14 November 2009

Australia and other updates

Did you know that websites can be enabled to track who visits the site? It is a useful tool because you can see their search parameters, from where in the world they came, how many pages they visited and for how long. People who visit the site might be searching for "genealogy Latvia" or "Truschinsky" or "Gangnus" or "Kurland, Lettland", for example.

It is interesting in many respects, but one factor I find continually amusing: there is a "relative" in Australia who had quite clearly expressed strong interest in my research and said he was willing to share whatever he felt comfortable sharing. I made the mistake of giving him a glimpse of my research and then, despite many attempts to contact him (though spread out over quite some time), he just stopped replying. The amusing part is that he continues to visit the site, yet isn't polite enough to send a note. I had wondered at the reasons for this behavior. It seemed as if someone told him not to write or maybe his father shared some sort of sordid detail about my grandfather or grandmother about which I am unaware. My father did call his father in Australia and he described the attitude from Helmut as "less than friendly". I suppose when you research family trees you may find such people, huh? If that were the case I'd want to know! It would make the research all the more interesting! It is for that reason, many of my breakthroughs are not posted here. I am an economics teacher, so I state, "NO FREE-RIDERS HERE!" :-p

No comments: