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It's amazing just how much poor research, (incorrect guesswork), is starting to multiply itself on other peoples trees.
I have an ancestor born 1813 in a small Essex village who apart from his baptism in parish records completely disappears despite extensive research. I expect we all probably have dead ends like this. I am not asking anyone to try to trace him.
I also maintain a tree on Ancestry where I keep getting hints about this relative. Fortunately on Ancestry it is possible to look at another persons public tree. I found that another "researcher???" who had hit a dead end with a relative with the same name and born about the same time, had simply decided the two people must be the same person.
Fortunately the other researchers dead end relative was shown in several censi living in Westminster, London where they also stated he was born. London birth and marriage records also record this person baptism and wedding including the name of his parents and spouse. The parents are not the same as my missing relative and even the surname he gave to the spouse is incorrect. In fact there is no marriage on record anywhere between the two people he named and circumstances mean they must have married after 1837. As it is not possible to deduce the spouces surname, her surname appears to have been invented.
I did send a message via Ancestry indicating the errors that has been ignored for over a year. What is now happening is relatives connected to this individuals tree and relatives connected to my tree are copying this incorrect information into their own trees without checking. With the passage of time, even more people are copying more and more incorrect information. This is probably on the basis, that if information is in someone elses tree, they must know something I do not know.
Consequently, I get lots of Ancestry hints every time someone copies this incorrect information. It does seem to me that with the passage of time, 20-30 years hence, there will be a multiplicity of incorrect information in trees which will become gospel truth because everyone else has it.
All of this because one "researcher???" could not be bothered to check facts and made a wild guess.
Michael
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Very true
It always amazes me how people will "acquire" names without checking them out very carefully!
Nobody is added to my tree unless I have done the checking .......... I may make a note in the appropriate place that so-and-so might be conencted, just so I don't lose the information.
In my case, the owner of a One Name Study Group managed to lose my father ....... and replaced him with my brother who seemingly married my mother and then they had me
The fact that my brother was 27 years younger than his "wife" apparently made no difference to him
THEN he arranged a conference for people with that surname in about 2002 ..... and made a cd to hand out to them.
The family spread all around the world during the 19thC, having emigrated from the UK to Australia and then to the US, and also directly to the US
I got ahold of that cd about 4 years ago ....... which is how I know what has happened.
He has since been removed from the ONSG because he refused to answer my queries, or to respond to the Registrar.
I am in contact with one person in the US who is maintaining the family records, and she has changed it in her records
BUT there are unknown numbers of those cds out there.
to make matters worse ...................... he was my own second cousin, who should have known that he had an Uncle Jimmie not an Unlce Frank!!
sylvia
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Aha, I've had the same thing happen on Ancestry. I merrily put on one branch of a family who were easily recognisable from the nine children and that they were living in London but dad was born in Hull.
I also got quite a few hints for this family and I am stuck at early 1800s so eager to have a look. All of the hints had the maiden name of the mother as Hunter when I had Parkes. Now I admit I have never found a marriage but I have bought two of the children's birth certificates so I'm confident I am correct.
Like you I messaged the person who had the most matches with me and explained what I had above. They did reply but weren't convinced because there was no marriage to prove the maiden name was Parkes. For some reason I found this frustrating and searched the marriage index for Elizabeth Hunter and found that she was onthe same page as a man of the same name as my ancestor Joseph. However when you go to the parish records you find that this is purely coincidence, the Elizabeth and Joseph in the parish records did not mary each other, besides which the other personal details about them were wrong.
Feeling much better and happy to help someone putting in years of research into the wrong family I messaged my findings.
That was about 6 months ago and nothing has changed so there are about 6 trees that I can see (obviously probably more) that are tracing the wrong lines and I've decided I won't bother contacting people about mistakes again. People seem to be particularly sensitive to unmarried parents and would rather be blissfully ignorant.
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I only have a tree on here, but this April I found someone on Ancestry that had the same family members on their tree. I contacted them via someone else and they they gave me access to their tree. They have added two generations that I know to be wrong and have even provided them with 'evidence' that it is wrong but they have put the 'eveidence' onto their tree, but no explantion as to why it is there.
They have found the parents and grandparents of my husbands 3 x gr grandad. The things I have sent them prove that their info is wrong, but they have changed nothing. I asked them where they found their info and they said they were given it.
I now share nothing with them as they just want to make their tree nice and big but not check their info.
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Like Polly stated, I have a sister of one of my paternal ancestors back in the 1700's who apparently had 4 base children, her decendants do not seem to like this and have given her a husband from the next generation to make it look legitimate. Their problem, only trouble about a dozen people have copied it. I do not bother telling them, but put comments on their tree with correct information, the ball is then in their court. One did get in contact and has altered his tree.
Carol
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