Typical response when messaging someone on Ancesty about 'ancestor' info

[Paulo Leeds]

"I have a XX in my tree, born XXXX in X"

"You are more than welcome to ask me about XX, but I don't really know anything apart from what is available on Ancestry"

"XX was the sister of my great-great-grandfather's wife's dog's 4th great uncle on my Dad's side of the family"

"Which tree are you referring to? I manage 22 trees on Ancestry!"

"Apart from featuring in my tree, I am afraid I am unable to help you."

 distant

I guess we can't hope for much more...

photo's and real info (not available on family history sites) is few and far between...

[pharmaT]

Firstly you're lucky to get any response at all.

Personally I have A LOT of information that is not on my tree on Ancestry.  On the other hand I have many people on my tree for whom I have done very little research.  I have gone as far back as I can so have started working side ways finding and researching each of my direct ancestors siblings.  When I find a marriage for them I record the parents of their spouse eg Mary married John Smith son of David Smith and Mary Jones.  I do not research those lines any further back or sideway so I'm not much help to anyone intersted in the in-laws.  Unless the person is interested in the children of that mrriage that is.  With many of my family in Scotland I have the info on the in laws just from the marriage certificate.

[Rose1855]

"Apart from featuring in my tree, I am afraid I am unable to help you."

 Glad I've never contacted you

[kall]

Some trees have very precise details but are not sourced...so I like to ask where they got the details from

[pharmaT]

"Apart from featuring in my tree, I am afraid I am unable to help you."

 Glad I've never contacted you

I don't reply that, I was explaining why some people may have people in their tree without having a lot of details on them.  In the past (my tree is now private) if someone contacted me about an in-law.  I would reply along the lines of "Joe Bloggs is the FIL of my 3xgrt Aunt so I am unfortunately unable to help you get further back as I have not researched any further back.  However I have done some research on their children.  Please let me know if you would like any  information on them"

I do try hard to be polite to everyone.  Admittedly I frequently get it spectacularly wrong but I have never been deliberately rude.

[UK4753]

I will include siblings and spouses of my direct line as well in my tree, hoping a distant cousin will pop up.  But to fully expand the tree just makes it too big to handle. 

[Andy_T]

I tried to contact the owner of a tree on WikiTree, just to let them know I had gone back another 3 generations and I was offering to share my information.

I received an automated e-mail advising me and my intended recipient that my e-mail was probably a spam message.

Obviously that was the end of that!

Andy_T

[coombs]

I once contacted a distant cousin and she said "Well the connection is very distant. Good luck". The "Good luck" I feel was a polite way of saying "Do not contact me again".

I suppose we have to expect that some people are not interested in contacting cousins, just doing their family tree. I always appreciate a contact from someone who shares ancestors. Nowadays I rarely contact distant rellies, I wait for them to seek me out.

[sugarfizzle]

I tried to contact the owner of a tree on WikiTree, just to let them know I had gone back another 3 generations and I was offering to share my information.

I received an automated e-mail advising me and my intended recipient that my e-mail was probably a spam message.

Obviously that was the end of that!

Andy_T

Wikitree is open to everybody. Why not add the previous 3 generations yourself?

Regards Margaret