I keep track of my family tree on my Mac with Reunion software. I do that because I like having my data stored on my hard drive (backed up, of course), rather than in the cloud. When I first started focusing on my genealogy research a few years ago, I created a small family tree on Ancestry.com, entering a few family members on my father’s side of the family. (Including my father’s paternal grandparents, at left.) But I soon realized that I preferred storing my genealogy data on my computer.
Lately I’ve been thinking that it might be wise for me to add my family tree data to Ancestry.com. That way I could benefit from the shaky leaf hints that Ancestry provides and perhaps make connections with relatives.
I’m dedicated to adding only sourced data to my family tree on Reunion and it would be the same on Ancestry. If I do create Ancestry.com trees, I would continue to keep my data in Reunion as my primary genealogy data storage, updating Ancestry periodically.
But I don’t know whether to make my Ancestry tree public or private. It seems to me that a public tree would be a way to be helpful to others. Am I missing a pitfall or danger of making my tree public, especially since my data will be sourced?
If you have a tree on Ancestry, I’d love to hear whether it’s public or private and what led to that decision. Thank you in advance!!
My husband and I also Reunion on our Mac and are members of Ancestry. I have also been thinking of adding our tree so I will be interested in others experiences.
We’re in synch, Vickie! I hope the responses to this post help us both!
Hi! As always a thought provoking post! I keep several trees on Ancestry, some that are my family and some for the people I have been helping. All are public trees. On my personal tree, I have communication with people who were so open and willing to share. I would have never met them as the common ancestor was born in the 1600’s. I am very careful with the shaky leaf, as there are many not sourced.
I would love to know why you chose to not save your information on the cloud. I keep most of my research notes on One Note and that is on all my devices, but resides in the cloud. I guess I am curious if there is a reason I should reconsider. (I also keep it on RootsMagic)
Thanks!
Maria
Maria, thanks so much for your response. Glad to hear that having public trees has been helpful for you. (And thanks for the warning about the shaky leaf…believe me, I’m very careful about sourced vs unsourced clues.)
To answer your other question, I have a perhaps irrational hesitation to store all my data in the cloud. On a practical level, I don’t want to have to have internet access in order to access my family tree data. (That’s problematic, for example, when I’m on a plane or at my parents condo, though in the latter case I can use my phone as a wifi hotspot). On a paranoid level, I fear depending on the cloud in case the data is compromised by a hacker or if everything goes poof. (As I said, not necessarily rational.) I also don’t want to depend on a company staying in business for me to have access to my information. So in your case, the fact that you have the research notes on RootsMagic (I’m assuming on your hard drive) means your covered against these things.
Thanks for commenting!
I’ll follow any comments as I’m very interested in other’s thoughts. I started on Ancestry and have quite an extensive public tree. *Though I realize now that as a newbie I could have and probably should have done things differently. Through your suggestion, I’m now ‘rebuilding’ on Reunion.
But back to public vs. private. I honestly feel we are all in this together and anything I can share I’m happy to do. Yet, it still kinda creeps me out when I find someone uses one of my pictures on their tree and the connection is very far removed. A couple of times, it has been sooooooo fffaaaarrrr removed, I wondered how in the heck the person put the connection together?
On the other side of the coin, I’ve done Ancestry’s DNA. Which really hasn’t been helpful at all. I know that’s another blog post, right? But the close ‘cousins’ that come up, almost all have private trees so I can’t see if there is a connection.
Great question Janine!
Thanks for commenting, Lori! I’m considering taking advantage of AncestryDNA’s 20% off offer this weekend. I’m sorry to hear it hasn’t been helpful at all to you. Just curious: Did you reach out to the “cousins” with private trees that came up in the DNA report so that you might get access to their private trees?
I have contacted several and gotten a handful of replies. The replies are kind when they explain the connection, but that’s it. No one has offered anything else.
I have always had a tree on Ancestry. A few years ago, I started backing up my tree on my laptop and my desktop with Family Tree Maker. I have always had a public tree. I have spoken with a number of people that have private trees and the reason I hear the most is that they don’t want others taking credit for their work. They spent the money and did all of the research and they don’t want someone else to come along and essentially “steal” their work. While I understand this, I choose to not block myself from others. I love doing research, wandering through cemeteries, asking hundreds of questions and thumbing through endless books and microfiche. If someone else wants to claim credit for it, that’s fine. I’m not doing this for fame or glory. I’m doing it for me and my children. Everything else is just a bonus.
Jim, I love your sharing attitude. Thanks so much for your comment!
Janine,
I found this information for those that are afraid of people stealing information on living people in their trees. If you read information under the “Public Tree” setting, it states:
“This setting allows other users to view all content in your tree—except information about living individuals and private notes.”
And a couple lines later it says: “Information about living people is automatically hidden and will NOT be included in searches.”
I know this to be true because I have tried to find myself on others family trees and it simply states “living”. Maybe this will help alleviate some concerns and those might open their trees to others to make connections.
Jim, thank you for taking the time to look that up and share the information!
Problem is that if you have a picture of grandma and several of her grandchildren posted and grandma is deceased the picture will show up along with her information. Yes, the picture posts with the grandchildren who are living. Try it and you will see.
My tree(s) are private now. When I started I found so much wrong information on so many family trees. As an example my mother was listed in 57 different trees, and only 6 of those trees were really my family. Folks like to copy trees just to get a very large family tree. They see my family name, they have the same family name to they post everything to their tree.
