Changes to SmartMatches on GenCircles

The following is an announcement from Pearl Street Software, owners of GenCircles:

GenCircles has been around for more than 4 years. In that time, the site has grown tremendously and now represents what I believe is an incredible resource. Unfortunately, what has come with this is a significant increase in our costs to provide this free service. We have reached the point where action needs to be taken in some fashion. I am reaching out to our users to get feedback and look for support for a plan I'm considering to fix this situation. I'd like to see GenCircles continue to exist and provide for genealogists for years to come. We must do something or else we will have no choice but to eventually shut the site down. This is very hard for me to fathom and something I am hoping we can prevent. However, we will need to start charging for something on our site if it's ever going to make it. I have a plan that I'd like your feedback on.

Here is our proposed solution:

GenCircles would remain free to search, view, and upload new data. The viewing of SmartMatches will come with a low annual fee of $30 per year. I believe this is a very fair rate since Ancestry's OneWorldTree sells for $50 per year, and most think it isn't as good as GenCircles' SmartMatching. If we implemented something like this and it was a success, GenCircles would actually be able to afford to have us spend a lot more time on it. The site would actually start improving again (for both free and paying customers) unlike the situation it's in now, where development has slowed down quite a bit as we've tried to control the costs.

Then, we went ahead with the plan after getting positive feedback... here's the result: https://www.gencircles.com/signup

I'd like to make it very clear that we're not charging for user data... we're just charging for SmartMatches and an ad-free experience. Everyone can still view, search, publish, etc data on GenCircles.

Comments

[Ron Bernier]

From my experience(s) with Pearl Street Software (the owner of GenCircles) I would be extremely hesitant to pay a subscription fee with no guarantee that the site is going to be improved. Pearl Street has a history of charging subscription fees and then not delivering what was promised. Ex: Pearl Street started selling subscriptions for online data about a year ago. I ended up requesting a refund after more than 6 months of very slow progress/additions to the database. The company had one excuse after another. Users of Family Tree Legends (another Pearl Street offering) have been complaining for months about the problems on GenCircles. Now users are being told, pay a subscription price and we will fix the site. I would like to see a list of the "planned" improvements, a time table for these improvements, and a guarantee that the improvements will be made. My experience has given me very little trust and faith in the promises of GenCircle's owners.

[Pam Berger]

Thirty bucks for access here, fifty bucks there, a couple of hundred for some other data access--it all adds up to an unaffordable hobby for many people. I'd rather see carefully selected ads pay the way.

[JLTB]

I don't know why anyone would want to pay for the smart matches, all they do is match a name with another gen circle name with different info for them and in the case of my ancestiors almost every one of them are wrong and all the others are just copied from what someone else has put in there therfor I for one will not pay anything for that kind of information.
Gen circles was a really good place at one time but now there are so many others that outshine it and all free to top it off.

[Trish Lewis]

I have written Pearl Street Software, pointing out to them that as a PAYING buyer of their latest version of Family Tree Legends, one of their main selling points in that version is the use of SmartMatches. I had found SmartMatches invaluable in the short time I had access to them uninterrupted, meaning the matches found for my family tree lines were captured in a list inside FTL, then I could do a compare internally within the program, and chose those, if any, that I wished to merge with my own data, right down to WHICH PARTS of each record. VERY handy side by side comparisons, etc. Now, GenCircles is intercepting my SmartMatches and pulling the data FROM my database into a webpage side by side comparison, just the opposite of what it used to. At the top, they have the gall to say I should by FTL. You idiots, I have bought it, and please give me back the feature you promised! No way would I assume paying $30 more dollars would give me the program back like it should be. More than likely it would just mean me being $30 poorer and the program still not working as it was once doing. I'm VERY curious what they tell me. I work in IT for a living, and my guess is that they farmed out the programming for FTL, but have little good in-house support for such situations like this. Time will tell...

[Tom Smidth]

I have just today withdrown all my information placed at GenCircles.

