Ancestry tree rubbish

[Edward Scott]

The owner of the tree that the recent snip came from has so much right and I admit to using their thoughts as a basis for further excavations.  Much is correct but they never add sources, so I wonder where they acquired the data or copied it from. No circular A******y sources.

[Forfarian]

I have several ancestors born in Kilsyth in Scotland.  I record it as Kilsyth, Stirlingshire although today Kilsyth is controlled by North Lanarkshire Council.  I have kept it as Stirlingshire because that is what it was considered to be under at the time they lived there.

Perfectly correct. I also use the historic counties, ignoring completely the current local authority boundaries which have been changed several times in the last 45 years.

[Forfarian]

But I think that these places do actually exist.

Yes, all of the ones I listed do exist.

[youngtug]

The owner of the tree that the recent snip came from has so much right and I admit to using their thoughts as a basis for further excavations.  Much is correct but they never add sources, so I wonder where they acquired the data or copied it from. No circular A******y sources.

I have a tree on Ancestry, I have not put any of my sources there. None. Not that I do not have the sources for my research but that is kept elsewhere. I suppose people will assume I have copied it or made it up.

[Forfarian]

Well in the interests of accuracy I think if I were to record an even happening in Kilsyth today I'd put North Lanarkshire as that is what it comes under today.

The historic counties have been neither abolished nor altered. They still exist exactly as they did before the introduction of the first lot of new local authority boundaries in 1975. The only difference is that they are now also called ceremonial counties, and the counties and local authorities no longer have matching boundaries.

The current local authority areas in Scotland are not called counties. Some of them were called districts between 1975 and 1995, but they are now called council areas. They are of no use whatsoever for research purposes.

[DiGi]

Maybe a good idea to have an entry for a fictional ancestor on your tree with impossible B M & D information.  Then you'll know if somebody copies it.

[Edward Scott]

Easier to make it private.Happy to provide information if I am asked.

[youngtug]

Maybe a good idea to have an entry for a fictional ancestor on your tree with impossible B M & D information.  Then you'll know if somebody copies it.

See post #433 by davidft, where he say's, and I agree ;
 

n the past there have been people on here who openly admitted to putting "rubbish" on their trees so that anyone copying it would get just that, rubbish!

And these are people who are meant to have an interest in genealogy, or at least you would have thought so if they visit a site like this.

[pharmaT]

Easier to make it private.Happy to provide information if I am asked.

I made mine private for a whole list of reasons (not one of which was not wanting people having my information) but then I was called selfish, ignorant and an information thief (I have NEVER used another person's tree as my source).

The other day I found a record on Ancestry for specific ancestor.  When I went to attach it my screen jumped when I went to click on the right person.  So I accidently attached the record to the wrong person.  I noticed right away but I could easily have had an 'impossible event' on my tree despite doing what I consider proper research.  I have only just started attaching my source to my Ancestry tree I hadn't bothered but felt really guilty due to comments about unsourced trees.  I have always had the sources, well I've had each source before I added the person to the tree.  I have to do it in batches because it is tedious.  A large proportion of my sources I have to free type as a new source because I have got them from elsewhere other than Ancestry.  I am currently working on counting how any sources I have which is also tedious so may take all year. BTW I have no idea how many are enough, hopefully I have enough, I nearly deleted every single bit of my research and bin everything else last year after being told I hadn't done it properly.