For many these trees show my mother as being in an orphanage, but the wrong orphanage and wrong years. I sent notes to each one and tried to get them to correct their information and even told them to see the factual documentation on my tree but it was useless. I gave up on trying to correct information on Ancestry.com. Another reason I have my tree private is because I have on there pictures from the 1850’s and do not want these pictures attached to trees with wrong information. If I cannot prove something I do not add it to my tree until I can. I have been working on my trees for years and when done I will make them public and then watch all the “free loaders” have a field day. One final thought about keeping it private. Yes we do all the research. We also pay to be able to build our trees on Ancestry at a nice tidy cost every year. Then Ancestry charges other folks to see our information. So everybody pays and Ancestry gets to double dip. It is a great site andI I renew every year because I know the value of the site.
I have had a ancestry subscription for over 15 years. I had no problems until about 8 months ago a complete stranger copied all my gallery! She is not even a relative! She’s a girlfriend of a very distant 5th cousin. I was hurt and upset That I was never asked. I in the past my tree being public had people with Manners ask me for items. And because they were nice and not just plain nosey and barracuda type I obliged them let them have what they asked for. I never had someone copy all my gallery. With identity theft and fraud it was spooky. I complained to ancestry their advise was put disclaimers on I did and it was tedious theres a lot.I feel my trees and Not unique to me any more and on some items it was plagiarism such as photos of my Grandpas police work. I was dumb I put photos on for people to look at NOT take. I cannot undo it and also cannot determine if the disclaimer even worked. I do investigate and I see my stuff in strangers trees. I like hundreds of other people bought birth.certificates,death visited cemeteries trips my gas etc. 20 years of work and work it was many many hours to be honest and accurate. Even 2 trips to Ireland . I’m private tree now. Thanks Patricia
Why do you pay for Ancestry? Your local library has it for free. I can access it from home too. Also, Family Search is by far the better site for information and accuracy.
Melinda, I pay for Ancestry because it allows me to research from my home. In my opinion, both Ancestry and Family Search are excellent sites with excellent, accurate information. They both contribute significantly to my research.
Very interesting discussion. I have a public Ancestry tree and want to keep it that way. I have come across some ‘contacts’ that I am sure have taken my info as verbatim even though my sources are not up to par (goal is to fix that or eliminate the source). They have not given me credit for it but my thinking is if they want to do that, that’s ok with me because I will get rid of flimsy sources and beef them up. When I come across a ‘cousin’ I always see what their sources are and 99% of the time I eliminate the information just because of the lack of a source. But I do want to keep my tree public, that’s the bottom line.
I have done 3 DNA tests and I have gotten a few new cousins. If they are a good match and if they have a private tree, I contact them.
Thanks for weighing in, Judy. I think what I’m learning is that if I decide to have a public tree I should expect folks to use the info I share. So it would be best not to post anything I wouldn’t want others to use.
Thanks also for mentioning your experience with DNA tests.
I should mention also that my tree on Ancestry is just an online tree-all my ‘real’ work is in Reunion. I upload a gedcom once in a while to stay current. I use Crash Plan, Time Machine and also Copy to keep stuff in the cloud.
I have a few trees on Ancestry.com, but I keep them all private. There have been too many instances where I shared information with someone and then it ended up out there in public. The next thing I’ve seen is that someone has adopted one of my well researched male ancestors and married him off to a whole bunch of different women. After that, a bunch of other people copy that wrong information to their own trees and the whole thing becomes a mess. If you contact the person with the wrong info, explain what sources you have used and why what they have is incorrect, they don’t change it.
I keep my “real” family in my genealogy program and use the tree on ancestry.com to see what suggested shaky leaves come up.
Terry, I really appreciate your perspective. I can imagine the experiences you describe would be frustrating! Thanks so much for sharing.
I have a few trees on Ancestry.com and they are all public. I also have information on my Legacy software. On Legacy, I keep most of my still living relatives — that way I can add whatever notes I want and never have to worry about it going public. Back to Ancestry.com though, I think of it as “cousin bait” just like with my blog. If other people want to copy part of my public tree and add wrong information, that is their problem, not mine. I have had relatives from both sides of my family tree and even my husband’s contact me and typically give me new information. I am very grateful for that information and believe I should share my information with others too.
One final note — I love your blog and especially the fact that you are a professional organizer. My life time goal is to become organized! I hope I am making continual progress!
Colleen, thanks for your comment! I’m glad to know how having public trees on ancestry has helped cousins find you. I’ve certainly been thrilled to have met cousins through my blog!
Thanks for your nice comments about my blog. Remember, becoming organized is more of journey than a destination. Congrats on your progress!
Colleen, your thoughts are my sentiments exactly! I have a number of trees on Ancestry that are all public. I use Legacy for all my “permanent” family tree work and transfer my researched data to Ancestry often. One can always tell a serious genealogist on Ancestry because they have sourced entries…the rest of the users just seem to want to add great grandma into their tree! It is very wise to be wary of most “trees” without sources! I love Ancestry though, because among all the junk there are real hits and great hints and I have “met” several “real” family members who have provided invaluable data. I have no need to keep my trees private…what’s the point? I love sharing and helping others find relatives and it is also the reason I keep adding info to Family Search…which is one big family tree! We can all keep each others data updated and corrected! That helps everyone find and know their ancestors which is the reward for doing this work! Also the efforts of so many will be preserved forever in the “Vault” which is great if no one else in the family cares about the family tree! So many folks are connected…so let’s share!! wendy
I don’t understand why people don’t have a private and public tree. How do you expect to connect with cousins or gain new information? You can add a basic public tree with the documentation that is already online like Census, Tax, city directories and B/M/D.