Paying 30 USD a year, to watch your own and others private information, thats not me

Yours
Tom Smidth

[David R. Riemenschneider]

I have had FTL for about 4 months. I have never been able to access my own files. I am close to going to some other program. I will not pay extra until I know it will work 100%. Dave

[Harold Baker]

Yesterday I signed up for gencircles Premiun account. I follwed instructions, filled out the form and chose "Baker" as a username, I completed it and submitted it.. Allmost imediately I recieved a Conformation eamil stating "Baker: is my username. Now when I try to login ,it asks me for password. I don't remember any place on the application form asking for a password. Whar's going on here. Is this some kind of scam to charge myb credit card for $30.00. At rhis point I will take the Comformation form to my bank and ask them to refuse payment. Harold L. Baker

[Cindi Lemkau]

Just after subscribing to Gencircles, I realized I had a problem. Without an email verification of my password and username I could not utilize the site. Then when looking for support I found nothing.

Is there away to unsubscribe, email for assistance, or am I sunk?

Any help will be great,

[Angelina Rediger]

I am glad to read negative info. I wanted to contact GenCircles as I thought to share my 10 gedcom, but nowhere on the site is "contact us". I do not do business with ghost..of any kind. Happy Halloween!

[Becci]

I paid the $30 for Gencircles.
I have uploaded my last gedcom file 24the November 2006 and the smartmatches still have not been completed 46 days later.
If they can not get their website working, I would like to get my money back....
I don't mind paying for something that works.

I sent an email to support@gencircles.com and am waiting for a reply.

Becci

[Pat Stevens]

I have been posting at GenCircles for years. (Though I like Rootsweb WorldConnect better). I also sent them money to be a supporting member; then I bought their downloadable gedcom thing (FTL).

Meanwhile, (since November) several things have happened: when I upload my Gedcom, it frequently stalls and I have to go back later to try again. More seriously, I no longer have access to Smart Files even after the money I have sent.... They are not at my FTL nor at my GenCircles pages.... I thought they might have gone out of business....?

How do I reaccess Smart Files with my Gedcom uploaded.....? Help!!! And get the download to FTL, which I have never been able to do!?

And their site is NO help to this query.... Pat

[Marsha Magee]

I , too, would like to know if there is any way to contact GenCircles about their published information. One unprofessional user has published private medical and personal information on me. I have found the same personal info on Ancestry.com also. I have tried unsucessfully to contact the submitter with all email to them bouncing. I have great problems with personal information on a living person being made public.

Marsha Holloway Magee

[Dino (All Dino, All the Time)]

Marsha,

How did they ever get private personal information about you?

Under current HIPAA regulations whoever gave out that information is in violation of the law and you can file a complaint against them.

[BFBooth]

I, too, would like to know how to get in touch with GenCircles but I know that is impossible since they have deleted their "help" email from their site. I have been a member for about 4 years and have purchased their Premium Member account. However, the Smart Matches process does not work most of the time. I have people in my database that I know have Smart Matches on their search engine, but it does not indicate a match. I have to go to their web site to look them up. Also, a new problem that has just recently started is that when I look up a person it might indicate 20 or more matches but will only show names for 2 or 3 or more often than not, none. When this happens, I have to try to think of another name in the family and search that way. When I first joined, the system worked very well, but now it's the pits. I joined ancestry.com last year with the intent to transfer my database, but never did get around to it. I think it's time now.

[Roger E Knowles]

I have downloaded my GED file to GenCircle, under Knowles/Lockhart/Chaney/Freeland Family, and it shows that I have been put in the queue and it has been three days. I'm sure something is wrong. Also, under the heading Admin, it shows disabled. Can anyone tell me how to fix this problem? I can't seen to find anyway to contact Gencircle direct.

[Lorelee]

I am having the same trouble, I uploaded my gedcom two weeks ago and it still says it's in queue. There is no way to get ahold of anyone to complain. I also would get a hit says there were 30 matches and maybe they would only show 10. I took my gedcom off of this site about 3 years ago and since I have more surnames I decided to put it back on, one of the worse decisions I have made. Keep us posted if some one gets ahold of them.

