Genealogy Chat

Some years ago (when I was new to GR) I made the mistake of putting some living relatives on my tree. I allowed another member (who was 'distantly' related) to view my tree. I later discovered that they had copied ALL my relatives onto their tree. I contacted them and asked them to remove the 'living'. They took umbrage and removed the whole of their tree from this site. Today, I found that member in my Hot Matches with 30+ matches including some of my 'living'. M. Steer

Margaret You could always PM them and ask if they had Permission to include them in their tree Julie

Julie, yes of course I could do that - but they don't have permission! I didn't give it years ago, I certainly haven't given it since. What will they do? Remove their tree. again? M. Steer

Margaret you are entitled to be annoyed at selfishness,lack of courtesy and down right rudeness.

They're in breach of GR T&C by putting names on the tree without the individuals consent. Consent they cannot of obtained since they only got the names from your tree.

If you feel strongly about it simply send them a message politely asking them to remove the names concerned from the site, and give them a week to do so. If they do not respond then contact GR (you will need to provide a list of the names concerned) and they will remove them from the tree.

this happened to me ,the person is a very distant relative. he even emailed a cousin of mine and pretended that he knew me well. she was suspicious and alerted me i did report it to gr. he removes my living relatives when asked to and then adds them again and full details a week later. i believe he has printed my tree and probably many others. i doubt i am the only one he is doing this to.

So annoying, this has happened to me to. I wish we could name and shame people that do this, I'm sure less people would so easily give access to others without checking the 'tree stealers' register if we had one. My sympathy Louise

Been there, done that. I asked this person, years ago, to remove certain names, they did so (grudgingly) BUT now they're back again, still with some 'living' names. I'm tired of always 'looking over my shoulder'. M. Steer

I've had this sort of thing happen several times. I've had someone who I gave access to years ago put the details on this site AND on Ancestry, only much later,after I had withdrawn access. He seems mighty proud of his big tree, much of which is incorrect, and grants access to anyone who asks thereby passing on the data of everyone else whose tree he's ever looked at and copied to his own. When I have found myself and living relations on other people's trees, I know if it has come through him, as the exact same mistakes are always there. I learned after that. However, I was very disappointed a few months ago to find that someone who I gave some details to by private email, and only after he promised he would use them only in his private offline work and would NEVER put them online or pass them onto anyone else, had also put living relatives of mine on GR. I don't think he intended to do it, rather that he had put the info into his FT programme and later uploaded a complete, unedited, gedcom to GR. Still, he found my conerns amusing and didn't see what the problem was. Be wary of people who give immediate and unrestricted access to their tree and tell you that you can use their data in whatever way you choose. They will almost certainly regard and treat your data in the same way. Unfortunately, the truth is that whenever we pass information on, in whatever format, we lose control over it. If privacy is very important to us, we have to think seriously about what we do with our data. Amanda

It isn't always the case that the person concerned has got the information through direct access to our trees. People sometimes panic and think that their tree is accessible to all and sundry. Not necessarily. As I have said, people have got my info through others who I have given access to in the past. I now make a point of asking (even) relatives what their attitude is towards passing on information, before I divulge. There's no point in keeping your tree closed to all but relatives if those relatives will pass the info on. Being our relatives, OUR data is also THEIR data, and they may feel differently and see no problem with passing on personal details. If you know that one of your family members is also into online genealogy it is wothwhile having a word and telling them that if they intend to share tree data with others, then to make sure they don't put you and yours on. Amanda