Community Chat

[SuesCat]

My departed husband's daughter was recently kind enough to include me in her Family Tree on the site. I do love her so much... she is so capable and smart, and has made a wonderful life for herself! She is a very creative and open person on so many levels.. she is one of those kind spirits who makes the most of life every day.

She has already begun the process and has quite a lot of information up. She has now requested my parent, sibling, and children's names, birthdates, and places of birth for my family members to add to her "Tree". I have no children of my own, other than my dementia-addled cat of 18 yrs. I see that my immediate family members' info is already available on ancestrydotcom, so i wouldn't be providing anything new there. I would, however, be adding more information in the way of our grandparents.

I guess my question is.. do you, or would you have concerns about any chance for identity theft or other risks, putting out family members' names and possibly birthdates? I'm also willing, at this point, to add my real pic as my "tree avatar". I'm no newbie to the www (been chatting since the mid-90s!), and i still feel pretty comfortable doing this. But i'd appreciate your input/experience when it comes to Ancestry before i go forward, because there really is a lot of knowledge on these forums. Tia.

[Love my grandkids]

I wouldn't touch Ancestry with a 10 foot pole. And one of the reasons is that the Mormon Church, which owns it, some years ago admitted to "baptizing" dead Jews. There was so much he ll raised that they tried to rectify it, I forget how. But that's only one reason I don't trust this site.

If others choose to use them, fine by me. But I won't.

[Linders Back]

If her tree on ancestry is "Private" only invited people have access to the information she posts. Someone can see that a person is on another's "private tree" but can not see the actual information. They may then contact the tree owner through ancestry.com and ask for information.

Say she posts a lot about your grandparents and someone else is researching them. They will see that your grandparents are on another tree, but that's all. Unless, she chooses to sahre that information, they can't get it.

If it is "public", then people can see all information about deceased members of the family but nothing about "LIVING" members. They might see that your grandparents had two children but names, dates, etc. will not show up.

A "Public Tree" is the best way to connect with others and help answer questions you may have about your own ancestry. My main Tree (the one that starts with ME) is "Private", but there is a branch of ancestors that I cannot find out much about, so I also made a "Public" tree" starting with them going backwards so no current info is on that one. I have been able to find more about their past that way.

[sassenach1]

I think that it is only a rumor that the Mormon Church owns Ancestry.

[SuesCat]

Love my grandkids ~ thanks for your reply. I went back and read earlier threads on this. It's disturbing to say the least. It sounds crazy, actually. I'll definitely want to look into this before i participate.

[sidsmom]

Linders: What sort of personal info do they ask for?

[SuesCat]

Linders Back ~ yes, i read that on the Ancestry FAQs kind of intro and i felt very comfortable with that. Thanks!

Sassenach ~ i thought the whole thing sounded a little crazy. I'd have to see proof of these allegations, to be sure. Thanks!

[teena2354]

On 1/25/2014 Linders Back said:

If her tree on ancestry is "Private" only invited people have access to the information she posts. Someone can see that a person is on another's "private tree" but can not see the actual information. They may then contact the tree owner through ancestry.com and ask for information.

Say she posts a lot about your grandparents and someone else is researching them. They will see that your grandparents are on another tree, but that's all. Unless, she chooses to sahre that information, they can't get it.

If it is "public", then people can see all information about deceased members of the family but nothing about "LIVING" members. They might see that your grandparents had two children but names, dates, etc. will not show up.

A "Public Tree" is the best way to connect with others and help answer questions you may have about your own ancestry. My main Tree (the one that starts with ME) is "Private", but there is a branch of ancestors that I cannot find out much about, so I also made a "Public" tree" starting with them going backwards so no current info is on that one. I have been able to find more about their past that way.

That's helpful! We've been thinking of using it... Thanks for the details of how it works. (:

[RedTop]

I have dabbled in genealogy research for many years, and I stay away from Ancestry.com. I have not posted anything there, nor do I share information with anyone who posts information on that website. I have found many errors in several of the postings others have made on my specific branch of the family.

[Linders Back]

On 1/25/2014 sidsmom said:

Linders: What sort of personal info do they ask for?

You can basically put as much or as little info on your tree as you want. They are there to help you get answers, they aren't snooping into your life. When you sign up, they will ask for name, address, and billing info but that's standard with just about any website.

Lots of the info there is available other places . Just "google an ancestors name with ther location and birthdate, and you may be surprised at what comes up: references to them in history books, etc. .

ancestry.com just makes the process a bit easier in that they do searches and find things for you. Say you list your grandfather, his date of birth, where he was born, etc. and they might find him in various censuses, military records, Find-A-Grave, or others' public trees, and will lead you to those.

Just don't take everything you read as gospel. There is a lot of misinformation out there and many people with the same names.