Genealogy Chat

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Maybe its the genes glitch still working. You may have come up too on hot matches. shirley

I received the following message yesterday which I shall paste: 'hi im looking for my faily past the hinmans from midlands' I haven't had any previous contact with the sender, and I don't have a clue why the message was sent to me! This is exactly what it says. I replied asking what their actual query was, but I haven't received any reply. Has anyone else had similar messages where they haven't got a clue what it's about?

The only thing that i get are messages saying ' Tree access allowed' when i hav'nt asked for it. it does worry me at times because invariably they will be from people who i have contacted but only to answer queries ect and they are not relatives in any way. I hate to think that people think i go around asking to see trees that are nothing to do with me !!!

A couple of times recently I've sent messages to people as a result of 'Hot Matches' only to get a message back to say that they didn't have that person/name in their tree, obviously another GR glitch! Maybe your new contact is responding to his/her Hot Matches too! Sue

This world, like the real world has its share of plonkers. I see one of this type of message at least twice a month. If the correspondent cannot put a question together, then there's no hope of a rewarding conversation, so I don't respond. -- Dave.

I too got a message recently which asked if we were connected - and opened their tree to me. I had a quick look at their tree in an attempt to find a surname that we had in common - but without success. I sent a reply asking just who they thought it was we had in common and the answer was that they didn't know. I had come up in their hotmatches and expected I would know. Victoria

Elizabeth I've sometimes received a message like that in a PM after I've asked a question on someone's thread on Tips or Records. Gwyn

Gwyn - I did wonder if it was because I had replied on a thread. However, I have viewed 'my threads' and can't come up with any potential contacts. I don't think I'm going to get any further on this one.

I'd say it's either because you've appeared in their Hot Matches list, or because you've contributed to their thread, or they to yours. Many people, especially new members, don't realise that Hot Matches are GR generated. They think the people concerned have contacted them, and feel obliged to reply. This has happened to me a few times, and when I pointed it out to one of those who contacted me, he told me he had replied to every Hot Match - 5 pages' worth! I have also had people contact me directly by PM, after replying to their threads. One woman thought I was going to do all her research for her. She had also contacted the other two people who had replied to her question, but had found me to be the most forthcoming (soft touch). I got daily queries for more than a week, until I decided it had to stop and politely asked her to ask on the boards. I've never seen her on since! Yours could be some new person, who's still unsure about how things work. Amanda

I also got a strangely worded message last week. Like yours, it hardly made sense. I asked what they wanted to know and did at least get a reply 'Sorry I made a mistake' I thought it was odd but just deleted it all. At the time I remember thinking someone was trying it on to see what info they could get for whatever purpose. I was probably being paranoid! (Anyway I have no personal info and no living people on here at all so they would have been out of luck!) Anne

i read it as hi, i'm looking for my family past. the hinmans from the midlands. i get lots of odd ones too.keyboards play up,spelling is bad,literacy poor,brain fatigue,babies on knees etc.

Juliet, I read it just as you did but I am inclined to agree with David: if the writer is as slapdash or as illiterate as appears then one can have little confidence in any information they may have. Peter

Sorry But GR could easily solve all of this confusion, A set of instructions, explaining what Hot matching is all about. somewhere on site, but i guess that would be too simple for them to sort out ;) They could 'Do' alot of things that 'need' doing, and leave well enough alone the things that do NOT... (like the tree software). And being able to delete the 80 odd + more pages of flaming hot matches i dont want!! lol... needless to say I dont really post on here alot anymore, have found another place, with real people, that listen to your gripes and sort them!! Julie

Julie, There are notes about Hot Matches. If you click on Help/FAQ's on the left hand menu list, then look under Searching For Relations and Hot Matches.

Seems as if your writer is only used to texting people. Have had this a lot. Perhaps us oldies need to go to classes to learn texting.!!