Saturday, November 3, 2007

What does this mean?

I got an email from Ancestry.com with the subject "New content has been added to your family tree." The body of the email said:

"Randy,
Our family tree is growing.
2 people have been added:
Unknown
Check out all the new updates or add your own memories "

So I clicked on the two links and both took me to my Ancestry account and showed me data for "Unknown," who was the third wife of Robert Seaver (1608-1683) whose name I don't know, and also to my own name at the "Check out all ..." link. Huh?

I uploaded my 20,000 name master database to Ancestry yesterday as a Private Member Tree because I wanted to work more in the AncestryPress feature and to find more famous relatives. The only way I could do that was to have my people in an Ancestry database that can be matched to someone in the OneWorldTree database, which includes the famous people.

I'm wondering why I got only two links in the email? I guess I'm glad I didn't get 20,000 links! Will I get new links every time I add someone to my database?

I'm conflicted about making my databases into Public Member Trees. The databases include all of my research notes and research plans. The names, dates, places and relationships are not sourced as Facts, but there are sources in my Notes. I am willing to share my genealogy data but not the real fruit of my labor - the research notes, at least at this time.

I guess I could make a GEDCOM without the Notes and upload that into a Public Member Tree and submit it to WorldConnect. That at least would make my data available to other researchers. It might also overload my email inbox with messages from other researchers.

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