Finding someone's USER name on Ancestry?

[IgorStrav]

I wonder if someone can help me with this one?  I have of course tried the Ancestry Help itself, but that is actually very unhelpful.

When you get a message or a DNA connection with an Ancestry user, they appear with a name which you can click on to message them, and which appears on the message trail.

However, this 'name' doesn't work if you want to invite them to see a tree.
The error message requests a USER name (or an email address)

However, I am unable to see how one gets the USER name from the name provided by the message or the DNA contact name.

Am I missing something really obvious here?

I find connections seem very reluctant to give me their email addresses (although I always include mine when I request it), and if I can't find their USER name (and they don't know what I'm talking about) sharing is really rather difficult 

[g eli]

I'm not sure if this would help, if you press search the drop down list includes Member directory, there are options which seem to work.
Liz

[IgorStrav]

I'm not sure if this would help, if you press search the drop down list includes Member directory, there are options which seem to work.
Liz

Thanks for trying, Liz.  I recall I did try that, and I've just done so again.

If you get on to the Member Directory, and then type in the name of the person you're looking for (your DNA link, or the person you're corresponding with - ie the name that Ancestry's called them), I get the error message:

"Sorry, there were no results found. Please try your search again"

 

[IgorStrav]

And I know one of the (unusual) names this person is researching, and according to my DNA connect page, she has a small tree associated with her DNA which mentions this.

So when, in the member directory search page, you type in this name for other people researching it, does she come up? 

No.
 

I really do hope someone's going to say - it's EASY - and prove it's me that's the idiot. 

[andrewalston]

Ancestry seems to have three different naming schemes for users.

There is an email address, a user name based on the email address, and a screen name. The last one of these is the only name shown against an online tree.

When I wanted to invite a user to view one of my trees because we shared some people, the only name I could find was their screen name, and of course the invite only allows the other two.

I had to send them a message asking for their username, then wait for them to answer before I could send the invite.

[IgorStrav]

Ancestry seems to have three different naming schemes for users.

There is an email address, a user name based on the email address, and a screen name. The last one of these is the only name shown against an online tree.

When I wanted to invite a user to view one of my trees because we shared some people, the only name I could find was their screen name, and of course the invite only allows the other two.

I had to send them a message asking for their username, then wait for them to answer before I could send the invite.

Yes, that's what I've been trying to do. 
Ask someone for their User Name or for an email address (giving mine as an indication that I'm not (a complete) nutter)

I have, just as an exercise, tried to find my own User Name -

Home/My Account/Account Credentials shows this.

What is very strange with this is that
my Ancestry User name is not the same as my actual real name (shown under Name in the Account Credentials),

so if I search for myself in the Member Directory under my User Name, I get the error message.

However, If I search with my real name, I get me.

Following this through - good grief, I can't believe I'm doing this - my contact is (let's call her) Amy Smith on the DNA match list, and when I write to her in the Ancestry messaging system.

However if I try and invite her to see a tree, using Amy Smith, I get an error message.

So this would suggest it's her real name.

But if I search in the Member Directory for Amy Smith, I also get an error message.

aaaaaaaaaaaargh

Did anyone follow this and can you help?

I know Family History research is complicated but I didn't expect that to extend to trying to share a tree with someone.

[sandiep]

the screen name is the one they want for sending messages

[IgorStrav]

the screen name is the one they want for sending messages

Yes, I appreciate.
Is there no means of finding the USER name to invite someone to view/contribute/edit a tree?

[Gadget]

I've found that there are often multiple user names - e.g. A B, Dave, etc.
 
In such cases, the only way that I've managed to invite anyone is via the e-mail address that Ancestry uses. So you have to message them to get their address.

Gadget