People who annoy me (October 2008)

[purplecat]

On Genes Reunited there is a (very useful) tool for matching up people in your family tree with people in other people's family tree. So, you know, "here are all the other trees containing an Aquila Slatcher born in 1843" which is terribly handy if your ancestor is called Aquila Slatcher and less handy if they are called Sarah Smith.

The people who annoy me are those who message you in February saying "hi I see you have an Aqulia Slatcher in your tree" and then message you again in October to say "hi I see you have an Aquila Slatcher in your tree" since it gets repetitious. They don't even have the excuse that its difficult to keep track of who you've corresponded with and who you haven't since GR does all that for you.

There's one person who has done this four or five times now. Last time it happened I sent a rather curt response saying "We've already agreed several times we are not related. Please keep track of who you have already talked to". I got a message back saying "You are a very rude person. I will not bother you again." - which, to do them credit, they haven't.

Actually the people who annoy me more are the ones who second time round go "Oooh! you've got so and so in your tree what do you know about them?" and you look it up and have to reply "only what you told me six months ago".

Prompted, obviously, because I just got one of those "Are we related?" queries and have just answered "Yes, but we knew this six months ago."

Comments

[fredbassett]

I can entirely see how that would be bloody irritating!! And I don't think pointing it out is rude.

[purplecat]

Well its wasn't the politest note I've ever sent but it wasn't quite at the level of the "NO! we're not related! go away and stop pestering me!" message which I was quite close to sending.

[purplecat]

As it happens, I have a whole slew of ancestors from the north of bristol area. I nearly wrote to you once with a "do you know any Cordys or Hendys?".

[fredbassett]

I know a caver called Phil Hendy who lives on the Mendips in Somerset, but that's south of Bristol, not north

[purplecat]

Well people moved around a lot last century. All 19th century the bulk of my ancestors are located in South Gloucestershire, Essex or the Derbyshire/Yorkshire coal fields - last century they head off all over the place - and hence manage to, you know, actually meet up and have kids and so forth. Not that I don't seem to still have a lot of Essex/Derbyshire relatives.

But yeah! I wouldn't want to claim a relationship based on just a surname and vague proximity to Bristol...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Lol. You appear to be easily irritated by random internet people. This is a trait I share. Could we be related..? :-p

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I think the qualifier "random internet" is unnecessary in the above statement, at least for you...

[purplecat]

I'm sure if we work hard enough at it we can contrive to be related. People manage to connect themselves to royalty all the time so how hard can it be?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I've been getting similar emails from someone via another source.