My tree has always been public, but I very much understand why some folks choose to keep their trees private. People hate to see their ancestor photos and stories attached to a person in another family tree that just happens to have the same name, or a completely different name. People hate to see their document image photos that support a family connection attached to another tree that contains the wrong family connection. (i.e. the person who attached the document to their tree didn't bother to read the information contained.) People hate to see their documents copied to private trees, and get no response when they ask the person how they might be related. People hate to upload documents and photos to their trees knowing those kind of people are lying in wait to snatch up that stuff (through member connect), without sharing any of their own information. It boils down to the fact that too many Ancestry members think family research means copying other people's trees. Folks new to research also don't understand that most leaf hints are false, and that many of the items that turn up in an ancestry search have nothing to do with the search input. Some of them don't even realize that those photos and stories came from someone else's tree - they think this stuff is part of the Ancestry inventory. (I know this, because when I have contacted folks who have attached my stuff to their trees this is what I was told.) I stopped trying to police my tree a long time ago, knowing that serious researchers will look to see who submitted the photo, document, or story and find their way to my tree. Every now and then I hear from one of them, profusely thanking me. This is my reward.

Private trees associated with DNA matches is another subject. Do not assume all private tree owners are the kind that do not want to share. People who have private trees are bombarded with messages asking for information, and they aren't going to send an invitation to view the tree to a stranger. When you send a message to a private tree owner make sure that it is short and to the point. If applicable, make an offer to exchange additional info that is not in your tree. I send messages to private tree owners whose match to me is flagged with a leaf hint, and ask only if they can tell me which common ancestor(s) have been flagged with the hint. I also contact private tree owners who are extremely high confidence matches asking if they can tell from comparing our trees how we might be related. I also send messages to matches with private trees who turn up when I do a surname search for a relatively uncommon name on one of my brick walls asking if they would be willing to share some information about that surname line. Not all respond, but some do, and sometimes it is weeks or months later. Not everyone stays glued to ancestry.com - they get busy with other things. Some of the private tree owners sent me invites to their tree even though I didn't ask. Some contacted me to let me know they had made their tree public (so don't send all your private tree matches to the trash).

Bottom line, don't put all private tree owners in the same category - some may turn out to be very helpful if you approach them the right way. If they don't respond to a simple and polite request to exchange information, chances are they don't have anything to share.

As a heads up - if New Ancestry comes on-line in its current format with no alternative to go back to Classic, you are going to see a lot more trees set to private or deleted all together, and those trees will be the ones with the best information.