Help! I seem to be stuck in an ancestry loop.

[GallowayLass]

I think I am suffering from the same messaging gremlin that struck 'Anne in Carlisle' last year.
I have found a private tree that contains Edgar HOLT born 5 December 1926, Crewe, Cheshire. He married Barbara PLATT in 1947 at St Michael, Coppenhall, Crewe, Cheshire. They had two children 1M 1948 and 1F 1950. They emigrated to USA and I have from U.S., Cemetery and Funeral Home Collection, 1847-2016 on ancestry that Barbara died 2015 Port Perry, California. I won't paste the record here as it names the two children and their spouses who may well be alive.
I cannot find any confirmation of Edgar's death though and it's that I am searching for as he is my relative. His parents were Arthur HOLT 1880-1953 and Louisa MURRAY 1890-1945. Louisa was one of my Grandad MURRAY's elder sisters.
Could somebody please try to send a message to this ancestry member by clicking on the username to see if it opens a message box. All I am getting is my current message list and it assumes I want to message the last person that I messaged a few days ago.
It could well be that the user is not accepting any messages at all or it could be that I have a gremlin. I can see the profile and the list of trees on the account but the messaging won't open.
Many thanks.

kathleen1758 has chosen to not make this tree publicly viewable. Click the "Contact kathleen1758" button below to contact the tree owner using Ancestry's anonymous Connection Service.
Bates/Heath & Wildgoose/Swain family tree
This private tree contains information about:
Edgar Holt

Born: 1926 in Nantwich, Cheshire
You will also find attached to this person 9 attached records10 sources 30874 people in this member tree

[Jill on the A272]

It goes to message for me, can you try another browser?

[cbcarolyn]

it goes to message box for me too. he may not be dead?

[Anne in Carlisle]

Me too, just get a new message box ready for the message. Have you messaged her before? It does go back to the message thread if you have ... very annoyingly! PM me if you want help. You helped me last time, to good effect!
Anne

[GallowayLass]

Thanks folks. I don’t think I have messaged her before. I’ll try another browser and report back.

[cbcarolyn]

happy to send a message on your behalf, it looks as though it will work for me.

[cbcarolyn]

i notice someone else has put 8 aug 1998 as his death

[GallowayLass]

Good grief, what a faff!! I tried Safari but it kept hanging. Then I tried Firefox which required an update and then took blooming ages to let me into ancestry where I discovered a new thing in the messaging system. Clicking on the button with the username to contact them doesn't work the same any more. To open a new message you have to click on a + symbol near the top left of the messages list and type in the username!. I got my message nearly finished and did a quick look at my offline tree just to confirm a fact only to have the blooming page shut down and my message totally disappeared! So I started again and this time managed to complete it and click send. I honestly thought, I'd lost it again as I needed to click refresh on the browser bar before the message appeared as "sent". Unless I am totally in gremlinland tonight, it looks like the person is currently online and the message says it's been read pretty much instantly.
As it turns out, once I actually got into the new message window, I have messaged this person before in 2019 about the same Edgar HOLT. That one said read but I never got a reply. I slightly altered my message because of that. Fingers crossed I get lucky this time.

16 minutes since it was read now and nothing so far...

[GallowayLass]

cbcarolyn Just been into the other tree with the death fact and the mother's ms of BENNETT matches with the 1929 birth index entry I have for Barbara PLATT. Looks promising. I have no idea who the tree owner is, the surname is not in my main tree. I'll send them a message and see if anything comes back.

[GallowayLass]

Weirderer and weirderer!! I went back to my usual browser to message the tree owner who has a death date for Edgar HOLT. This time, clicking on the contact button opened up a blank message form to the correct person as normal despite the + button option being there. I finished and clicked send only to get an error page saying that this page was not available right now and either refresh my browser or come back later. Fortunately, clicking refresh brought up the message as having been sent. Phew!

I tried to open another message form to the first person just to see what would happen and when I clicked on the 'message' button, it did the same as last time, opened a message for the last person contacted. So it seems either there is a bug in the system or it now only works like it used to when you have not message a particular user before. My usual browser is Edge Chromium.

[Anne in Carlisle]

Let's face it, Ancestry message system is total rubbish. From the minuscule box to type into to the random notifications which you may, or may not get. I've got one which I got over a month ago that is still showing with a dot, can't get rid of that no matter what I do. And what's the point of putting the time delivered or read if they don't date it!
Rant over!
Anne

[kylejustin]

I find you have the new message notification until you respond to the new message. Simply reading it doesn't register on the system.

sounds like an absolute nightmare galloway.

[Anne in Carlisle]

I find you have the new message notification until you respond to the new message. Simply reading it doesn't register on the system.

How daft! It is the last of a series of several messages and doesn't need a response.
Anne

[GallowayLass]

I think you can get rid of the number count if you click in to a new reply but then don’t type anything and then click referesh on the browser. It totally is a faff and really needs fixed.