You can use a private tree with your research, photos and other things you don’t want to share publicly at this time.
My public tree has gained me photos of my great grandmother and her children because some kind person found the photo album of her sister in an antique shop and found my uncle that was identified on the back of the photo on my tree. He contacted me and I happily paid for the photos and him mailing them to me.
Through DNA I have found a couple dozen distant cousins and verified my 2nd great grandmother’s maiden name that we could not find before and confirmed her father that had several men with the same name living in the same area.
When I read an interesting story I check on Ancestry to see what the trees say about him. If the trees don’t know he owned a post office, wrote a diary, was a judge or founded a town, I add it to my FAN /RAOGK tree for everyone to find and follow up on if they wish.
Like Janine, I hadn’t thought about having public and private trees…. will ponder that.
you know I think that is a great idea. One tree can be public while I work on my private trees and yet still make contacts with the public tree.
Tanya, that’s wonderful that a good Samaritan rescued a photo album of your family from an antique shop! That’s a compelling reason right there to have a public tree. I hadn’t considered the possibility of having both public and private trees. Thanks so much for contributing to this discussion!
Janine,
I have had a public tree posted on Ancestry.com for some time now, containing information about a little over 1800 direct and collatoral ancestors and their families. It is an earlier version of my findings and is fairly well sourced. I maintain my primary tree on RootsMagic. Because my tree has multiple sources for each individual, I find it attracts mostly serious researchers, many of whom have taken the time to contact me for additional information. Through this process I have discovered several distant “cousins” who have provided information which was vital to the expansion of my tree.
I keep copies of my RootsMagic tree on my hard disc, with backups on a flash drive, a separate hard dri ve and in the “cloud” operated by my backup service.
As far as the “shaking leafs” are concerned, I carefully study those suggested trees which offer multiple sources and pretty much ignore the rest. I have gotten some very good clues for future research from some of those sourced trees.
I am proud of my genealogy work and hope it will be helpful to others researching the same lines. I encourage you to share your own research on a public tree.
Like other who have responded, I appreciate the quality of your blog. You write in a clear and concise manner and always have excellent suggestions for improving the organization of our research, which I sorely need. In fact, I just began following one of your recommendation and am focussing the summer months on researching just one of my four main lines.
Thanks for your inspiration.
Jack, thanks so much for your comment. It’s good to learn of the benefits you receive from having a public tree!
Thanks also for your kind words about my blog. I’m so glad you find it helpful and I hope you enjoy your focused summer research time!
I have two trees – one I keep as private on Ancestry.com – people get hits with the shaking leaves but must contact me if they want further information. So far that has not been a problem; I am happy to respond to specific questions and once I feel comfortable and they ask, I often invite them to view my tree. The only bad experience was when we shared with a relative, who shared with granddaughter who immediately posted as public tree with all living people posted.
We also have a public tree of our English relatives, well sourced, back through Charlemagne and never had a comment.
Moral of story? more comments on private tree then public tree
That’s interesting, Jerry! Was your motivation for keeping one tree private to avoid living family members’ information being public? Or was there another reason?
I have several trees on Ancestry, but all of them are private. The reason is so I do not inadvertently release information of living family members without their permission and because I have found it easier to gather information from family members if they know the tree is private and by invitation only. These days folks are increasingly concerned about the possible release PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and the flood of data releases from Target and others adds to this fear. Folks who are serious about genealogy research and of making sure the data they collect are sourced will contact me via Ancestry to ask about sharing information and I am always happy to do so once the connection is understood. It tends to weed out name collectors who add to their public trees without sufficient regard to sourcing and thus contribute to the problem of inaccurate public trees.
I also use a Mac and bought Reunion when I got my iMac several years ago. I had been using Family Tree Maker for years before and found the transition too difficult and time consuming so I went back to FTM to keep my data on my hard drive (with back-up of course!). I was thrilled when FTM developed a sync feature with Ancestry.com so I could sync the data between the two trees AND this became yet another reason for keeping my Ancestry trees private and limiting the access and rights of those I invited to my private Ancestry trees — I did not want my FTM trees to inadvertently be “corrupted” by questionable entries off the cloud-based trees.
John, thank you so much for adding your perspective! I appreciate knowing your rationale for keeping your Ancestry trees private and how that has worked for you. That’s very valuable information!!
I have a private tree on ancestry.com. I only use it there for the shaky leaves hints. And because I can take it with me that way. In addition to my laptop I also have the mobile app on my iPad. Very comfortable when I am researching in archives. I never add any data to my tree which I haven’t researched. I take a note of it and once I have confirmed it, I add it to my tree.
And I agree with John, I made the experience that my living family members are more open to contribute when the tree is private and by invitation only.
Barbara, thank you for your comment! You’re helping me understand that the reason some people keep their trees private is because it can make some family members more comfortable providing information.
I have found this discussion so interesting!
