How do you do a genealogy when your family won't give you any info?

Question

My family is paranoid about identity theft and won't tell me anything about themselves or others in the family? Makes it really hard to do a genealogy. Are their fears justified?

Answer 1

As long as you're not getting social security numbers I don't see why it would be a problem...

I'm pretty sure with some sites you can control privacy settings as well, assuming you're using a website.

Answer 2

For starters.. genealogy is not normally relating to living persons.  It involves tracing your ancestry (not grandma/grandpa and all the living desc).  Reputable genealogy sites will not have info about living persons, since (for the most part) that is unlikely to contribute to your research.

And (to an extent) yes.. there is some valid reason to this fear, since personal info, not limited to social security numbers, IS being misused for fraud or other criminal reasons.

I'll assume that you have your own birth certificate and know who your parents are. You may know who your grandparents are/were and perhaps their parents. Once you reach the point where someone is already dead, then you can start locating records concerning them, and normally "get a handle" on the trail.  If you are in the US, persons will normally be findable in the social security death index, providing you with dates and place of death.  Someone born prior to 1930 will be in the US census.

Much of the time, you can get the trail without personal info from family, although it is not as easy.  And yes.. in some cases, it is not id theft, but other family scandals, etc that someone wants to keep private.  Your part is being certain that the info you need is really concerning your ancestry, and respecting the rights of others.

edit-

by the way... you have no need or reason to post any of your research on the internet.  I spent years building trust (and earning it) from family members, only to have another person take that research and post it online, against the wishes of persons involved.

Answer 3

How do you do a genealogy when your family won't give you any info?

Either go around them via the paper trail (BMD certificates, obits, newspapers, census entries . . .) or convince them you will keep everyone born after 1900 on your PC and not publish them. Get a GEDCOM privitizing utility or use Roots Magic, which has one built in. When I upload my data, I export the four data bases I have for differerent branches and make sure I check the "Make Private" box each time. Then I import them all into a new data base named "Public". I check 20 - 30 people that are still living to make sure they have been privitized, then I make a fifth GEDCOM out of the "Public" data base and upload it.

Makes it really hard to do a genealogy.

Yes

Are their fears justified?

Probably. What one person can encode another can decode. If RWWC, Genes Reunited, GenCircles, and Ancestry don't have the data about living people to start with, no one can hack their privitizing codes.

Answer 4

Thomas, identity theft is a serious problems today.

However, sites, like Ancestry.Com, will not let the names of living people be seen by everyone.

My tree in Ancestry World Tree was fed in one by one in Online Family Tree.  When it went over the Ancestry World Tree, anybody still living born 1930 and after they changed their name to "Living Smith."

In the PUblic Member Tree, anybody that is not shown as having died  they are shown as "Living Smith" or whatever to other persons, unless you have sent a particular person an invite to view your family tree.  Others cannot see the names, pictures or documents on living people.

Answer 5

If you subscribe to the New York Times, and your family lived in the New York area, the archives are a real boon. You might also check the archives of hometown papers for birth, marriage and obituary information.

Answer 6

First, yes, their fears are justified....the majority of identity theft is  committed by family members or close friends. It doesn't take social security numbers to steal someones identity, just a few vital facts.

With that said, Find out names and then start asking about direct line ancestors who have already passed on. I am assuming you are wanting to find out about the ones that can't answer your questions. So get straight to them. That should alleviate some of the concerns of your family.

Good Luck!