message asking about a possible connection, I want to know that there might very well be a connection .................. in other words, I don't just want the name of the "possible", I want where and when born, the name(s) of the parents and maybe even the name of the spouse


I will then begin a series of pm exchanges with you to determine whether there is indeed a definite match.

THEN I will send you an extract from my tree, centred on just that one match.


I NEVER open my tree to anyone ................. either on here or on ancestry, where it is private and can be seen only with my permission.





As for someone opening the message and then not replying .................. yes, it could be seen as rude. But it is a personal decision of that person, for whatever reason.

It is also possible that the people you have messaged are no longer members. This means they can receive and read your message but can't reply.

Jude

I could be very wrong Jude but I thought that they could reply to a message which was sent to them but could not initiate a message or reply to a thread ?????

Dea Xxx

Dea sometimes it lets you reply sometimes it doesn't...I have a non-member account in my hubby's name and sometimes I have to write down the sender and reply from my paid account

Jude

That is interesting to know Jude.

NOT exactly what they tell you on here!

Dea Xxx

Yeah - my tree on here used to be my pure tree. Then GR imposed the "new tree" which I hated and still hate. So from that day on I have not updated my tree on here. But it has photos. So I created an account in my hubby's name and from time to time import the GEDCOM from Ancestry. So periodically (and not as often as I should) I log on as him and check for messages. Sometimes it lets me reply - it did today - sometimes it doesn't (and tells me I need to be a paid member)....

Jude

I have read everyone's views on the topic I have listed above, some I agree with, some I don't and some are inevitable, members dying or very ill for example.
However my view's are if you become a member of GR. you should be willing to share your family history and information, if not and you don't agree with my comments then in my view what is your point of being a member of GR, this is about team work and it does not matter how good a genealogist you may think you are there is always someone that will hold a snippet of information that would answer a question that you may have been looking for years.

Some people only want to extract information from other members and not offer their contribution and all they are interested is getting as many people on their tree, which some I have seen go into the thousands. My personal policy is to follow my Trotman family and only take the female side down one or two generations.

Any member who wants to see my tree when I have re-listed it, is welcome, I have no secrets to hide, even to the fact my ggg grandfather was sentenced to death at a Gloucestershire court for stealing nine gold sovereign's.

Keith

Keith,

I have always quite courteously tried to reply to all enquires to me. But some people who are members just want to build their trees and do not expect input from other members. And in this instance, if they expect nothing from other members why should they be expected to share information with others.

I quite agree if you take you should give. But if you don't take then there is no onus to give either.

Nice to have a black sheep or two ;-)

I thought a member had opened a mail + not replied and didn't realised that although she had not replied in a message she Had opened her tree to me ....so i had to go back + see if anyone else had done that + i'd just not seen it .

Keith


This site started in 2002/2003 as a free site on which to build your tree ................... and it was considered to be a very good tree building programme back in 2003/2004.

There was no way to contact other members back then, so many people got used to just having this as a site where they built their tree, and went their own little way.


The Message Boards and pm system were added sometime in early to mid-2004, and fees were instituted for those who wished to make use of those features .......................


but one was still able to join this site as a Free member and only build your tree ............... and that is still the case now.


It might be interesting if one could work out how many free and how many fee paying members there are, but that information is not available, and never will be :-)



GR says this is a site for members to share .................... but no-one can force anyone to do that, nor can anyone say that that is a condition of being on this site.


There is actually nothing in the T&Cs that says this is a site to share information :-)


It just happened as the site evolved.



As Jude says, I also try to be courteous, but I am not about to open my tree, small though it is, to anyone who asks ..........

............ and I do have to say that I have much more information on my home computer that I have never put on my tree on here nor on the one on ancestry

but I don't make contact with anyone, either on here or on ancestry, I don't take information from other trees ................. and feel under no obligation to provide other people with information



what I do do, is enjoy helping other people break down brick walls ..........


.......... and if that is not sufficient to satisfy you, then hard lines!


If it was not for the helpers on this site, who are like me in enjoying the research aspect, but I think often don't, or rarely, make contact with others re their own trees .................. then there would be no-one to help you :-)

ps how do you open part of your tree to view .i only know how to open whole tree or not .
my tree has gone wrong with birth father listed twicw but all connections are different ...sorry that doesn't make sense ,if i try + amend it now it will be a right pig's ear as i have only had a couple of hours sleep

B

ps how do you open part of your tree to view .i only know how to open whole tree or not .
my tree has gone wrong ; I tried to list adopted father as father +ihusband of birth mother then added birth father as her 2nd husband ...but all sort of wrong connections came up ..sorry that doesn't make sense ,

if i try + amend it now it will be a right pig's ear as i have only had a couple of hours sleep

At least I've put notes in the notes section .

B