General Chat

I quite agree with James, the Data Protection Act is about the most pointless bit of legislation around. It does nothing to prevent the use of information by the ungodly but makes life darned difficult for everybody else. I would rather put information on this site where, unless you have granted permission for someone to view your tree, the only things visible are the name, year and place of birth, than in a telephone directory or electoral roll.

I would be interested to know if just giving year and county of birth along with name is sufficient to prevent identity theft?

I have all your replies with interest and realise now just what a tinder box this could become (stolen identities?). Best keep it short and sweet and not let anyone have acess to your tree unless you can be 100% sure that they are a relative, not an imposter.

Hello, I too only have my dead ancestors on this site, however someone seems to have copied parts of my tree but changed the place of birth, I have no idea why and they refuse to answer my emails.It's a bit worrying

Does not the fact that the Registrar General posts the particulars of all living persons on public files make an utter nonsense of this data protection stuff? - - - but the entries must be true. A means of warning of doubt without re-aligning indexing would often be advantageous i.e. "?"to be excluded from main listing but highlighted in listed entry.

Not sure which program you guys use for your family trees - I use Family Tree Maker which has a 'privatise' facility. By opting for this the information about anyone less than 100 years of age other than those already deceased is removed from the records (temporarily) - you can then export to a gedcom file and upload it with a clear conscience. I also used a free program called Legacy which had the same facility as well. I guess there are other programs that cater for this. Graham

Always strip off details of living people before putting any family tree information in a public place or even giving to someone else. MB

Reply to william. Its better safe than sorry. If you dont know where a relative is and cant ask their permission, then please dont post their details. If you need the link for further names then change the living relative details to "Living" or "not telling" and keep the rest of the info to yourself. Its no problem for you to have your own personal file with living relatives details, the point is that its advisable not to post them on the net. Privacy is breached and fraud can be commited if you use first names, date and place of birth. Its wise just to use "non Living" people for the purpose of family trees. Anyone else doing family trees should know a dead relative or two of their own that you can compare with and match up. If you are searching for someone (i.e. long lost brother) then it wont hurt to put in some details on the message boards, but keep something to yourself so that you have got something to varify that they are who they are.. If you are stuck looking for "nonliving relatives there are some good places to look on the LINKS page.

Hi - I have been reading your comments on this issue and they are all thought provoking. In my instance, my daughter lives approx 3000 kilometers from me and she has access to my tree because of her research. How else is she to find out about her family. I must admit If I am contacted about a query of someone in my tree I try and establish some facts that I know about first before giving access. This issue is not going to go away because it does not just deal with this site it applies to other avenues in your life as well. I know of a lot of instances which arise when too much information is freely available and then misused. Here in Australia we have the same kind of law but under a different name. It just makes it harder for the genuine people to make genuine enquiries. Having said that I am glad that this law is in force to protect our privacy. Just wanted to air an ex-poms point of view on this subject. Leah New South Wales, Australia

Hi all I have just deleted my tree - got so confused with all the replies on this board,might start again without living members,but have'nt got anywhere anyway.Everything l do l mess up. Cheers Jude H.

Don't get paranoid. If someone wants to impersonate you they will find ways, I don't think that contributing to this site will significantly add to the risk. But otherwise go ex-directory, don't register to vote, don't join clubs, don't write to the newspapers, don't post anything on the internet, don't use mail-order catalogues, don't get a professional qualification, don't get married, in other words, become a hermit and don't have a life.

Someone suggested just entering parents, grandparents etc on Genes Connected. I find that I am as interested in all the "branches" off the tree. I like to track distant relatives and see where they ended up. This is also useful when someone with my surname turns up in 1901 Census or similar. I then want to know whether they are descended perhaps from a brother of my Grandfather, brother of my Great Grandfather or are completely unrelated. I keep hoping that someone new to family history might spot a name from my tree even if they are very distantly related. They might have some very useful gem of information on a common ancestor that coulod lead to much more. They might not know enough about their tree to recognise that common ancestor but they might recognise another name. MB