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I think we can all say that we've posted incorrect data...
I've made my share of unintentional boo-boos. I never meant to make an error, of course, but it happens sometimes.
Here's one of the worst sins I committed recently, but it wasn't really my fault:
About 5 years ago I found an obituary for a distant male cousin who died in 1985. I used the info from his obit to add his his wife and four children to my tree. Other people on ancestry.com used that info too and duplicated my research.
Then low and behold in October 2012 I discovered another fascinating obit for another family member who had just died. It was his first wife. (What first wife? I never knew she existed.)
Long story short, the first wife's obit should have read...
"Mrs. Smith married Tom Smith in 1957. They divorced in 1973...........AND then he married that b-tch who cut me out of his obituary in 1985 and claimed my three children as her own children, thus screwing up everyone's family tree on ancestry.com."
Under the circumstances I did the best I could with the info I had at the time. But when I find these mistakes I promptly correct them.
Except for that tricky Irish DNA. And the sure knowledge that my immigrant ancestor reached the shores of Maryland from London around 1640, and cannot be traced with any accuracy prior to that. Without the DNA, we wouldn't even know that his distant male ancestors were Irish!
I think a lot of people get into genealogy in pursuit of connections with greatness. I've been asked to look at the family tree of one of my sister's in-laws; give it a going over with a fresh, non-committed eye to see if I can find any errors. Sister's last admonishment before connecting me to the tree was "my mother-in-law swears she's a Mayflower descendant. Make sure you do this right so she doesn't get p*ssed!" I told her I couldn't promise anything except to double-check their records for veracity. If Sister's MIL turns out to actually be the descendant of an indentured servant, rather that Priscilla Mullins, or whoever, she's just going to have to deal.
My initial foray was to pursue the family legend that we are connected to the Lee family in Virginia - the progenitors of Light Horse Harry and Robert E. The older folks in the family rattled off some sort of cousin connection; I was just a kid back then and never paid much attention to the conversations of grandparents and old lady aunts. As an adult, with all the old folks dying off and the question never clearly answered, I subscribed to Ancestry and started the search. We are related to a Lee family in Virginia/Maryland; I did come across a county history that detailed in a citizen biography that the person (direct kin to me) was "a descendant of the famous Lee family of Virginia," but I could not find any direct, verifiable information. I did come across an old, old map that outlined the boundaries of the plantation owned by that Lee family member, that's information that apparently no other researchers on Ancestry have (though they quickly scooped the record from my tree ), but it may take a trip to that part of the country, and scouring records that no one has had a chance to take a look at - or they might not exist. This may remain a mystery that I'll never be able to solve.
Luckily, I don't consider the time wasted, even running down a family legend that has yet to be solved. My genealogy hobby has been one of the most interesting pursuits of my life.
Last edited by silverwing; 06-06-2013 at 10:58 AM..
When FamilySearch made its Family Tree available to the general public this spring I started to add the information I researched to what was already shown in profiles created by others, created new profiles, merged duplicate profiles, corrected incorrect information, linked to historical record sources both the information I had added as well as the information that others had added. When I thought certain relationships were somewhat questionable but couldn't prove it, I started a discussion thread in the profile (love that feature!) explaining my reasoning and posting links to backup my reasoning if I could.
As anyone can revise a profile in the Family Tree, I can't help wondering what will happen if disagreements occur when some of the idiots described in this thread ever discover the FamilySearch Family Tree and start revising profiles with their incorrect information. I can imagine revision wars occurring with someone making revisions, someone revising back... and the cycle continuing.
By the way, I love the FamilySearch Family Tree! Not many people have added sources to the information they added though. I didn't find that a problem. I considered their information as "leads", not factual. I was pleasantly surprised how often I was able to verify information by searching the pre-1800 historical records at FamilySearch. In the last two months I've added several hundred links to historical sources which back-up information others have added to profiles or which back up new profiles of persons I've been able to add only because of their information leads.
