RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: guest189040 on Thursday 15 October 20 18:00 BST (UK)
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Working down my DNA matches trying to find a link to them I sent a Message to one match a week ago.
Last night I was working on another Match who does not have a tree, this one has no tree at all and the shared matches point to my Cheshire ancestors
One of the shared matches was the one I messaged, they had no Common Ancestor but a Tree of about 500 people.
So I worked out who they were and started to build a Floating Branch in my Tree. I built up quite a tree verifying that they had not made any obvious errors along the way. I went back about 6 generations on the paternal line but nobody had a surname I recognized or were in the right locations.
Then I started on their maternal line and soon found a surname that I recognize and is in my tree but their family members were all over the place, with one born near Liverpool, Baptised in Derbyshire, married in North Yorkshire.
This line of theirs finds there way into Nobility.
Now as I was working through my own version I find that they had made a glaring error in their tree. The person concerned where the error has been made is the one I quoted above and was already in my tree as the illegitimate Daughter of a sixteen year old who had a completely different ancestry to the one in my Matches Tree. From my own research quite a few of my own xGreat Uncles and Aunts left Cheshire to work in the Factories in the Widnes/Prescot/St Helens area and that a cell of my ancestral names started to be built up within this area
I then linked my Floating Branch into my tree and checked the Relationship, which matches the DNA cM hence I am confident that my linkage to the DNA match is correct.
So now I am sort of hoping that the match does not respond to the Message as I do not really want to give them the bad news
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- They probably won't believe it when you tell them! Someone has ascribed totally different parents and ancestry to my own Grandfather, and wouldn't take the information, although (if it was him) he'd have been so peripheral to their tree that to accept a correction wouldn't matter. I'd even found the correct person they needed, not my grandfather, and provided the correct ancestors for him....
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They might be grateful if theyve not been understanding their DNA mstches
I know I would
Even if it means deleting a branch its worth it
You could word your findings in a way that leaves them to come to same conclusion yourself .
My mother had researched her"grandmother " back three generations and I was very worried about telling her it was wrong lady ....turned out the new grandmother was far more interesting !
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- They probably won't believe it when you tell them! Someone has ascribed totally different parents and ancestry to my own Grandfather, and wouldn't take the information, although (if it was him) he'd have been so peripheral to their tree that to accept a correction wouldn't matter. I'd even found the correct person they needed, not my grandfather, and provided the correct ancestors for him....
I’ve had many experiences of people not being prepared to accept that they’ve made mistakes on their Trees. I’ve even sent copies of BMD Certs to people, but they don’t change their Trees! And so I’ve given up bothering now... ::)
Romilly.
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I'm sure RootsChat could fill a whole new page with Believe What You Want to Believe threads. It's what most people do, and is closely related to Nimbyism.
Sorry ... ;D
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Agree, Andrew Tarr - but it'd overload the system, wouldn't it?
TY
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I'm sure RootsChat could fill a whole new page with Believe What You Want to Believe threads. It's what most people do, and is closely related to Nimbyism.
Sorry ... ;D
Oh you are so right.
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- They probably won't believe it when you tell them! Someone has ascribed totally different parents and ancestry to my own Grandfather, and wouldn't take the information, although (if it was him) he'd have been so peripheral to their tree that to accept a correction wouldn't matter. I'd even found the correct person they needed, not my grandfather, and provided the correct ancestors for him....
I’ve had many experiences of people not being prepared to accept that they’ve made mistakes on their Trees. I’ve even sent copies of BMD Certs to people, but they don’t change their Trees! And so I’ve given up bothering now... ::)
Romilly.
I think some people just see it as someone coming out of the blue, and in a round about way telling them that they are stupid, and you (who is doing the telling) probably think you know it all about genealogy, they think you are a know it all etc. etc. ::) So it gets their backs up and sometimes they just dig their heels in or sulk and refuse to change it, or just pretend it's not really wrong. It's easier if they are not the only one who has made the mistake, or worse if many others have copied their error, and they then feel you are going to make them look stupid having to tell all their close relatives they've traced the wrong line or its just 'strength in numbers' ;D ::).
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I'm sure that most people who do feel they have to contact the owner of a tree to point out an error do it quite courteously, explaining how/why we have the proof that the relationship(s) they have down are very unlikely to be correct, and stressing that we would like to be informed if we'd got something similar wrong, especially if it involved haring off up a very wrong route, and proffering further information and help.
TY
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Yes, well said TY, - I’m sure that’s usually the case.
The Trees that I was thinking of concerned my 2x Great Grandmother. Because she married 3 times, some descendants had got the details mixed up, or had missed out one or more of the marriages. My intention was certainly only to help, nothing more.
Romilly.
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Just how I feel, Romilly.
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I'm sure that most people who do feel they have to contact the owner of a tree to point out an error do it quite courteously, explaining how/why we have the proof that the relationship(s) they have down are very unlikely to be correct, and stressing that we would like to be informed if we'd got something similar wrong, especially if it involved haring off up a very wrong route, and proffering further information and help.
TY
Oh, I agree. But however polite and well intentioned you are, I often have the same experience as others, they either say thanks, and then never change the tree, or don't respond again at all and still don't change it ;D ;D.
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There are trees on Ancestry with my g.grandfather as the son of a certain couple. I was never convinced but lots of people have copied the information. In the end I contacted one man and asked him where the information was to prove my g.grandfather was the son of the couple. All he knew, which is what I knew, was that the couple did have a son (well 2 sons but one died) with the same name as my g.grandfather. Fortunately this man had done his DNA with Ancestry as I had and there was no match. So I was right and he removed all the information he'd added to his tree. I contacted a few others who deleted the wrong information. Obviously, they kept the correct son of the couple, but removed all the information that related to my g.grandfather, my gran, her children etc. Of course, some people totally ignored me or just refused to believe they were wrong.
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I revisited for the third time my tree and my other DNA matches to the Cheshire origins of my family and my link to the DNA match is the only route I can find that meets the relationship criteria.
Some ancestors made the move into the Widnes / Prescot / St Helens area and other DNA matches that I have to distant Cousins with their origins in this golden triangle of Towns substantiate my tree. One in particular has half the cM of the subjects DNA and I link to them at the parents of of one of the Common Ancestors of the subject and I share.
I have also revisited their tree and can see why they have made the links that they have, totally reliant on Names, irrespective of locations.
If they do respond then I will just say that Ancestry DNA shows us as Cousins but I have not found a proven link between the two of us and wish them well in their research.
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Since everything has been digitalised I'm afraid it has encouraged laziness. Ancestry literally throws the information at you and it's too easy to just accept it without checking anything. So many people do that, or worse still, copy from other people's trees without verifying anything for themselves. I'd say half the trees on Ancestry are complete rubbish, and it's upsetting to find your family on a tree where you know they don't belong at all. I cross-reference everything carefully.
One or two ancestors have been VERY difficult to identify, and the excitement when you finally pin them down after sometimes years of searching!! I always want to shout it from the rooftops, but I agree some people don't seem interested in accuracy, which is not in the spirit of family history at all, because accuracy is everything! If you don't get it right then you are wasting your time.