Fed Up With Genealogy Tree Thieves

[Simon G.]

Its the ones that use my information in the form of "copy/paste", which tends to annoy me.

Indeed.  Things can be in the public domain as much as they like, but if you're going to reference someone's research you have to do just that...REFERENCE it.  Copying someone's research verbatim, even going so far as failing to make fundamental changes to the semantics of the notes, is not research at all...it's plagiarism, and I'm a great believer in that if you're going to do research and use someone else's work you should follow the correct academic rules of citation.

[Shropshire Lass]

It's a very difficult situation, isn't it?  I would find it very annoying if people just lifted heaps of names from a tree, especially if they obviously hadn't bothered doing any checking, but I hope I wouldn't end up like one contact I have made.

He has been researching one of my lines for over twenty-five years.  He has been on the receiving end of "tree thieves" and now refuses to discuss his research unless you can first give him something he doesn't have - information, photos, etc.  All I wanted was verification that a certain couple were the parents of an ancestor but because I had nothing to trade, he wouldn't answer the question.  I found that rather sad - for him and me.  He probably knows more about this family line than anyone else now so the people he can share with must be very small indeed. 

Monica

[Sylviaann]

Someone pinched my tree and put it on Rootsweb with some mistakes.

I was just trawling the other day to see if anyone else was on there.  What did I find but one of my ancestors is now down as dying in USA instead of Norfolk England.  Some of his relatives also seem to have aquired new wives in America.  Looks as if the trees are mixed up.  I hope no-one believes anything they read on these sites

Sylviaann

[loo]

I have become extremely reluctant to post anything publicly, which is not really a solution, just a demonstration of the problem.  My biggest beefs are with people who insist on putting in the names of the living, and with those who seem to have no clue or are reluctant to disclose the sources of their information.  I would often love to believe they are correct, but how can I?

Two years ago I found a tree online of one of my most difficult families, where I had no clue where to go, and I was very new at genealogy.  This woman who had posted the info, who would not tell me her name, claimed to be a first cousin of my grandfather's brother's wife (people I never knew, and knew nothing about).  I now know that the tree had many errors in it, because she had made assumptions when she did not know the anwers.  However, if it were not for her, and one of the contacts she led me to, I would be much the poorer for some of the valid contacts which I would never have gotten otherwise, and I do mean never, as they had all left England for another country that I would never have imagined!  I have recently learned that she had my greatgrandfather's "brothers" all wrong;  one of these "brothers" was in fact his uncle, and another was his first cousin, plus there was an actual brother whom she missed, and he had several other sibs in another country!  But she would never give me any info on why she thought they were all brothers.

It is so tempting when people post your family history back to the year 0, but won't tell you how they got it!!!  I would so love to believe them, but how can I?

I guess I'm slightly off topic here, but I think I needed to vent!!

[wheeldon]

Vent away, Loo 

I have only come across one other researcher on my Wilshaw side, she had researched the parish records in depth (luckily for me she worked there) and then when she couldn't be sure, stopped. 

I came across all our ancestors names published on a site and the fella had worked forwards instead of backwards and just attached our ancestors to a Wilshaw in the early 1700's    I explained that this was all wrong, he acknowledged this but still hasn't changed anything.

So, if there any Wilshaw researchers out there they will probably find him first and possibly go with it 

[wini]

To be quite honest I wouldn't like anyone to hand be a complete tree or even branch.
Sometimes I wouldn't mind a hint in the right  direction, but then I wouldn't get the satisfaction of doing it myself.

wini

[cando]

Hi all

I also have been offered a tree of a branch of my OH's family but declined as I like to do the research myself.  I think the person offering it to me thought I was mad   However I think  you can remember things much better if you seek and find yourself..... and I need all the help I can get in the memory department.....at times    I know I can always call on this person to help me if I hit a big brickwall and also for helping 'to put meat on the bones'

I have had a grizzle quite a few times on rootschat about my family tree being placed on the web by a person who is not a member of our family but a 'friend' of a relly - and the relly has told me that genealogy is not one of her interests   Emails and pm's have been ignored pointing out the errors on the site and the copy and pasting from responses to my lookups .....some of which have been proved to be incorrect or not applicable to my family.  The sad thing is the incorrect information has been copied onto two other web sites.....and that is the thing that makes me mad.   The author of this site has now removed the url link from her home page....this has happened since I pointed out and put the link to the url on a rootschat thread.....but the incorrect info is still there.

Cheers
cando

[cazza59]

I've often thought about joining GR...think I will give it a miss.  I'm all for sharing information but stealing it?  Where's the satisfaction in that??

Caz

[loo]

You can join GR without putting your tree on it. 
I did, and found one very good connection, with the granddaughter of my mum's first cousin.  But I have never posted a tree there, so there is nothing for anyone to look at.  I merely responded to a query this young woman had posted.  I was able to verify for her that her long lost uncle really did exist, although he's still "lost".  This was a big help for her, as her father wasn't 100% sure if he existed;  complicated story.  We have also exchanged photos.
Nonetheless, they keep sending me "hot matches", which have nothing whatever to do with my name, which is the only name they have from my membership.  I think it's fair to say that I'm probably the only person in the world with my actual name, so it's easy to see that all these so-called hot links are fake.  Very annoying.  But I did appreciate the link.