[P.P.G. Hofman Kolk]

The commercial internet page Gencircles.com is owned by a dubious person called Cliff Shaw, who hides behind a P.O. Box in Boulder, Colorado.

He doesn't respond to letters and keeps his office address, phone number and email address secret.

Does anyone know where this Shaw can be found?

[Pat Stevens]

I have an earlier posting in this chain expressing my utter frustration. Buying what I did from this company was like throwing money down a rat hole.

I think I will send a complaint to my local Better Business Bureau and the one where the presumed owner of this outfit, named above in this chain, resides. Others may want to do the same.

Pat

[M. German]

I wish I had found this website a month ago. On March 20, 2007 I put 2 GedComs on Gencircles.com. The smaller one was indexed and "smart-matched" within a few days. The larger one has not yet been indexed. If I had read these comments before, I would not have put them on Gencircles. It was only after I was trying to contact them about the delay that I realized there is no way to contact them.
I also put my family trees on Ancestry and Rootsweb. I do not like the format on Ancestry. My hobby is tracing families through the census and any place I can find them. I have extensive notes on some of these families and that is why I have put the information out on the internet. I wanted to help others and also see what might come back to me. Rootsweb is the best place, as far as I am concerned.

[Rod Dav4is]

GenCircles has been unstable for months, failing to process updated/new gedcom files for long periods -- until some real person intervenes, I suppose. It now seems to be stuck for good, not having processed a new gedcom (or any of my updates) in over a month.

I was one of his first customers, and I have over 450 gedcoms there. Time to find a new home, I'm thinking...

What a PITA!

[BarryBoyer]

I wish to thank all of you who have previously posted on GenCircles. I spent a lot of time thinking there was something wrong with my GedCom's (RootsMagic). I have finally figured out that is not the case and those who posted earlier have confirmed my fears. So GenCircles is broken and I suppose it is not going to be fixed. I too own their software Family Tree Legends but cannot install it and the good folks at Pearl Street Software quit trying to help. I liked GenCircles and I supported them with $ but to no avail it seems.

[Christine Culling]

I took all my information off Gen circles because in spite of me altering all my preferances to Privat the information could still be accessed via Google.

[J. Hirt]

I joined the premium section of Gencircles, and paid for the upgrade twice, also bought their software. I downloaded my current records in early May and I still have not gotten any smartmatches. I also sent an email to their help group and got no reply. This is not a good way to run a business. I like their program but am about to switch to another group. J. Hirt

[Larry]

What the hell is going on with Genceircles? Today I received an unsolicited email from a genealogy site with an Israel address called MyHeritage. The info they wrote was quite interesting but they needed to take some kind of control over my computer in order to do a search for me. Well that idea sets off a lot of bells telling me to WATCH OUT. I took a chance and allowed them one opportunity. It failed. I again tried to give them access and that time I computer locked up. So, I aint going back to that site come hell or high water.

I guess if GenCircles is going to give out my email address to every damn Tom, Dick, and Harry even to hoodlums in Israel I will get rid of GenCircles for sure for sure forevery forever!

[Linda Grennan]

I've done genealogy for years. I got fedup with Family Tree Maker years ago. I had problems and after spending lot of money on long distance doing their tech support, I gave up on FTM. I found family tree legends thru a friend. I purchased it and have had no problems. Due to problems with FTM, I had to start over from scratch by entering each relative. I think FTM finally redid their software and may look to see what they might have done differently. Several people dumped them when I did for the same reason. Long waits on tech support and got no useable help.

From the emails, I've gotten from them. They merged with MyHeritage and it is now FREE!! Their site also offers many free searches too. Ancestry started out nice but now it is out of control. I loved it when I had it years ago. Currently, I used the connection at the Oklahoma History Center which has a library edition of Ancestry.com they let patrons use for free.

[Paul Black]

Gencircles has become a farse updated my tree last year no smartmatches, tree, does not appear Enter a name & place says 115 matches nothing appears
used My Heritage no problems.

[Ralph Forinash]

I'm glad a I did a search for this before adding a gedcom to their database. I'm new to genealogical research and so could have quickly become frustrated. If anyone has a more positive update to all the bad things that are already here, I would be very happy to read them.

