Genealogy Chat

I have just had this message from genes:- Dear Simon You have been given access to view XXXX'S family tree on Genes Reunited To give XXXX permission to view your tree, see the surnames in XXX'X family or send a message to find out more, visit your contact centre on Genes Reunited . This contact is a pest to me and has contacted me several times asking about a possible link to a family member.The first time he contacted me ,it was clear to me there was no connection between us and I told him so,but I did assist him by finding lots of info for him,which I sent but got no reply, as you sometimes dont,so I fogot all about it. Then months later ,I get a request from him asking to view my tree.I ignored it and deleted him from my contacts list. Then I get the above message from genes today.When I clicked on the link attached to the message, it took me to my shared tree page and to my horror I find that the permssion box for him was ticked for him to view my tree. This must have been done by genes as I definately ,100% know that I have not given him permission to view my tree. So I have just posted this warning to all, to check their allowed list should anyone get this kind of message from genes, The site does seem to have really messed up this week with the introduction of the new tree layout, I still cant enter marriage details. Simon

Hi Simon One of my contacts last week who I wrote to because she had my gran's sister's brother in law in her tree added my gran and all her siblings and a lot of more of my ancestors to her tree before I took her access away and then she sent me an automated message asking for my tree and said she had given me access to hers then when I looked she had 50586 names in it !!!, anyway I wrote to her and said I didn't mean to allow her access to mine in the first place and that I thought she had taken enough of my ancestors already, why do people do that?, I know I unticked the tree permission box as well when I contacted her. Jenny

Hello Simon This is a worry as I have had contact with a member who at best I would describe as a nuisance. I do keep checking as Iam getting messages from people allowing me to view there trees and have no idea who they are. If the person who G R has blocked from contacting me but allowed to stay on the site has been able to get any info about me because of the new system then any trust I have in this site will be gone.

Hi I put a mesage on here the other day about same problem. I had nearly all my contacts able to view my tree even though I did not allow any of them to do so. I un-ticked all the allow box,s and e-mailed GR. Why not look at the other thread and see other problems people have been having I think it was called what do you think of the latest GR UPDATE. Something like that Regards Jack

I have just looked on my shared trees and found I have permission to look at a number of peoples trees that I have not asked for or they are not given me permission to look at them either. Had two boxes ticked for permission to see my tree that I had not granted as well. PLEASE CHECK YOU SHARED TREES

Thanks to all for the replies. This is indeed worrying and everyone needs to check their allowed list's to make sure they are correct .... Cheers Simon

I did email G R as soon this started happening was asked for a list of names that the shared trees was happening with emailed them to G R .................still waiting for response.

I've had a slightly different prob, but still relevant. I was contacted by someone and allowed to see their tree. They didn't appear to have any connection to me, but thought i'd take a look anyway just to make sure. Up comes this person's tree, or so I thought and there were many of my ancestors on it, so I gave them access to my tree. On closer inspection, it was actually my tree that I was looking at, not the other persons, so i've quickly removed their access to mine. A total shambles. This sort of thing will have us giving access to someone with no connection. A complete mess on GR's part. Cheers Margaret.

Thanks for posting these problems. I have just spent 3 days working through everything because I have discovered that absolutely everything to do with Genes is a total and complete abysmal mess. All my shared trees disappeared (including my own brother!!!). I have had to use the system to send him a message to give me viewing rights again (we work independantly on different aspects then combine our work). Well I have got him again but not through Shared Trees. When I click on that it comes back saying that relative is not in my tree! However, when I load my own tree and click on other trees (top right hand corner drop down menu) he is there and the tree opens. Second major problem. I found I had 18 pages of Hot Matches out of the blue. With 20-25 per page work out the total. 90% of them were for a Mary Jones and I don't even have a b***** Mary Jones in my tree. Of course I had to work through every one to discard them. Actually I have come to the conclusion that Hot Matches are a complete waste of time. If Genes only search on a name we don't stand much of a chance of getting a hit that way. If they want to employ something like that then it should search on all completed database fields (standard practice anyway!). All this is after they totally messed up my membership renewal with a defective system which wouldn't do the job. As for that Flash Viewer thingy! Well stupid is as stupid does! I had version 7: it said I needed version 8 and to click on the link. I did. Three guesses what it downloaded: version 7. And it works. Add insult to injury - I want to phone them and tell them exactly what I think of all their so-called improvements and there simply ain't a telephone number. They seriously expect us to write (short they say) feedback. How to protect yourself from the angry masses. I would do some serious castration (or mastectomies) if I could get my hands on them! They have obviously never heard of the saying 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'. One disgruntled guy who is gradually transferring over to Ancestry!

To David Lawson You are very correct, what a shambles,it makes me want to delete my tree from GR totally as Idont think it can be trusted any more with our details. I have just gone through my allowed lists and had to make many adjustments as it was letting lots of contacts view my tree and they were not intended to. As for the hot matches ,yes a total waste of time in my opinion, but I know some have had great results, so it does work for a few. Simon

Just curious...why do people 'collect names' ? I've had just a few 10k-30k contacts...one has been good with a thorough report that he shared (120 pages of good info)...others i've ignored. Other people have 'opened their tree for me' but have done no work on the line that they want me to open my tree for them. I can only believe that this is a result of GR advertising. But still curious what pleasure the name collectors get.

I have just discovered that my maiden name and birth year are given as a heading to a message which I received from a mysterious contact - the message was completely incomprehensible and concerned names which I do not have in my tree. I am very angry about this - but I am not as angry as all the adoptees who have just found out their messages are going out headed with their birth name and year of birth. What an utter lash up. OC

Hello Brian It is strange, I dont see any head hunters/name collectors answering your question. I prefer to call them parasites myself. I spend lots of cash and time on this interest, as do most on this site I should think. Its the ones that prefer to spend little or no cash and time, that you refer to as the name collectors. How can people have thousands of names in their tree without the correct research. I think they are only cheating them selves in the long run. You should be proud of your own research. I cant answer your question -what do they get out of name collecting ? These names are not just names but they were real PEOPLE and deserve more respect. Simon

....and yet another 'glitch'...someone on General has received a load of pms which are not ADDRESSED to him, but are ABOUT him... what on earth is going on? OC

Another thing is I seem to have lost all the messages from my contacts list so now I have no idea what I've asked them and what their replies were. Jenny

How do people get thousands of names?After 4 years of research,and help from some people on here,lots and lots of time and considerable sums of money i have 507 names,all linked to me from England,Wales,Scotland, America and Canada Steve from Somerset

Well now there's a mystery ,,,,I posted a reply on this thread early hours this morning giving a Addy to another site;; Hmmm see it has been deleted, and not by me ,,,that's why I have just come straight back to this thread in case any queries to it ;;; Babs

My tree was lifted by someone who has 150,000 names in their tree on Ancestry, the last time I looked. Furious doesnt begin to describe how I feel about this. OC

Hi from a newbie, startled by all these drawbacks in what I thought was a great site!! I have deleted all my living relatives from the tree on here, plus ticked the 'hide ' box - is that enough? As far as the dead ancestors, that's what I want contact about, so anyone looking will take their chance if I'm right on details or not. My 'real' research from now will be logged on my PC. Out of interest, how do you all know that someone else has your details? Do you search your own name? I ask because my contacts/messages/tree remain the same as before ( I assume the changes you all notice were done as standard when i joined recently?)