I think I have to clarify my “I only use it there for the shaky leaves hints”: My tree is visible for other ancestry.com users but only plain names. If researches would like to have more information they need to contact me. as well as I contact them 😉
I’ve made some bad experiences with people just copying my data, marrying my Schmidt line into several other lines and totally messing up everything. One of my very early research mistakes is still very much alive on ancestry these days 😉
Thanks for the clarification! I can imagine that you cringe whenever you see your early research mistakes show up on Ancestry!
Janine ~ did you ever see Crista Cowan’s video on Private vs. Public. She goes over all the points everyone here have mentioned, plus more : Public vs Private Ancestry Member Trees
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40DulxfQl24.
When I first started a tree at Ancestry, not much of my family was up there nor many records. My tree was done by a surname /location title and they were public. Because I did so much research offline in the fields or on microfilm, I could tell when people used my sources. I was okay with that as my trees were sourced properly.
Now there are so many records on Ancestry, many more users, and nw so many mistakes on public trees. It’s very sad actually to see this happening. People are using public trees as “sources” and mixing families/marriages. If I see something in error, what I always do is message them and tell them that their information is mixed-up in a polite way. I add comments on their public trees too.
So mine are now Private except for my two brick wall ones.
Magda, thank you so much for telling me about Crista’s video and providing the link! I had not seen it and just watched it.
Crista’s argument that “Good information combats the bad” seems to be a pretty compelling reason to have a public tree. It’s an interesting discussion!
Wow, you’ve had quite the discussion here! I watched Crista Cowan’s video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40DulxfQl24) and particularly liked the part from 14:00 to the end. I love all the points she makes about public trees, including how these ancestors are not just ours. (I’ll never forget how I felt when I first found that Nathan Thornton and Charity Cook, m. 1821 Indiana, had been “sealed” as per the Mormon faith. WHAT?!? Who said they could DO that? Nathan and Charity were Quakers!) Also that if we are careful what we put on our public trees, it will counter some of the bad genealogy out there and connect us with potential collaborators.
I am in the infancy of transferring all my old paper research to digital and am happily accepting all the ancestry.com clues to records that are now on line, the ones I previously spent hours (days, weeks, years) digging up in research libraries, city halls and cemeteries. I also need to reinstall FTM and sync with ancestry. Then I will scan and make notes about the stuff that I have that is not available on line and may never be.
So, although my tree is public, it is woefully lacking in detail. I have lots of detail that hasn’t yet been added. I had already (just recently) started again, and this discussion gives me the incentive to continue working on that. As it stands, I APPEAR to be someone who has no documentation for their work!
Thanks for your comment, Hazel. I thought Christa’s video presented a good argument for making trees public. I’m sure once you’re finished making your research public it will be a great resource for your family. Good luck with transferring your research to digital! I bet you’ll love having it easily available to you wherever you go.
I’m glad you posted this again. For some reason I had not watched Crista Cowans video and it helped to clarify a few things. Since receiving my DNA results I’m in the process of adding my tree to Ancestry and making it public. I feel much better about this after learning more of the details.
Oh, good, Vickie! I was glad I made the decision to make my tree public.
I have a tree on Ancestry.ca I have my currently set to private. When I first started it was a public tree, and I did meet quite a few cousins from having it on there. The reason I went private is because of the rules around who can view items. Someone who has a paid membership can view all of the items in my public tree, someone who does not have a paid membership can not view the items in my public tree. To me that’s not a public tree if not everyone can view it. It also means that now that I am not paying for a membership I can’t view anyone else’s trees that are public, but they could still view and copy info from mine. I have no problem with public trees as long as they truly are public and can be viewed by all. Anyone who asks me for info from my tree I will gladly share it, or provide viewing access to my tree.
Janet, thanks for sharing your perspective. I hadn’t given though to what people who don’t subscribe to Ancestry see. I have to admit that it makes sense to me that a subscription-based service would require a subscription to disseminate information. But I hadn’t thought how the word “public” in this context is misleading.
I currently don’t have an Ancestry subscription, and cannot even look at Public Trees…if I try it goes immediately to the page asking for me to subscribe.
My understanding is that Ancestry trees are for subscribers only. “Public” means that any subscriber can look at it, not just those subscribers who are given permission. To see Ancestry trees, you have to have a subscription (or access Ancestry from a library with a subscription.)
I am trying to find a way of getting the best software that does not share my research publicly. My reasons are:-
1 the number of people who copy the research of others for free and then claim it as their own
2 the “hints” and suggestions that ancestry give don’t reflect the accuracy of the links made but how many times the connection has been repeated, so when an error is made all the people who copy other people’s research, keep repeating the same errors, and gradually Ancestry is becoming more and more misleading. I don’t want to be part of that. As their search results seem to be influenced by this system too they are becoming less and less useful as well.
3 I have had cousins contact me, use facts I have carefully researched at great expense, but then added other data that is totally wrong that makes my research look bad by association. I am offended by them including my research together with their jumped to conclusions and out of timeline mistakes.
4 why should ancestry make money out of my research? I must have paid Ancestry £2,000 or more over the years, plus another £2,000 in certificates, then add in the cost of travel, hotels, other site subscriptions, software etc etc. They advertise their “hints” as a selling feature, use them to make money, and if I stop my subscription will continue to benefit from my work, while I will not even be able to access it myself.
