Genealogy Chat

While working with a shared tree, I have discovered that if you type in a first name and last name in the search box leaving year blank, if this is the name of a Living Relation they appear in the search results, i.e. you then know what their name is. It appears the only really safe way to keep living relations' details private is to build your tree using your own software and export a gedcom file without living relations. I use Generations and can use the Privacy flag to do this. I've tested on my own tree by searching on the GR tree for names that should be private and am pleased to say they are. If you keep all your data i.e. notes etc on your own software and only export names / dob etc rather than any detail then this is safest. I go one step further and only have years of birth / death on my GR tree. Hope this is useful.

Hi Only this morning I had contact from someone regarding a living relation. The strange thing is that on my tree at the moment this person (my sister) is not named - she is down as 'Living Relation' with her year of birth. I did originally have her name on the tree but changed it a couple of months ago on the advice of other members. Even stranger the contact had the same name as my sister but as her married name, if you see what I mean! The contact has no connection to my tree and for the first time ever I used the 'answering service' provided by GR rather than a politely worded personal reply! I still don't know how/why she found me! Sue