General Chat

First - when I say 'requests' I mean just that - I give as much informaiton as I already have (name, DOB, DOM, DOD, spouse andy children) that can possible help identify that person and then 'request' that IF this person matches anyone in their tree that I would appreciate hearing from them. I also provide a link to my normal web site which contains many details not available on GR as well as an external email contact address. So no - my 'requests' are not demands - they are, plain and simple, a request for assictance in checking a possible connection. If ANYONE has a problem with that type of request, I would respectfully ask 'Why are you on here?' And no - you can't please everyone - like it has been said - I find the automated responses offensive in their bluntness - quite simply because you have NO way of knowing that they ARE an automated response. And let GR know about them? Well despite GR saying 'they will respond' - I am still waiting - no response or acknowledgement - so how else do you raise an issue (such as this atrocious formatting??)

Stephen, I think some of your replies 'not related' etc have more to do with GR than the respondent. When replying to a request, there are a few 'statutory replies' that can be sent - these seem to me to be unnecessarily curt - not the fault of whoever you contacted, but the set-up on the site (a recent 'improvement' unfortunately. As for responding within 24 hours - you're lucky!! I don't look every night (working) and don't always have the information to hand!! It's nothing personal, but this is a hobby, not a job!!! maggie

You have to bear in mind as well that people have commitments elsewhere - whether it be work or family - or even ill health . Holidays and bereavements come into it as well. And some people only have access to PC's at weekends if their workplace does not allow access to websites. you are very lucky to have as many replies so quickly . little kb - i agree with you - when I had my husbands tree on here - with over 60 thousand names we had over 300 e-mails in one week alone - and I answered every single one with a personal response - we have now taken his tree off - as I was exhausted lol She

Heather - I discovered this only a short time ago - but it is infomration that is definately missing from the site. And re my point about formatting - why oh why do they have to remove the formatting - even on these message boards? I have to be honest and say if I received a message formatted like the one I made at the start of this thread I would probably not go through it...

Hi Stephen When given access to someone's tree, select 'View Trees' then select 'View Relations' This will give you an alphabetical list of people in the tree, find the person you are interested in and then select 'View Tree'. Heather

Hi Stephen It's a bugbear of a lot of us - I have been a member for 18 months or so and the other day got a reply to a mail I had sent the first week I was a member! I try to answer as quick as I can - but if I take a couple of days I always apologise - it doesnt cost anything to be polite. she

First I have to say that having only been on GenesReunited for just under 2 weeks it has helped me contact around 8 direct descendants/familes and 3 first cousins - all of whom I had lost touch with over the past 25-30 years. There is a downside to this unfortunately - and one of the problems is the manner in which some users respond to requests. First - the biggest problem, I have to say, is the way GR formats emails - by compressing everything into one lone paragraph it makes it very hard to present information that is readable and thus allowing the recipient to easily follow a request of information that may be sent. I have asked GR about this (but still waiting on a response). Second - the manner inwhich some people respond - 3 nights ago I made a concerted effort to contact as many people as I could on one particular line of my tree - this mean 57 queries being sent out in one night. From these 57 I receoved 31 answers within 12 hours and still have some trickling in. But I have to say - the manner some of them have responded to makes me wonder how they can even get any research done. With messages such as 'Not related', 'Please read my tree', to 'Go away - we are not related' really makes me wonder. Also - requests come in that say nothing more than 'When was George Smith born?' - doesn't help especially when, in your own tree, you have half a dozen 'Smiths' all named George! Is it hard, when a request is made, to give a civil answer? Or, when requesting information, to give a bit of information that can help you identify the person they are looking for? Or am I being 'overly-sensitive' in this? To Genes Reunited - a couple of suggestions if I may. 1. Formatting of email messages - could they at least retain the layout that the writer uses? For example - I try to lay out a list of names, b,d&m dates and places one name under the other for clarity - but when the message is recieved it is strung out one name after the other. 2. Downloading of users tree informaiton. Some trees are massive and trying to locate a single name, when you have access to a tree, is almost impossible (I had one tree the other day that was spread over 45 screens - the name I wanted was on screen number 43 - but I had no way of going directly to it or printing it out until I got to that 43rd screen. Surely there has to be an easier way to access this information, surely I am missing something? Finally - whilst not a major problem - members please please please - do NOT assume everyone lives in the UK when responding to messages (I had one abusive email because I didn't respond within 2-3 hours of her request - and then abused me because 'it is early evening - why can't you be bothered responding?' Regards, Stephen Rowe Melbourne, Australia