General Chat

Oh I see what you mean. I've had people contact me saying 'It looks as though we're related' and the only thing that's the same is the ancestor's name, and their ancestor wasn't even born in the same county as mine >:o

When questioned, name collectors tend to have very little if any detailed knowledge about the people on their tree. Quite often a few well chosen questions about family information you would reasonably expect them to know is enough to send them running. Others are more blatant about it, I once had someone on here who had some knowledge about one of my family names from a small Yorkshire village - the husband of one of my great aunts, in fact but could prove no direct connection. He asked me to send him a gedcom of my entire tree 'so he could add it to his collection, and see if there were any connections'......! The other thing I would say is if you are adding information from others, limit it to what is relevant to you and your tree. Be careful about living relatives, if in doubt don't add, then no one can be offended.

Perhaps they just send random messages to people on GR who have the same surname without any thought of where/when they were born. Saves them doing all the hard research work they think...

Maybe I'm being thick, but why would someone just choose to collect names if they're not related?

I had that only yesterday. Somebody asked to view my tree for possible connections, looked at theirs, they had just 2 in their tree!!!! Sorry, but I've deleted them now.

but how can u tell if someone is a name collector

I'm perhaps more liberal than some, but I always ask for proof that they are connected to my family first. If they are genuine then they are usually quite happy to exchange a series of messages first. Those who are not usually disappers as quickly as they arrived. Any smell of a name collector then I just delete them without further comment.

there is a moral here somewhere........ do NOT let any one have access, and then only after a thorough consideration of how much info you are prepared to offer.. Bob

I am amazed at some people on this site asking to view your tree and then without asking taking all the information you have gathered and putting it on their tree. I really wouldn't mind if they asked first.I am sure they are not tracing their own families but whole villages. Really annoyed. June