If the quality of the trees on there was fair to middling, or even quite good, I would feel that this was an academic sharing of research, but almost every tree I have looked at on there has glaring errors, which are then repeated by all the people who copy without checking any of it out for themselves. There are a very small number of people who have done the real research, checked and cross checked, referenced and sourced, and who have wanted more evidence for a relative than “the name is similar and they were born in the same decade within 20 miles of where I was looking for him”. Sadly those who want proof of a relationship, who double check, and who indicate if something is not a certain match are becoming less and less, and Ancestry encourages people to jump to conclusions rather than being thorough, I don’t want those sort of “researchers” discrediting nearly 40 years of research that I have done, starting in my teens.
I think 2 groups of customers of ancestry are a problem, the first are the ones who want a whole family tree done before the free trial ends, the other group are the ones who just want as many on their tree as possible. If a tree is done too quickly there is no time to check and verify, if a tree is too “wide” and has tens of thousands of people on it, then life is too short to double check and verify, so it is easier to just crib any tree that is found to have commonalities in it.
I mean no offense to anyone who is reading this who has never cribbed but genuinely only used trees for inspiration, or who has been grateful for the generosity of people who share certificates they have purchased themselves on there, and the altruistic people who have saved others money by sharing copies of paperwork they have purchased. It is the 85% approx or maybe even more whose research has errors or that are copies of copies of copies that I object to. If yours is in the 10% or thereabouts that is good, thorough, referenced and insightful, my apologies for any generalizations I have made.
What is everyone planning on doing with Family Tree Maker now that Ancestry.com will not be supporting it past January of 2017?
Rosy, that’s a good question. I need to write a blog post about that–the holidays have been getting in my way. I’ll look forward to hearing how readers are handling this announcement.
I’m trying to decide on that now. I use the ancestry hints to jump start information and then when I need to, go back to see what real documentation I can find to support the hints. It’s what I like about ancestry. Having FTM to back up all that has been a comfort. When it stops syncing, I’m going to have a big problem. Not only that but I am really disappointed in ancestry’s decision. I think they have made a big mistake and it will cost them. It shows to me that they are only interested in the bottom line – they are now getting a lot of money through DNA testing. Most of the new DNA testees are not doing trees at all. Out of 20 new DNA matches, I may find 2 or 3 who have actually done any real research and work. Most don’t have any trees at all. So who needs trees? Well, actually ancestry.com no longer needs much to make money.
I bought Heredis and looked at RootsMagic in the past. Since I prefer to do my research initially on line and then track down sources, nothing measures up to what I have now at Ancestry. So ancestry has created a major problem for and me and for many thousands of folks. I think by the response they have gotten from this, they are going to have to consider alternate plans – a second blog post hints at that. I’m sure they are hoping this will blow over – that the folks who have been using FTM for all these years (and who are of extreme age) will just die off eventually. Truth hurts but they are obviously more interested in getting younger people involved than maintaining their old client base. It’s truly disgusting.
I have quite a few trees on ancestry and have both private and public trees. Generally the private trees are not serious trees. When I’m trying to track down like named individuals in an area, I’ll dump all the ones that probably are not related to my search family for reference. I also have full trees that I am working on for a book or that I don’t want the info released yet. My public trees run the full gamut. I don’t care if the info is right or not – if someone uses the incorrect stuff then they aren’t vetting and may not care if their tree is correct or not. That’s not my problem – which I’m sure some in these responses may disagree with.
No matter what, the tree is the tree – no matter who works on it. No matter who pays for the research. It’s still copyright free info – the information does not belong to anyone.
I’ve recently cancelled Ancestry because of finances (retired). My tree was public for years & recently started to add some family photos of ancestors.
As I was making sure I got all the photos & documents I needed that I may not see once I was not a member when I spotted a ‘hint’ from someone I had not seen before that added my pic. I thought “great now I find someone as I’m cancelling.” I went to their site & they had taken every photo of every member of my family & attached it to someone that didn’t even come near who my family was! Dates were all off etc. It’s a common name & they just nabbed it & seeing many other pix of obviously totally different person she assumed were the same person! My aunt was not Hispanic!
Then I found another person that had cropped someone else in my photos & when you change it, the originator tag when you hover is gone. That did it for me! I had always asked if it was ok to add a pic & that’s how I have cousins now in my shared trees. And since I can’t ask anyone about their tree now that I’m not a member I decided to hold my cards to my chest & go private.
I know it’s good cousin bait but my family was not prolific & only a few of us are researching so I figured why have more people have wrong trees with my photos?
I now have Legacy & am trying to learn it. I’ve been playing with Family Search & MyHeritage but kind of concerned putting things like that online. It’s a shame since I need to find the grandkids my age (50-60) so I can mail them all their family photos I no longer want.
Rock & a hard place. I may do what others are doing & have just a tree with no pix or sources if I go back to Ancestry. Besides most ‘shaky leaves’ were my own info. I may stick with just doing backup with external hard drive & photo sites.
Thanks for your comment, Julie. This is a really personal decision, isn’t it? I keep my tree on my computer (in Reunion), backed up to Crash Plan Pro and also on an external hard drive. I’ve uploaded a public tree on Ancestry, but I don’t keep it up to date, since my focus is on the tree on my computer. That’s working for me but I really am enjoying hearing other people’s experiences.
I have my trees on ancestry but they are all private because I want to have those distant cousins have to contact me in order to benifit from all my hard work. Another thing that you might want to be careful of on ancestry is other people’s trees are not always accurate don’t incorporate those into your tree.
