Comments on: Ancestry Member Trees Featured in the Family History: Genealogy Made Easy Podcast

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:14:49 +0000

Dear Suzanne:
Reading some of the comments struck an old chord with me. The “hints” that are often posted to my tree are often simply worthless. They often list trees posted by other users. As has been covered elsewhere, many people simply copy what someone else has posted. The motivations for so doing are many, but a serious researcher NEVER simply copies and pastes the postings of another.
However, I have a suggestion for Ancestry.com —
When searching the family trees posted by others, why not give the researcher the option of searching ONLY those postings for an individual which has “sources” attached? When I look at the trees for a given person I’m rsearching, I see that most of the postings are “unsourced”. I regard most of these as worthless. In my own trees, not everyone is sourced and some of the data is questionable. But, I try to note that on my tree so that another researcher won’t be misled by a mistake or suppostion that I’ve made.
Thanks very much.

By: jacob

jacob — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:52:00 +0000

help me learn my family history

By: hack

hack — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 01:35:50 +0000

how do we get our old tree back since you have changed this up?HELP

By: William C.Dittmer

William C.Dittmer — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 01:27:46 +0000

when can i download

By: Thelma J. Webster

Thelma J. Webster — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 01:18:38 +0000

I have family by the name Campbell. I would love to know if you or your husband are related to my line. Please email me back.
Thank you,
Thelma

By: Esther

Esther — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 05:06:39 +0000

I pretty much agree with all of you…but we have no other place to get this much genealgoy info. I have been told many times that Ancestry.com takes info. from other free site and then charges all of us for it.
I put info. on our tree but then I can not go right back and see it, crazy huh? Takes 3 to 4 days befor it is back on my pc. But is it on other computer, why? I can’t get any answers..and slow yes…very slow…and no answers or help for this. For the ones who don’t know try Genealogy Trails, it’s free, and not too bad. I hope Ancestry will give us better service….oh and you can put your tree on your favorites.

By: TheadoreEB

TheadoreEB — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:21:54 +0000

I too agree with Clevis’ comments. A family tree has been started by a relative who does not recognize my mother’s biological father. Instead she has placed a name on the Family Tree that is false. None of the information she has written is ‘sourced’ and yet the green leaf shows the inaccurate info as a true connection to the family lineage. I have also noticed that dates have been changed to reflect those in the ‘green leaf’ listings. Guess the best thing to do is check only sourced info.

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 13:30:51 +0000

I think the hints can be great for trees and have really helped my out – however I always confirm everything myself from other sources. Like you say though there can be many inaccuracies but I think it’s up to each person to double check the information. If someone ends up with a worthless tree full of people they are not actually related to it’s kind of their fault for not researching it themselves. What could help is if there could be some sort of way of us adding a note to these incorrect trees. Then if someone goes to merge incorrect details they can also see the comments outlining why it is thought to be incorrect.

By: Gerri Brown

Gerri Brown — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 13:00:57 +0000

I agree with Clevis, the flashing leaf hints system is not helping maintain correct family information. There are many people that will not do the research, just click on to a “hint”. That “hint” can be very misleading and a person ends up with ancestor’s who are not theirs. Ancestry is not holding up the standards of Genealogy.

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 11:56:27 +0000

I have had exactly the same problem in regards to private photographs becoming accessible to all if you invite another ancestry member to your tree. I have made an official complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office who have advised me ancestry.com has breached the first principle of the United Kingdom Data Protection Act.