Back, back back - we're well before 1,000 A.D. by now - and it became obvious that the chart-maker had drawn upon the old Norse Eddas, which were sagas passed along via oral narration. Back, back, back - and suddenly, there were the progenitors of our line!!! What a discovery!!
Odin and Freyja of Asgaard.
Yup, I'm descended from Norse gods.
Except for that tricky Irish DNA. And the sure knowledge that my immigrant ancestor reached the shores of Maryland from London around 1640, and cannot be traced with any accuracy prior to that. Without the DNA, we wouldn't even know that his distant male ancestors were Irish!
Oh, yeah, years ago I found a tree for some of our CT family that eventually linked back to Odin and Freya.
I once knew someone who claimed she'd found her family tree online back to Adam and Eve.
Should we bother? There are too many erroneous trees to get everyone who doesn't care about accuracy to update or change their trees. It's a tyranny of numbers. Family trees with people having children years before they themselves were born will be deemed ridiculous by any reasonable observers anyway. Meanwhile we can fight inaccuracy with accuracy in our own trees.
I only contact people about errors when they seem to be active researchers who just made a mistake. The ones which are clearly the result of people just carelessly adding records without even looking I don't bother to chase down - too many of them and it's too likely they won't care/aren't active anyway.
One of my favorite "discoveries" of this sort was a long, long chart for one of my ancestral families, a colonial Maryland family long believed to be of Norman French ancestry, until recent DNA research revealed them to be Irish (way, way back Irish). The chart was reasonably correct in more recent, American generations, but as I went back, it became more and more convoluted. Knights, ladies, earls, dukes and duchesses all started to appear. Okay, maybe - families tend to marry down over the generations in most cases, if they descend from younger siblings. From England, it moved over into Normandy, right around 1066, just as it should (if we were truly Anglo-Norman).
So here were all these nobles, then suddenly the line switched from Norman French - to Viking. Well, the Vikings DID get around, and France was one of their hangouts, so it could have been...
Back, back back - we're well before 1,000 A.D. by now - and it became obvious that the chart-maker had drawn upon the old Norse Eddas, which were sagas passed along via oral narration. Back, back, back - and suddenly, there were the progenitors of our line!!! What a discovery!!
Odin and Freyja of Asgaard.
Yup, I'm descended from Norse gods.
Except for that tricky Irish DNA. And the sure knowledge that my immigrant ancestor reached the shores of Maryland from London around 1640, and cannot be traced with any accuracy prior to that. Without the DNA, we wouldn't even know that his distant male ancestors were Irish!
I found one like that today!
It included "Mrs. Xanthus 68 GGM", born and died in Troy Greece and Ptolemy V of Egypt.
Back, back back - we're well before 1,000 A.D. by now - and it became obvious that the chart-maker had drawn upon the old Norse Eddas, which were sagas passed along via oral narration. Back, back, back - and suddenly, there were the progenitors of our line!!! What a discovery!!
Odin and Freyja of Asgaard.
Yup, I'm descended from Norse gods.
I've also seen Thor. That cracked me up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bjh
Oh, yeah, years ago I found a tree for some of our CT family that eventually linked back to Odin and Freya.
I once knew someone who claimed she'd found her family tree online back to Adam and Eve.
Was that me? 'Cause I was joking. I say all the time I can go back about 10 generations, but I descended from Adam and Eve.... it's that part in the middle I'm clueless on....
Was that me? 'Cause I was joking. I say all the time I can go back about 10 generations, but I descended from Adam and Eve.... it's that part in the middle I'm clueless on....
Nah, not you. A nice, but not very bright woman I knew personally a couple of years ago.
Btw Thor rocks. Can cleave a tree with one throw of his hammer, they say.
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), but it may take a trip to that part of the country, and scouring records that no one has had a chance to take a look at - or they might not exist. This may remain a mystery that I'll never be able to solve. 