I agree 100% that it’s foolhardy to incorporate other people’s info into your family tree without checking the information. I view other people’s trees as clues to help me track down sources so I can see the information personally. Thanks for commenting, Linda.
I have a tree on ancestry, originally it was public. I have no problem with sharing my info with others. My problem came when I could no longer afford an ancestry membership. All the documents that I had collected over the years and attached were no longer available to me to view. Even though I had attached them when I was a paid member.
Hence I made my tree private. I don’t want to give away the items I personally attach to my tree to only people who can afford to pay.
I could go to the library and use the free ancestry worldwide, download all of the documents to a usb and then reattach them, but that is a lot of effort considering I have already paid well over $200 to have access to them.
Janet, thanks for your comment. I appreciate your sharing your experience and perspective–it’s an important cautionary tale about storing everything on an external site.
I initially used Ancestry (DNA) to find my birth family. Initially, I kept my tree private but was willing to share information I had with folks who messaged me. After some time and contacting my birth family, I made my tree public, but listed all close relatives as “living” so as to protect their identities. In other words, keeping my skeletons close. I don’t care if folks take anything from my tree and I admit I have, in rare instances, had to download someone’s research to my desktop and create an entirely new document to upload to my tree. This is a case of Ancestry not making that particular research “attachable” or maybe the researcher did not upload their work correctly. In the future, I’ll make sure I give credit to the initial poster.
I do have one very big pet peeve. I don’t care if you have made your tree private. However, if you are using other folks’ work, please have the courtesy to respond to requests as to who your mutual ancestors are. I don’t need access to your tree, I just want the names. I’ve only had about 10% of my requests for information answered by private tree owners, which I think is extremely rude.
As to keeping the research on a separate drive or an external site — I can see where that might benefit you if the site is down and you wish to continue to work. However, I have gone off and on the Ancestry site now for several years and my research was still there — right where I left off.
Thanks for contributing to the discussion, Sheri!
I share my tree on Ancestry. It is public. I have many people on there with no citations but I believe that for some that is near impossible. If someone copies my tree it is a “buyer beware” in some instances. However I have had people contact me and point out errors and for this I am grateful. Combined efforts are usually better!
Thanks so much for commenting, Anne. I agree with you! In the organizing industry, we have a slogan, “Together we are better.” I think that applies to genealogy as well!
My Ancestry.com tree is public. I try very hard to put only correct information on my tree and I hope it helps someone else. I use the other public trees to help me find more information (alternate spellings, maiden names, etc.) I make lots of notes on my tree so that others might know there are still questions and lots of research to be done. I don’t mind if someone uses my information. I do love it when another public tree can help me find a missing child or the wife’s maiden name. All of my family information is also available on FamilySearch, so privacy is not an issue for general information and deceased relatives. I believe family history belongs to all the descendants.
That said, nothing goes onto my personal software that I cannot prove with sources.
Jan, thank you so much for commenting. We have similar philosophies about public trees and sharing of research!
Jan, Currently I collaborate with another relative on a private tree on Ancestry. She holds the subscription and I am on as editor. Numerous times she has put her tree up for public view for a 30-day window and as previous comments have stated, either they copy and paste with no credit to the original researcher or they get the information mixed up with the wrong line and add their own “assumptions” without any sources or validity, which then messes up her own credibility on her work.
I am working on one particular line right now that has many of the same given names as they have been passed from generation to generation. One name in particular is not a common name yet have found in my research, it was passed on at least 5 times thru the family during the 1700-1800’s. I have found numerous instances on people’s public trees where they didn’t even look at birth/death dates, and just attached to that common name even tho the person they were attaching to may have been born 60 years later and in a different branch!
Thus the main reason for keeping the tree private? To make sure the documentation is correct and proved so the historical record that may eventually be provided publicly is also correct. Many people out there don’t have a focus on detail and that creates problems on down the road for other people who ARE striving to get the record straight.
Juanita, thank you so much for taking the time to comment. I really appreciate your perspective.
I have a tree on Ancestry, that is public and linked to my DNA results. However, I only have information on this tree that is ALREADY on Ancestry– like census, vitals, etc. I do not add scanned photos or documents to my Ancestry tree. That is my personal choice, mostly because I get nervous about those items getting passed around the “Ancestry World” and being incorrectly added to the wrong families, etc. As we all know, many folks are careless with their “leaves” and I don’t want my items attached to the wrong families. I have found this Ancestry tree a nice way to “file” records like census that I don’t necessarily tell me anything new for a certain family, but that it’s right there if I ever need to find it.
This is just my personal choice, as I use Legacy software (years ago Reunion) to maintain my personal genealogy. I know many people use Ancestry as the primary/sole place they have their family information.
Nicholas, thank you very much for your comment. I think your approach is a very sensible one and I really appreciate your sharing it!
My documented information is in my genealogy software. My Ancestry trees are all private because they are intended to be an “information/hint slush fund” that are just pointers for my research. I harvest the documents from hints but also any information from others trees whether correct or not because they provide other clues: i.e. two different birth dates but the same death date may indicate that I should check to see if there is another person in the area that could be confused with mine. If the person has several wives on the public trees it could indicate a marriage I am not aware of or that there is another with the same or similar name. This private tree is just a compilation of working hypotheses. So I would not want that unsubstantiated information to be distributed. BUT I DO HAVE A BEEF WITH ANCESTRY INCLUDING SEARCH RESULTS FROM PRIVATE TREES! Then the tree is not truly private. I have been able to reconstruct lineages by searches that reference private trees. Also, I get requests for information that I have to explain may not be relevant to them. Private trees should not come up in any searches. Making a tree private just as cousin bait seems a little selfish to me. You have the option of contacting them as much as they have the option of contacting you. If you truly want to help others then make the tree public.
