Errors in trees - letting off steam!

[Penholder]

Thank you all!   I am feeling a lot better about it now.

Diana

[pharmaT]

I would say IGNORE IGNORE IGNORE.  I don't bother trying to correct people unless the person contacts me and asks about a section of the tree.

If someone tells me I've gone wrong my first instinct is "oh no, what have I done and check again"

[Jang]

It used to worry me too but I just ignore them now. I do appeciate those who document their trees - I've made some wonderful contacts that way.

Years ago, before online trees, I followed the wrong line for one of my great grandfathers, all the way back to Ireland, buying certificates, which wasn't easy in those days. I finally found my mistake, thank goodness, and when I was contacted by someone descended from my "mistaken" ancestor, I was pleased to be able to pass on all the info I'd collected about his family :-)

[hurworth]

I thought I'd worked out a connection to a DNA match.  My ancestor had a first cousin in Old Machar called Helen Bain. Helen had been tricky to follow once she reached adulthood because her village had several Helen Bains of a similar age.

One of them married a man with a fairly distinctive name, and a descendant of this couple appeared as a fairly close DNA match - looked like the connection could be around 4-5 generations back, which would fit.  I was waiting to hear whether he had any records of his ancestors but curiosity got the better of me so I topped up my credits at ScotlandsPeople and got the record of Helen Bain's marriage, as I was pretty sure I had the right person.  The age was out by a bit but I thought perhaps she was trying to hide the fact that she'd married a younger man.

NO!!! It's not her.  Wrong Helen Bain!  Luckily my second guess was correct.  She married a railway stoker called James Catto and they headed off to Glasgow. 

Anyway, I sent the marriage record for the OTHER Helen Bain to her descendant who is a DNA match.  Still none the wiser at this stage as to how we're related!

[Josephine]

hurworth,

Maybe the two Helens were cousins and the match comes from their grandparents?

Regards,
Josephine

[Flattybasher9]

At present, I am working on my wife’s side. Obviously, she is still living. I have our (Private) tree on Family Tree Maker 2017. A hint has come up on Family Search for her. When that hint is opened, I get "1 - 10 of 304985 results" none of which is relevant. If I "Match all exactly" I get 1 result, which is still wrong and 220 years out. I blame a lot of the problems with accuracy down to the search engines the main Genealogical sites use, using differing algorithms, which are giving different results. Then individuals are just "cherry picking" the results which are as near a fit as they can see.

Malky

[hurworth]

Maybe the two Helens were cousins and the match comes from their grandparents?

We're related to our Helen Bain on her maternal side, so we're still looking for the connection.

[Floozy]

Errors  from trees is a problem  for lots of researchers,   but if you know your families  provide the information  you have to assist those who have it wrong. Then its up to them to correct  it. My Great  Grandmother  was a Rogers. So is her birth I think. . But her burial record is Rodgers but her grave says Rogers.. another one has my grandma as Abbott  but she was actually  born Willey, no father recorded. And i found a doc that says she is the stepdaughter  of Abbott.  Im not worried  about it.errors occure same with census spelling. Regards Susan

[coombs]

What I find very suspect is someone born in say Co Durham in 1750 but said to be baptised in London and no sources to back it up other than "England And Wales Baptisms". "John Smith son of James and Mary". Sorry but I would need much more compelling evidence to prove they are the same person as I would certainly try Co Durham first.