Ancestry - lack of replies

[MiniCooperS]

Good evening. This is my first post. Does anyone experience a lack of replies from messages on Ancestry? I can see when a person has logged in since I have sent a message but I don’t get replies. I really don’t know what to do. I have messaged a few times in one instance but nothing. Thank you.

[Jebber]

Welcome to Rootschat.

I am afraid this often happens, a lot of people are not interested in responding to messages. I think of all the people I have messaged over the years, no more than  a quarter have replied.

If you look at the profile of the person you wish today contact, some have not been active for a long time, it is rarely worth  trying to message them. Also, if they have thousands of names on their tree, they are usually name collectors and not serious researchers.

I suggest you just sit tight and wait, occasionally some people respond many months later.

Good luck.

[JACK GEE]

Welcome to the real world of Genie research and welcome to roots chat.
Most people on this forum are helpful and courteous if you give them plenty of info to work with.

Back to getting replies on ANY forum. It does no harm to ask but don't sit and wait for the reply. Any reply is a bonus and occassionally you hit the mark. Perseverance is the key. Best of luck in your Genie journey. It is fun and frustrating.

cheers
Jack Gee

[J.R.Ellam]

Hi

I have contact several people on Ancestry and  would say I get about a 75% reply rate.
I also reply to all the messages I get even though I have over 20,000 names on my tree. Most of the enquires are for non direct relatives but I will look at the family and see if I can help which does expand my tree and it as also given me new areas of research.

John

[Craclyn]

People have different reasons for joining Ancestry and different approaches to their research so you cannot expect everyone to want to be interested in communication. Take it as positive if you get a response. If they do not respond move on and don’t worry about it. They may prefer not to communicate or they may have other things going on in their lives that take precedence. Sometimes patience is rewarded. I got a reply last month to a message I sent in 2015.

[diplodicus]

It is useful to keep in mind that sometimes DNA kits are bought as a surprise gift for another and the recipient may have little or no interest in family history. Ancestry promote their tests as offering an insight into a person's ethnicity (even if this insight is generally of dubious value). I suspect many of these result in disappointment when the test discovers that they are English, Irish, Scandinavian and Western-European.

As others have said, do continue to reach out and be pleased if you achieve a one-in-four response rate.  I have found many interesting connections from those kind enough to reply.

[IgorStrav]

Welcome to Rootschat!

I agree with diplodicus that it seems many people on Ancestry have joined because of DNA, and are not family history researchers, thus making it much less likely for them to respond to messaging.

If it helps at all, I have contacted people who have done very limited research, if any, and though I can see there is a DNA connection somewhere, they are not very interested in finding out where it is.  I've sometimes done quite a bit of research on their behalf, and STILL not been able to find out. 

So as others have suggested, you should be patient and carry on with your own research in other ways, and sometimes a long time after you've forgotten you ever asked, someone will get back to you in their own time.

In the meantime, perhaps you should enjoy yourself here on Rootschat - there are lots of people who WILL reply to help in any queries or questions, and you can just 'lurk' about the boards here to see how Rootschatters enjoy the detective work.  The experts here will often come up with angles you've not thought of (I speak from experience here.)


Added:
I also think that some people who've done DNA tests are surprised to be contacted by others, as they'd thought of the tests as 'private'.  Innate suspicion of even the most friendly approach from someone unknown on the internet can make people reluctant to respond.
And also, some families do really like to keep family things 'private'.
So not necessarily a personal thing.

[louisa maud]

I think people reply when they know they can help, some seem to specialise in certain subjects, myself I only assist in helping if I think I can, obviously if I can't them I don't log onto that thread.
In general I find Rootschatters very friendly and helpful , so whatever it is you want, give us a try
Also it is most helpful if you show what information you have, it wastes time if the person comes back and says " I already have that info"  and they have spent hours researching

Happy Hunting

Louisa Maud

[aghadowey]

Just this week I was using google to search for family information after getting hundreds of church records for my relatives and came across an old Ancestry thread of mine. There was a reply there from 4 years ago that I'd never seen (no notification apparently). I have now posted a reply to the person (3rd cousin) and will have to wait. That was their only post on Ancestry and they've probably given up hearing back from me but not all lack of responses are deliberate.