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I am just wasting time online this evening and am checking matches on Ancestry. I came across a 5th-6th cousin who has 118,000 plus people in her tree. She hasn't logged in for three years, so I don't know how accurate this could be, or how many duplicates she may have, but oh my goodness. I have 9k, but I've been working on mine since 2004.
I saw a 90,000 person tree from one of my distant cousins, looks like they started in 2002 and are still active today. I have also seen some low 30's and a bunch in the teens, from 14,000 to 18,000. I was thinking, even if half the tree is wrong, that still takes some dedication and time regardless!
I'm up to 530 or so, and started 6 months ago, but only do direct lineage, their siblings and the siblings spouses, no offspring of the siblings, except for my 20 1st cousins.
I saw a 90,000 person tree from one of my distant cousins, looks like they started in 2002 and are still active today. I have also seen some low 30's and a bunch in the teens, from 14,000 to 18,000. I was thinking, even if half the tree is wrong, that still takes some dedication and time regardless!
I'm up to 530 or so, and started 6 months ago, but only do direct lineage, their siblings and the siblings spouses, no offspring of the siblings, except for my 20 1st cousins.
I only go off into the distant distant cousins when I search and and find someone exciting shared the same ancestor. I think that’s why mine is so enourmous.
I don't pay attention to how large other ancestry trees are. My own is about 45,000. I've cleaned out duplicates a couple of times and try to be really careful not to add them now, so I'm sure there are some mistakes, but I think its pretty accurate.
I work all my lines as far as I can take them with reasonable accuracy.
I've received great info from 2-5th cousins sometimes removed a time or two lol. I've also been able to provide info to the same degree of cousins. I frequently find info in distant cousins trees that relates to my direct ancestors that would never come up in a hint or a search. More than once I have broken through a brick wall that way.
I don't add relatives of spouses unless I know or suspect they are also cousins.
Majority of my lines are either thoroughly documented with paper trails or they are a brick wall beyond 2nd or 3rd grandparents. If I only worked direct ancestors, I would be bored or very frustrated after a while.
I've received great info from 2-5th cousins sometimes removed a time or two lol. I've also been able to provide info to the same degree of cousins. I frequently find info in distant cousins trees that relates to my direct ancestors that would never come up in a hint or a search. More than once I have broken through a brick wall that way.
What type of questions connect you to the more distant cousins? I am working with two distant cousins right now to find our common ancestor and we think we've found the connection, but we're still at a complete loss and are going in circles since it's 5-8 generations that most likely connect us. I've reached out to several distant cousins and say I'm looking for connections to so and so and I either don't get an answer or I get a response of "Nope, don't know that name, good luck!" There are about 3-4 on my dad's side that I'm lost on and basically most of my mother's side is a mystery, especially the Irish/Scottish/Canadian one I have posted about.
I am just wasting time online this evening and am checking matches on Ancestry. I came across a 5th-6th cousin who has 118,000 plus people in her tree. She hasn't logged in for three years, so I don't know how accurate this could be, or how many duplicates she may have, but oh my goodness. I have 9k, but I've been working on mine since 2004.
I wonder about that, too. I did see a tree with 200,000+ and I was very suspicious about it.
I did not look at it, because I had previously looked at a couple of trees in the 70,000 to 120,000 range and there was nothing there.
What I mean is, you have a tree with 78,000 people and 81,000 documents.
What does that tell you? It means they just copied other people's research. The vast majority of the people in the tree have one document only, and that is a link to other trees on Ancestry.
I have 14,000 people with 36,000 documents, so roughly each person has 3 records. I've been doing that since July last year. I thought I would end up with 15,000 but it's looking now like it will be over 20,000, possibly 30,000 or more and that's just 1/4th of my family, because those 14,000 are just one of my grandfather's ancestors and I'm only at the 2nd and 3rd great-grands.
My grandfather's wife's side won't be nearly as large, because I already know I'm going to run into a lot of brick walls very early on. The one is from Scotland, and his name is so generically common it's almost literally John Smith.
What type of questions connect you to the more distant cousins? I am working with two distant cousins right now to find our common ancestor and we think we've found the connection, but we're still at a complete loss and are going in circles since it's 5-8 generations that most likely connect us. I've reached out to several distant cousins and say I'm looking for connections to so and so and I either don't get an answer or I get a response of "Nope, don't know that name, good luck!" There are about 3-4 on my dad's side that I'm lost on and basically most of my mother's side is a mystery, especially the Irish/Scottish/Canadian one I have posted about.
Usually, if I contact someone, I know or suspect who our common ancestor is. I just say I saw you have my 2nd great grandfather so and so in your tree and if they answer the convo proceeds from there. Those are generally the same type of queries I receive.
Are you talking about working from DNA matches? That's different. I haven't DNA tested yet and am working from actual documented trees that people have fleshed out.
I had one cousin contact me because she saw her father and mother in my tree. Her father was my grandmother's nephew. Her father was put in an orphanage as a child and he also had a drinking problem and would never give her info about his family if he knew/remembered it.
I hadn't worked that line on Ancestry at the time, but when she contacted me, I was able to look at the handwritten notes my grandmother gave my Aunt that I got a copy of. They were primarily to document another line, but they also had info on the line my cousin was interested in. If I hadn't put my grandmother's brothers and their children/grandchildren where I had them, not sure how she would ever have come up with this info. Her paternal line was extensively researched back to colonial times, but she was missing the link to it. Talking to me handed it to her on a silver platter.
On top of that, my father knew her grandfather and after he told me a few stories that I passed on to her, I hooked them up and he talked to her personally. How priceless is that, to find someone who knew a grandfather you never did?
I never would have unraveled the story of one set of 2nd great grandparents with three marriages and sets of children between them without comparing notes with distant cousins of all three sets of children.
Usually, if I contact someone, I know or suspect who our common ancestor is. I just say I saw you have my 2nd great grandfather so and so in your tree and if they answer the convo proceeds from there. Those are generally the same type of queries I receive.
Are you talking about working from DNA matches? That's different. I haven't DNA tested yet and am working from actual documented trees that people have fleshed out.
I had one cousin contact me because she saw her father and mother in my tree. Her father was my grandmother's nephew. Her father was put in an orphanage as a child and he also had a drinking problem and would never give her info about his family if he knew/remembered it.
I hadn't worked that line on Ancestry at the time, but when she contacted me, I was able to look at the handwritten notes my grandmother gave my Aunt that I got a copy of. They were primarily to document another line, but they also had info on the line my cousin was interested in. If I hadn't put my grandmother's brothers and their children/grandchildren where I had them, not sure how she would ever have come up with this info. Her paternal line was extensively researched back to colonial times, but she was missing the link to it. Talking to me handed it to her on a silver platter.
On top of that, my father knew her grandfather and after he told me a few stories that I passed on to her, I hooked them up and he talked to her personally. How priceless is that, to find someone who knew a grandfather you never did?
I never would have unraveled the story of one set of 2nd great grandparents with three marriages and sets of children between them without comparing notes with distant cousins of all three sets of children.
That's a great story. I am working through DNA matches and actually broke down a partial wall this evening through distant cousins' trees. I may reach out tomorrow morning and say about what you said, "I noticed my blah blah blah...was in your tree..." But I've posted before that I don't have great luck in getting messages back. Your response may help in getting better answers.
My 12th cousin's tree as 96097 entries but he hasn't updated it at all since there was a problem
with Rootsweb late 2017.
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