Genealogy Chat

mention what your connection is to the tree you are asking to view. I get numerious requests to view my tree but not giving me any idea what their connection is. I only open my tree to fellow researchers who are directly connected and so far they have been very generous in letting me look at theirs. So please to save time please state why you wish to view their tree. Lin

Since posting this message - I have been repeatedly bombarded with messages 'Let me see your tree' but still with no indication on why. PLEASE STATE YOUR REASONS!!!!! Lin

I've had the same problem. Just this morning I got an 'I have opened my tree' message, which obviously are automated, without any additional e-mail. I think it might be getting some new and returning members confused. The thing is, you then look at the person's tree and feel bad because they can't see yours, but it's impossible to know when someone's going to send one.

I,ve had the same problem. When I asked why they wanted to see my tree, I got a message back saying they didn't know but I could look at their tree and see if I knew why. I don't mind helping people but when their tree has about 6000 names it's a bit of a cheek. Jo

Could it be something to do with people getting hot matches for the first time, and not realising how they work? They may think there is automatically a link. I've also had a couple of people message me about various things and they have inadvertently not cancelled the view my tree box. Jay

And also, a lot of contacts have put some really, really personal information on their tree about their children or parents. If I was one of the 'tree bandits' as we called them a while ago, there would be nothing to stop me plastering that all over my tree or Ancestry world tree or even my own tree on Ancestry. That's why I felt bad about being able to see the information on the tree belonging to my contact of this morning. I wouldn't dream of copying his information but there are people out there who will and would. As was mentioned before (sorry I've gone a bit off-topic) there is also the issue of identity fraud. I have seen trees where living people have included not only their full name, date and place of birth, but even their address. There is enough information on some (probably on many) trees for an unscrupulous person to set up bank accounts etc for fraudulent purposes. This is why I worry about how readily people give access to their tree.