Contact's website - bit of a dilemma

[Just Gillian]

I was doing a bit of tidying of my bookmarks last night and came across the one for the website of a chap with whom I share 3x Gt Grandparents. I don't think he was actively researching his family history - the details on there seemed to have been provided by a cousin.

I first emailed him early in 2008, informing him of our connection (not knowing he was going to put my email on the site!) and the very next weekend, off his own bat, he drove about 30 miles and took photos for me of the streets and areas mentioned in the census for my branch.

He has a small tree on the site and several photos of grandparents and earlier family members. The site also contained three links to some Glasgow design places and art galleries. I clicked on the links last night to try to ascertain if he was still "around". One of the links was "page not found", one is still as it was, and the third, which should have been Fine Art Dealers of Glasgow, took me instead to Glasgow Pornstar Galleries with pictures, dressed and undressed, of a large chested young woman.

Do I contact him to let him know what has happened, or just leave it? I think it would feel a bit odd to pop up after 6 years just to let him know his site has a link to a porn site. But, equally, if it were my site, with photos of my family, I'd want to know.

I had the impression, in 2008, that he was quite elderly and there is no sign of any activity on the site.

It sounds like it has been hacked doesn't it. Can you find out how old he is? If he is elderly he might be shocked? Julie

[kiterunner]

I should think it is more likely that some of the domain registrations for the sites he linked to have expired since he set up the site, Julie.

[Olde Crone]

I would give him the face saver - email him and say you wonder if he knows his site links to rude photos and then he can either be shocked and grateful to you, or pretend to be shocked and grateful, lol. (I think the link is unlikly to be deliberate!)

OC

[Just Gillian]

Thanks for your replies. I think I probably should give him the chance to remove the link which I'm sure is accidental!

He doesn't appear in the tree on his site and I can't remember how I knew he was fairly elderly.

I can't find the old records of my correspondence with him and think they must have gone with my Outlook Express when an old computer died. But I've remembered the name of the cousin to whom he attributed the tree and I see she has a private tree on Ancestry and logged in last week so I'll probably contact her and tell her about the problem.

Call me old-fashioned, but somehow I feel happier about directing a female rather than a male to a porn site

[JBee]

It could well be that he hasn't looked at the site for years - if he's still around.

I would still send an email complete with receipt request to see if the email is still working and just state what you've found.