Author Topic: Confused about data on family tree sites.  (Read 5982 times)

Offline hurworth

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Re: Confused about data on family tree sites.
« Reply #9 on: Saturday 03 June 17 21:20 BST (UK) »
I once found a tree that gave my grandmother a bigamous second marriage and family in parallel with the one with my grandfather.


I once found a tree that gave my gtgtgrandfather a bigamous second marriage.  That was news to me and their tree is correct!

Offline aghadowey

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Re: Confused about data on family tree sites.
« Reply #10 on: Saturday 03 June 17 21:25 BST (UK) »
There's a family tree on Ancestry that shows my father's headstone attached to his record- bit of a shock as not only is he still very much alive but he always planned on being cremated  :o
Away sorting out DNA matches... I may be gone for some time many years!

Offline dowdstree

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Re: Confused about data on family tree sites.
« Reply #11 on: Saturday 03 June 17 22:02 BST (UK) »
I found a tree on Ancestry recently which has my husband's cousin and his wife as deceased. (Both are alive and well ). This person had the correct dates of birth, marriage, parents etc. but had "invented" dates of death for them.

Despite me contacting him and politely pointing this out he refuses to change his tree and is very evasive about his relationship to the family, if any. His proof is other Ancestry Trees.

You can get some very useful hints on these sites but your own proof is essential.

I keep my tree private but will share my information with others if I feel that they are true researchers and not name grabbers.

Dorrie

P.S. I got my first breakthrough in my Irish research from a hint on ancestry. The guy had done a lot of research into the surname only to discover his line was from Cavan and not Antrim. He kept the info there anyway.

Small, County Antrim & Dundee
Dickson, County Down & Dundee
Madden, County Westmeath
Patrick, Fife
Easson, Fife
Leslie, Fife
Paterson, Fife

Offline Gilli-Anne

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Re: Confused about data on family tree sites.
« Reply #12 on: Tuesday 11 July 17 13:17 BST (UK) »
Youngtug, where can I go to find reliable records?

Mike, thank you for your comments. I have seen some ridiculously erroneous data in Ancestry hints, which really annoys me. People see a name, think it's the same as a name in the family and add it to their tree when it is an entirely different person altogether. I used to ask people whose trees I found in the hints what their connection was to the family and they came up with a really vague connection, so I gave up. Another thing I don't like is when someone includes all the inlaws and their relations and their inlaws, etc., in their family tree. I just enter the names of spouses, not the spouses' entire families.

Aghadowey, that was not a nice experience seeing your father's name on a headstone - does he know about this? It's annoying that people just assume things and put them in the family tree as fact. Someone added a photo of a woman she believed to be my grandmother, but the woman in the photo was not my grandmother. I told the person concerned this and directed her to a photo of my actual grandmother. I'm happy to say she accepted this and changed the photo to the correct one. She said that she had got the information from a dvd. Only problem is, other people have seen her original photo and posted it to their trees as being my grandmother.

Gillian


Offline pharmaT

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Re: Confused about data on family tree sites.
« Reply #13 on: Tuesday 11 July 17 13:59 BST (UK) »
There is, or at least was haven't looked again, a tree on ancestry with my Dad having twins in NY in 2005.  My dad died in 1999. when I tried to message the person and gave death details etc.  I was told that I was just delusional and I had invented my dad's death because I couldn't handle the fact my Dad had abandoned me because he didn't want me. :(
Campbell, Dunn, Dickson, Fell, Forest, Norie, Pratt, Somerville, Thompson, Tyler among others

Offline RJ_Paton

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Re: Confused about data on family tree sites.
« Reply #14 on: Tuesday 11 July 17 15:01 BST (UK) »
In one of my main lines I found a tree which took that line back to the 14th Century - 3 centuries more than I had been able to - and quoted checkable sources for the  individuals. Sadly when looked at closely that's all they were - individuals connected by wishful thinking rather than actual facts. (couples marrying in their late 40's and having their first child in their 60's in 16th Century Scotland  ::)

The main problem is that this tree is on Ancestry and has been copied to quite a few other trees and is now quoted as a source  :-X

PS another tree (on Ancestry) also follows this line but takes it even further back to a Mr & Mrs ODIN, of Valhalla, in 6th Century Norway  :'(

Offline youngtug

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Re: Confused about data on family tree sites.
« Reply #15 on: Tuesday 11 July 17 15:50 BST (UK) »
Although parish registers, bishops transcripts, Wills, school records and army records, etc,, are the safest source even some of these may be wrong due to errors or people telling lies, even lies by ommission. But we have to work with what we have.
I think we all make mistakes, it is recognizing them that is the hardest part and I am glad to be corrected by others but some people do not accept criticism,
.http://www.rootschat.com/links/05q2/   
  WILSON;-Wiltshire.
 SOUL;-Gloucestershire.
 SANSUM;-Berkshire-Wiltshire
 BASSON-BASTON;- Berkshire,- Oxfordshire.
 BRIDGES;- Wiltshire.
 DOWDESWELL;-Wiltshire,Gloucestershire
 JORDAN;- Berkshire.
 COX;- Berkshire.
 GOUDY;- Suffolk.
 CHATFIELD;-Sussex-- London
 MORGAN;-Blaenavon-Abersychan
 FISHER;- Berkshire.
 BLOMFIELD-BLOOMFIELD-BLUMFIELD;-Suffolk.
DOVE. Essex-London
YOUNG-Berkshire
ARDEN.
PINEGAR-COLLIER-HUGHES-JEFFERIES-HUNT-MOSS-FRY

Offline Billyblue

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Re: Confused about data on family tree sites.
« Reply #16 on: Tuesday 11 July 17 16:06 BST (UK) »
It's not only on Ancestry that people claim the wrong 'ancestors'

Some years ago I was told a woman in central NSW wanted to get in touch with me. Her search was some years previous, but I tracked her down (luckily even though she'd moved, many of her family still lived in the original place)
My maternal grandfather had a sister named Caroline.  The woman looking for me had a Caroline, same surname, in her family which she claimed was mine and I had wrong dates, and places.  I sent her a copy of my Caroline's birth and marriage certs to show she was way off base, but she told me I was wrong and she was right because her 'brother had done the research so it must be right' !!

Dawn M
Denys (France); Rossier/Rousseau (Switzerland); Montgomery (Antrim, IRL & North Sydney NSW);  Finn (Co.Carlow, IRL & NSW); Wilson (Leicestershire & NSW); Blue (Sydney NSW); Fisher & Barrago & Harrington(all Tipperary, IRL)

Offline Gilli-Anne

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Re: Confused about data on family tree sites.t
« Reply #17 on: Wednesday 27 September 17 23:30 BST (UK) »
I checked this part of my family tree again and realized that William Owens, 1734-1839 was considerably younger than his supposed sister Jean - she was born in 1713. I was thinking William Owens and Matilda Knox could be her parents, if not hers. That would mean I would have to delete a lot of names from our family tree.

Sigh.

Gillian