Terrible Trees On Ancestry

[stitchwitch]

Yep, after my latest experience of trying to help someone sort out what he's done to his family tree, that's it, I'm done.

Like most of you, I followed one of those "other trees" hints out of curiosity. Up popped a section of my immediate paternal tree. Well, ish. First thing that caught my eye was that my mother had been deceased for over 20 years. This seemed particularly odd since we speak regularly and I visit every few weeks. Right name wrong woman. I emailed him.

Then I noticed that of my fathers four brothers, one was in twice and another three times. OK. Another email.

Then I spotted that Grandad's elder brother was also there twice. This was getting silly. I had a wander round his tree, climbed up and down it for a bit, and emailed asking what his connection was, saying where I fit in (he hadn't swiped me from anywhere because , clearly, I too am still extant), and suggesting he check his tree against mine and adjust accordingly. After all, apart from Great-Uncle Fred, all the ones he had a problem with were people I know/ knew personally.

What I got back were two emails with lists clearly generated by Ancestry, with few or no line breaks in. TLDNR but after a bit I fathomed out that the link was said Great-Uncle Fred's wife. Her side's not really interesting to me so I kicked it into the long grass. My decision was helped by his implication that I'd got them all wrong, since he does all his "research" on Ancestry alone, without recourse to other sources or (clearly) obtaining certificates. He appeared to doubt that I know whether my mother is interred down South or alive and kicking up in the Pennines. Really?

[potters off shaking head]

Stitch

[pharmaT]

Doesn't surprise me since I couldn't even convince someone that I'm alive.

[stitchwitch]

Doesn't surprise me since I couldn't even convince someone that I'm alive.

ROTFL 

[pinefamily]

Rootschat beyond the grave, pharmaT?
Any chance you could speak to some of my problem ancestors?

[Nifty1]

I note that the member who complained about silver haired people has had considerable help from such members.

(I get my roots done about once every 5-6 weeks    )

Ok. What else does one write about on roots chat?

[Rosinish]

I note that the member who complained about silver haired people has had considerable help from such members.

(I get my roots done about once every 5-6 weeks    )

Ok. What else does one write about on roots chat?

It will be a Wig for me as I'm pulling my hair out with the errors I'm finding on trees which can easily be verified on SP!

Annie

[Gadget]

I've just found another one today (well more than one as the info has been copied by others).

I was looking for a cousin who we lost touch with and I had heard that she moved to Canada and died there about 10 years ago.  I did some searches on Ancestry and found her parents on various trees. This led me to the grandmother, my mother's sister.

Lo and behold other trees popped up in a listing; giving all my mother's siblings. Their detail seemed to correspond to more or less what I know. However, my mother was supposed to have married my father in the Isle of Man. She is recorded as dying in Cheshire in 2003 and Texas in 2005. Neither the dates nor places are correct.  My father's dates and locations are also wrong. 

These errors are then repeated in various combinations in 5 other trees.

I don't usually check Ancestry trees for my parents as I know about them and I  have all their registration certificates and baptism/marriage records.

I wonder where/when I will be registered as born, married and died in future trees 

Gadget

[Mart 'n' Al]

Firstly I am not expressing a view in this following comment, just pointing out a few things. Sometimes when I find a tree that has tens of thousands of people in it, I think is that person obsessed, or just copying other records, or possibly committed and well-organized. In another thread, I was saying that I recently realised that to make sense of some of the bizarre names I find amongst my 8000 matches on my heritage, I realised that I need to know all of the 5th generation descendants of my ancestors. At my age, a mere 62 I might add, I realise that it is impractical to discover all of these fifth descendants of my 5th great-grandparents. If I find somebody who has done a lot of research into the descendents of one of my ancestors, there is a strong argument for accepting their research.

I'm not trying to put the cat among the pigeons, just expressing two sides of a discussion.

Martin

[RJ_Paton]

Firstly I am not expressing a view in this following comment, just pointing out a few things. Sometimes when I find a tree that has tens of thousands of people in it, I think is that person obsessed, or just copying other records, or possibly committed and well-organized. In another thread, I was saying that I recently realised that to make sense of some of the bizarre names I find amongst my 8000 matches on my heritage, I realised that I need to know all of the 5th generation descendants of my ancestors. At my age, a mere 62 I might add, I realise that it is impractical to discover all of these fifth descendants of my 5th great-grandparents. If I find somebody who has done a lot of research into the descendents of one of my ancestors, there is a strong argument for accepting their research.

I'm not trying to put the cat among the pigeons, just expressing two sides of a discussion.

Martin

There is nothing wrong in accepting the research done by another person PROVIDED you are confident that the research has been done well and can be verified although even then I would be double checking the sources.
For example one tree I have seen has one of my main lines back roughly 400 years more than I have managed to get and each individual appears well researched but when examined closely it breaks down when you see children born to parents in their 70's & 80's in 15th century Scotland and marriages where the bride was only weeks old. It then becomes simply a collection of named individuals with the same surname.
Another tree has that same line connected to a Mr & Mrs Odin of Valhalla with what appears numerous sources attached to every single individual - the majority of which I find very dubious. (either that or the God of Thunder is really  my great x50 uncle  )