I rejoined ancestry.com for three months to try to flesh out some family mysteries. I decided to go through the "hints" on my tree and I am so frustrated with people who merge some of your info. into their tree without verifying it. I already found 3 instances of people who put my gm and ggm into their tree without verifying they had the right person. The children listed were all wrong, so obviously their ancestor was someone with the same or similar name but different person. Ugh! Like someone has my ggm, and says she was born in Maine! My ggm was born in Naples, Italy. I wish people would verify their facts. I am afraid some people get the impression from all those plugs for ancestry on Who Do You Think You Are that genealogy is as simple as the click of a mouse and that no foot work is involved. Ok...end of vent!

Venting is OK. I share the same sentiment. After I gave someone who was related (not a blood relation) the correct information, that person still proceeded to create a family tree on Ancestry and used the wrong information.

There was a cartoonist named Jimmy Hatlo who put just such occurrences in cartoon form that ran in the Philadelphia papers years and years ago called: They'll Do It Every Time. He also drew another cartoon, Lil Iodine.

While I love ancestry, this is the one 'small' complaint I have with their family trees *option*. It's NOT ancestry's fault, its the people who copy the info that are at fault. I wish there was a way to stop this but I don't think there is so we just deal with it. You could however, if you want, contact the persons who copied your info and ask them to correct it. I would also make sure my info was sourced and put a disclaimer saying you are not responsible for what others have entered but you *believe* your info to be true and correct based on the attached sources..you know legal stuff? Are you familiar with 'legal' stuff?

One of the reasons I've kept my tree Private and Unshared except for a precious few guests has been to avoid people from taking my verified and documented information from being totally screwed up on their trees. Anyone who is really interested can contact me via Ancestry's message service which allows me to ask for more information to verify their sincerity and relationship.

Of the approximately dozen or so queries I've received, only one worked out--and that contact turned out to be the moderator of the Torre le Nocelle (my son-in-law's ancestral town) blog who is his cugina, and was able to send me detailed information tracing his and of course my granddaughter Isabelle's genealogy back to the late 1600's.

Biff

A few months ago I moved my site to a commercial hosting provider from the self-hosting setup I had on a server at my home. In the process of researching hosts and considering some of things I wanted to do with the new setup, I discovered a very good online genealogy software, The Next Generation (TNG). TNG is very affordable at a cost of $29 and is rich with options for those who would like to put their genealogy tree(s) and info online without surrendering any control over the data, who sees it, etc. I have been using Reunion as the principal repository for my genealogy research since I use Macs and not PC's. When I've done enough updating of material I generate a GEDCOM file and upload it to the site I've set up with TNG. TNG automatically updates the appropriate records based on the changes detected from each new GEDCOM upload. The program is quite powerful allowing the user to use as much or as little of its capability as the user desires. Check it out for yourself: lythgoes.net/genealogy/software.php I have my site passworded currently as I am still uploading basic info although I may open it up once I can get more work done.

I should add that I am in no way affiliated with TNG, I just find it to be great software at a reasonable price. The programmer responds personally to all requests; he has responded to my questions within hours of my sending an email. As I was seeking additional information and not reporting about a problem, response time was not an issue so your experience may vary.

Tom after looking it over I am considering investing in it. I love the look, font and colors. Thanks for the link.

I dont put any of my tree online, anywhere. I know what you mean tho. They watch that show and then without verifying anything, they will add a name of someone who doesnt belong to them. I found thats what happened, when I went to look for some possible relations. The person went to an ancestry message board and viewed the conversation there and because the surnames matched, added those people and their town of origin..and it was ALL wrong. I had the right info for them..researched info...where they just added who they thought belonged. I eventually had contact with this person and gave the correct info with the documented proof. I wont hand over anything of mine (names, research) unless I am sure that person is actually connected to me..or the information that I have, belongs to them.

I am sure that if I had my tree out there, from when the net enabled us to put it there, I might have had much more contact with those actually connected. But, I would rather not do that, and find people on my own, through what they post.

You are all making me think that perhaps making my tree private is a good idea!

One person commented on another forum to which I belong regarding making one's family tree public as opposed to keeping it totally closed off by simply stating that the dead don't speak or post queries, updates, or corrections to one's collected data; they also don't serendipitously turn up as relatives with whom one may eventually cultivate a relationship thereby leading to even more discoveries. Something to consider.

I decided to make my tree private, at least for now. I posted a comment on the tree with the incorrect information that the owner had the wrong person and I mentioned what record was improperly relied on. It was really a stupid mistake. It must not have occured to her that a woman would not go by her married surname name before she is married! My female ancestor has the same maiden surname as her ancestor's husband.

Tom, you do have a point though because I did have a contributor who is to Pizzo what Cathy is to her village. She gave me birth and death dates for a whole maternal line, based on her extractions of the town's records. That was like hitting a goldmine.

So many considerations to balance!

You probably could get the same results (finding people connected) by using the message boards. You could post a message with a few of your surnames, using the name as the message title. You could also do that with the towns. I have done that..but, I wont post the tree.

I've been using geni.com and I'm not sure if it works the same way. I was invited to join a family tree, and then added a lot of additional information that I had. Only the family members who have been invited can access the tree. Is that the way it works on ancestry?