Thanks for sharing your perspective, Judyth!
I am so happy you are asking the question, public or private? Many years ago I put my tree on RootsWeb. Through further research I discovered I had several critical errors. I removed my tree to fix the errors. Not too long after that I discovered someone had copied my tree word for word, picture by picture. Several years later she put it on ancestry.com as a part of her overall tree and made the tree public. This is when the fireworks began. She shared it with others and now things are totally out of control. My tree has been copied word for word and picture by picture without any acknowledgment to me. In other words they are claiming the tree as their own work. The problem is that the people have copied my original tree with all the errors.
I have now submitted my tree to ancestry.com with all of the updated information and made all my corrections, etc. At first I was going to leave it private, but then I decided it was best to make it public to try to override what has been done. I have written to the main people who have my tree and ask them to remove it, or at the very least acknowledge me as the original creator, but none will agree.
I am scared to have my tree public but I am also scared to have it private and let all of the people who do have my tree take all the credit for the 40 plus years of work I have put into my tree that I promised my father I would do for him prior to his death. This was a hobby he had planned on doing when he retired, however he died before that happened.
I am not still not totally sure I am making the right choice by having my tree public. I would welcome your suggestions or comments along with anyone else’s comments who might read this letter.
I think your question Janine public or private depends on your particular circumstances and what your goal is in either case.
Thanks
Ellie
Ellie, thanks for sharing your story. I can understand why you feel conflicted about the public-versus-private question! Personally, I applaud your decision to make your tree public so that correct information is out there and researchers don’t just find the incorrect information propagated by others. I hope it works out for you!
Ellie, I am new to Ancestry and I have been copying information from other family trees, but only after checking the sources to decide whether they meet my standards. I see lots of unsupported facts and errors which seem to be proliferated on the site, and I make sure I don’t use these. I make sure I cite the sources in my facts. In almost all cases, the sources are readily available through my paid Ancestry subscription, but it does save me time to use another persons tree as a jumping off place. Int he Ancestry program, how would I give credit to another person’s tree? I don’t even know how to do that? Can you help explain?
Jeri, generally speaking, primary sources (like vital records) are the most important, and personal ancestral trees don’t carry much weight unless they’re adequately sourced. Try to notate the primary sources instead of the tree. Note the type and name of the source and where and when you found it.
Thanks for answering Jeri’s question, Caryl!
I have recently joined Ancestry.com. I have always had an interest in genealogy, but was always too busy to do anything about it. It’s intoxicating stuff, I need to get back to work! My tree is currently public, but I’m not sure just how private a private tree is anyway. I have been tracing a long lost Aunt from USA (I live in England). I was directed to somebody’s private tree on Ancestry, and invited to contact that user. I did, and he was incredibly friendly and helpful, but it does leave me asking the same question as you, Janine.
Thanks for commenting, Darren. If you haven’t already read through the comments on this post, I encourage you to read them. Lots of folks have generously shared their views on why they keep their trees private. I opted to go public with mine, though the truth of the matter is that I don’t update my Ancestry tree very often. (I though it would be easy to update but it actually isn’t, unless I’m missing something.) To each his/her own. I’m glad you found a friendly and helpful user with a private tree! Good luck with your research!
I see this post originated back in 2014, isn’t it funny how this subject gets revived every so often.
I was originally a Reunion user, but i decided that I would switch to Family Tree Maker and utilise the sync facility with Ancestry. My tree is public but mark a fair bit of information as private through Family Tree Maker and it is kept that way – the basics are there, but the nitty gritty isn’t. Certificates – Birth, Death & Marriage that I pay for are all kept private because I pay for them. Photos that are from my private collection remain private. I love that I can do this and that I can only share what I want to share. So I am all for a Public tree within reason.
I have recently done my DNA through Ancestry and I have all these connections, but the only way I can work out how they are connected is through shared matches because people have there DNA tested but don’t bother uploading a tree, or upload a tree and mark it as private. It just makes things so much harder and frustrating – but onwards and upwards.
Thanks for commenting, Tracy. I didn’t realize that FTM had the feature allowing you to keep certain information on your Ancestry tree private. Interesting!
I started my family tree on Family Tree Maker. I’m part of a large extended family. I’m one of 49 first cousins and I’m tracking descendants at well as ancestors. So this tree is not linked to Ancestry. For years I didn’t have a tree on Ancestry although I used them for research. I recently started building a tree on Ancestry using only documented sources found on Ancestry for deceased.This tree is public. I feel that if I found it on Ancestry I can share it on Ancestry. I use other family trees on Ancestry as suggestions to look for documentation.
I’ve also used DNA and I look at any connections I’ve made as suggestions for research.
Thanks for commenting, Peg. I like your approach!
I recently made all of my trees private. The reason is that I want relatives to reach out to me for information so that I can expand my tree. Too many relatives just want to look at my tree, gather information and not share anything. I got sick of this so I made all my trees private. When a relative reaches out to me, I first ask them all the questions that i have about that part of the tree and once they have answered to my satisfaction I grant access. If they refuse to answer then they don’t get access to the tree.
