Genealogy Chat

For me they've reached the surname Smith!! I've got John Smiths in my family and my Hot Matches - which were until today under control - now stretches to 9 pages. As for deleted ones, don't even go there... When I emailed GR some time ago to suggest that they show place of birth and name on the hot matches first page, I didn't even get a reply. How do others deal with them - the hot matches that is, not the lack of reply!? Lizzie

they are a joke and waste of time

I disagree - if you have the patience and time you can really find some stuff.

I've deleted my Smiths from my tree because i really can't be bothered wade through all the chaff to find the odd grain of wheat. I do check the other names though, and I've found a 4th cousin - if that's regarded as Hot - I don't contact anyone that doesn't have a match for place of birth, unless its an unusual surname & there is more than one. I do wish the match was on something else apart from merely name though. Smith is regarded as a joke but I've plenty of Greens & Halls that don't match anything other than the spelling.

Tom-it is a nonsense facility -if I have gone to the trouble to have every detail,name,place of birth and year entered-eg John Smith born 1912 Liverpool England.......... why am I getting John Smiths from Scotland,wales,Norwich,Gloucester,Sydney,new York<Bongobongo land etc??? the same goes with Catherine Davies Joseph Davies Robert Davies etc.......I have 15 pages to wade through-I spent 2 hours a week or so ago deleting,and I am very quick . They are creating work.

I like the hot matches. Most of the time they don't have anything to do with me, but today, I had 6 definite matches!! I just hope the people reply back to me.

The theory behind hot matches is OK but they haven't refined it enough. They should at least match on county if nothing else! It does make a lot of work. At first I got a few new contacts with hot matches but they have dwindled away and I find them a mixed blessing - mainly on the bad side! Cheers, Horatia

Alter - I;ve said this before, and i;ll say it again. Places of birth vary from census to census. It would be impossibly to do it by plavce of birth. What would you put? Hamlet village town city county? If people don't like them I don;t know why hey have to grumble about them. Just be pleased there is something extra for you.

i got 4 definite matches too!!! well 3 for my hubbies tree and 1 for mine. one has answered already for my tree Jeanette

Sorry Tom don't agree. The purpose of hot matches should be to attempt to duplicate the manual matching that we do on 'search names' . If my tree has a Tom Brown born Giggleswick 1880 and another member had the same then I would consider that a hot match. If he was born London then it isn't. Of course they COULD be the same but the object is to identify PROBABLE ones, not POSSIBLE ones else the system gets flooded. Identifying by just name and birth year is absurd. Bob

as said on my thread earlier I am chuffed to bits with my hot matches, sent a message to one of them and she replied with so much information I couldn't have dreamed of getting, would happily wade through any ammount of pages to get more info like that. And I do have my fair share of duff ones, do you know how many William Llyods were born in Wales?? mine was born in Warwick but still the matches come, I suppose it's because there are people that don't know birth place and could be wrong.

Opinion seems divided! I wouldn't go as far as Vicky and actually delete my Smith family - too large a part of my tree - but with so many pages to wade through it becomes a chore. If I had a pound for each entry that just read John Smith 1806 England I'd be rich! Why can't the site show at least the name and county of birth for the match in a column alongside the member's name? That way we can make a quick decision as to look further or not. I agree with Alter Ego about some of the ludicrous matches on offer. Maybe if I had some really unusual names and not loads of Smiths and Skinners I'd think differently... Lizzie

actually I haven't deleted them all - I can't as they have descendants. I've altered the surname to Smith with something else added on the end - but I'm not saying what, because I don't want anyone else copying me so they get matched!

Your quite right Tom......EXTRA HASSLE !!

I am so sick of them as I have Williams, Lewis, Jenkins, Davies, and Clarke all on my tree and most of the time the only thing that matches is the name not the place or year WHAT A PAIN IN THE A** Debbie