[Fred Holmes]

Did Gencircles shut down. Have tried for two days and it is not on line.

[Fred Holmes]

Did Gencircles shut down. Have tried for two days and it is not on line.

[Debbie Noakes]

I too like Fred have the same question. I have been trying for over a week, with not success of accessing the Gencircles site

[Erika]

I think the site is finally hosed.

[mikew]

happy to see their demise -

if gencircles finally shut down & gone what happens to our gedcom files stored on their site

on sold to some other site - hope not

[Kathy Nicholson]

I need to get an old file off of Gencircles. Aparentlly there is some misinformation on it, and when alerted to it, I tried to update my file. It says I have no file to update, but then I can access the old one. I can't find how to do it, they keep saying
to just press delete but there is no delete button by the old file. I tried to update, but now have two files. I need to get the old one
off before I end up getting sued or something. Hopefully I won't but you never know. I really need to get in touch with them, anyone know how???

[Shawn Lawrence Gillis Gearin]

After uploading my gedcom 3 times then deleting it 3 times then recently - after 3 months of not being able to search my own information for the last upload (2 years total) I will today pull my gedcom from the site. It doesn't show up anyway!? This site has incredible potential, but no one seems to be monitoring it. I'm done. No contact link- by!

[Bjoern Skinnerup]

Can you re-mail this? It seam that there is no way contacting Gencircles directly.

Hi

Hopefully do you have this mail?

Name: Bjørn Skinnerup
Member Since: 2003-04-30
Email Address: skinnerup@post4.tele.dk (dos not longer excist!)

We display email addresses as a graphical image. While this disables the ability to click on the email to send a message, it also makes the address impossible to be picked up by junk-mail robots. This means that GenCircles users can be rest-assurred that their email addresses will not receive junk mail as a result of registering with our site.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This has changed to: ba@skinnerup.eu

I have lost both: username and password, so I can’t get in.

Sorry

Bjørn Skinnerup

Have a nice day - - Hav en god dag
OBS! new mail: ba@skinnerup.eu

job: www.bskinnerup.dk (opret dig som bruger) Hørning
job: www.skinnerup.eu (opret dig som bruger) Højbjerg
Hobby: www.skinnerup.org ( genealogy)
tlf. +45 87360067 - 2091 2724

[Bonnie Williams]

I think it is A BUNCH OF BS. Having to pay to find My ancesters and search on my computer Lord for just a Hobby this is getting expensive. 40 dollars for Internet 300 to 500 for a cheap computer, 50 dollars for ancestry.com, 30 dollars for gencircles, 20 dollars for footnotes, and 20 to 25 dollars for something else WHY should I PAY for finding my lost famly. When It my elcetricity and my cable my internet I am searching on I think its another way for companies and other people to get rich off us poor soles trying to find our lost loved one.I enjoyed using gencircles but refuse to pay for your site.

[Charles Whiting]

Recently attempted to access gencircles.com and couldn't. All my family history was transferred to them years ago. Is there any way to connect?

[Dick Eastman]

GenCircles is no longer in operation. The web site is still there but apparently there are no humans monitoring it. For details, see my three-year-old article at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2006/03/pearl_street_so.html and the 18-month-old article at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/08/pearl-street-so.html

[Fred Holmes]

Thought some of you might be intersted in the reply which I received from Pearl Street Software after I inquired of them about GenCircles:
Quoted from Mark
Thanks for writing.

I have already been informed of this problem and have reported it to the WebMaster, who is also aware of the situation.

MyHeritage who are now responsible for the GenCircles website are currently working on a fix to resolve this problem but are unable to say when the site will be back online. I am checking the site daily myself.

In the interim, and I know how you must prefer the GenCricles website for your genealogy researching, but would like to extend to you an invitation to at least try placing your data on the MyHeritage.com site.With over 30 million members, 321+ million names in 6+ million family websites that utilises SmartMatching, you are sure to increase any chance of extending your genealogy project.

I hace CC'd myself so that I can contact you again when I have acknowledgement that GenCircles is back up and running.