Thanks for sharing your reasoning for making your trees private, Nicole!
My tree was once public and when a family member (who was just starting his tree) asked for info, I gladly gave him all I had. Even told him where he could find a box with records, photos, etc. He now has a Private tree with over 500 people attached to the person I am researching and for whom I gave him his starting point. He will not share any part of his research although I have asked numerous times.
I have since made my own tree private. I share with any family members who need info. I can’t understand why some people won’t help their relatives, Especially those who have helped them. BUMMER!!!
That is a bummer! People can be disappointing. I can’t understand why people wouldn’t help relatives (or really any fellow genealogist who was asking politely) either!
Hi – I read this thread as I am deciding whether to re-load my family tree up on Ancestry again. I have a well-researched and sourced tree which for a long time I had as a public tree, but removed it when Ancestry ‘dumbed down’ and trashed their relationship with long-standing subscribers. It included 40 years of my own work, but also research carried out by my gt grandfather in the 1920’s & 30’s. I like to share my information freely and would ultimately like to leave all the research in the public domain. But I am concerned that the quality of most of the trees on Ancestry is poor and don’t now trust ancestry to preserve the integrity of research. For example I have seen photos that I originally posted wrongly named on other people’s trees. Does anyone know of another site where I can upload my tree from FTM?
Clare, I hope that someone sees your comment and responds. I wish I had an answer for you. (Perhaps I’ll write a new blog post posing similar questions.) I guess my feeling is that poorly researched trees on Ancestry don’t really have a bearing on the helpfulness of my well-researched tree. But that doesn’t address your mistrust of Ancestry’s integrity. Thanks for commenting.
Hi Janine, I tried MyHeritage and it didn’t suit; so decided to place my tree back on Ancestry. Your comment about the poorly researched trees having no bearing on the well-researched trees made sense. I can now control the settings sufficiently to keep the integrity of the data, and there was really no other forum that matches Ancestry’s reach. Once I was happy with how it presented, I made it public again and prefer that it is only public with a subscription. I get that people are upset that Ancestry make money out of ‘our’ work, but in return they also provide searchable access to such a massive array of original records. The annual subscription is way cheaper and user-friendly compared to ‘back in the day’ travelling to individual record offices or paying for someone to do research anyway.
It’s not just that they make money off our work. My tree is also set as “public”. I can’t even see comments attached to my photos or documents without paying for a subscription. I have to pay to read a comment on my own tree. Ancestry also went into our accounts on WorldConnect and deleted our contact information without permission so people could not contact the tree owner without going through Ancestry.com. I put my tree online to connect with others working on the same people. As it is now, only subscribers can contact subscribers. He can send me a message saying that he attached a comment to my photo or document but I can’t read it unless I pay Ancestry. I’m seriously thinking about deleting my tree since I no longer have control of that tree. Ancestry has taken control.
I don’t use public websites for my family tree. While personal data can be dug out from all kinds of public sites; why put it all in one place? And why give someone you don’t know the opportunity to “modify” your file? Besides, I like to be able to check my file at odd times, which can be difficult if your only file is on one of these internet sites, and I don’t always have access to the internet.
This discussion is about a public vs private tree on Ancestry, which isn’t a public website (it’s subscription only). I wanted to mention that no one can modify your Ancestry tree unless specifically given the right to do so. Public trees can be viewed (not modified) by any subscriber. My tree is public, but I my primarily family tree is in the Reunion software on my computer. I agree with you that I don’t want to have to have internet access to see my family tree!
I put my family tree on WorldConnect.com several years ago. Then I put it on Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com bought WorldConnect.com. My tree is set as “Public” which meant that anyone could view it. Now if you want to view my “Public” tree, you have to buy a subscription. If someone comments on one of my photos or documents, I have to buy a subscription to view it. In other words, I make nothing off my family tree but Ancestry makes a small fortune. What does “Public” mean.
I decided to make my tree private for a while so I can work out some unverified information. People have grabbed my incorrect info from my public tree and then I see it repeated over and over in Ancestry, even though I stated it’s unverified.
So, one of my favorite things about Ancestry is that they keep coming up with new features. Usually they have to do with DNA, but there’s one new feature that has nothing to do with DNA and everything to do with public v private trees. It’s called MyTreeTags.
My tree has always been public. I don’t worry about my privacy because no one else but me can see the information I add for myself or my living relatives. And I don’t worry about anyone messing with my tree because that’s not how Ancestry works. I don’t worry about losing information because I sync it with Family Tree Maker on my computer. But I do only add information that I’m certain of. As certain as I can be, barring a future discovery that changes something. (I have been thrilled with the new DNA tools that essentially serve as confirmation of all the work I’ve done over the years.) And not adding unverified data, or potential ancestors, means I miss out on whatever leaf hints Ancestry might generate for me that would help confirm or deny the data.
Now, with MyTreeTags, I can tag a new ancestor with one or more tags that remind me, and tell whoever happens to see it, that this person is, for example, just a “Hypothesis”. Or is “Unverified”. Or however I want to designate them. I can put them in there and let them generate hints to follow up on. Once I’m sure, I can remove the tags or add new ones such as “Verified”. No more worries about inadvertently misleading anyone. And all the advantages of leaf hints, Potential Fathers and Mothers, and Thru-Lines (new DNA features). Love it!