Genealogy Chat

finding a few matches on other peoples trees but never seem to get an answer to a request to view (and i ask very politely)
if they have stopped using the site does the tree still stay on the system

Yes, the tree will remain on GR unless its owner deletes it.

Any Private messages that you send via GR will be sent via GR to the last known email address of the person. If they have changed their email address but have not advised GR of the change then the message you sent will not reach them.

The facility of having a tree on this site is part of the Free membership.

so i could be asking to a view a tree of someone who has not used the site for years and would not know of my request

Check to see if your message has been opened. If it has, I often find it is worth sending a polite followup message.

terry .........................


you could even be sending messages to people who are dead or completely incapacitated.

Only the tree owner, someone who has their password, or GR can delete trees form this site.

GR almost never do it ................... only if someone has behaved so badly on the site that they have been permanently banned (and not always then!)


If the tree owner has not given a trusted family member or friend the password and other details, and told that person to delete the tree, or to ask GR to remove the person from the site ................... then nothing can happen.



I have long advocated keeping a little notebook by your computer, listing all the sites that you visit, paid and free.

Include the site URL, your site name, and password used.

Tell a family member or close friend where this notebook is, and tell them to use it after you become incapacitated or died ....................... or tell them how to move something like your genealogy work to the computer of someone who would like to have it.


Remember that many of us do not have any family members or friends who would be interested in what we have spent so many years doing ............... at least not interested enough to continue with it, or to save it.



sylvia

At a meeting in the GR London offices last year I raised the issue of "dead" trees - in a roundabout sort of way.

I suggested that when a (paid) member wanted to send a message to another member there should be some form of 'info box' pop up that advised when that tree was last updated and/or when that other member last logged in.

The above is akin to the info available on Ancestry. On that site I don't bother sending a message if I read that the other person has not logged on in the past six months.

GR certainly know when trees are updated (Messages:My Updates) and they probably have a record for logons as well.

But as the Good Book states: "and some (suggestions) fell on stony ground"

Of course Genes would not want to advertise just how many 'unusesed' trees they have and then contemplate removing any that have not been updated for many years.

They are only interested in advertising just how many trees they have

And no mention of those that have 10 or less people in them, I was given access to a tree some time ago which only had 3 people on it.

I would imagine if they removed the 'unused/unloved' trees their millions of trees would be greatly diminished.

I read somewhere recently that Ancestry's last login info is not to be relied on.

PP,
Your comments caused me to look through the listing of trees open to me.

I have access to two trees with less than ten records [ 0 & 7 ], and a further eight that have under fifty records.
Out of mere curiosity I clicked the Nil tree, and it opened. I was half expecting the GR system to abort but what I got was a screen with the tree owner’s name at the top, plus the GR task bar. And nowt else.

I guess that this person deleted all records, but did not invoke the Delete Tree process on the My Account page?

As to the ‘7’ tree, and some of the others. I have not had any contact with those members for some years - neither on this site nor by email. And from memory no tree additions/changes have been made in that time.

IGP,
You may well be correct. But until I read something concrete I will continue to rely on that Ancestry box. So if you do recall where you read about it, please let me know.