Genealogy Chat

By the time I joined this site I had about 1,000 people in my Tree and I had researched my Mother's line back for about 300 years. I made contact with a 6th cousin who provided me with a Tree going back another 200 years, which I have since ben going through and checking. I regularly receive Trees from other descendants of these early ancestors which I add on. The information I receive is not always accurate, but I consider it to be a Route Map or Guide to help me to check and confirm what they gave me. When I share what info I have I tell the recipient this so that they too, hopefully, will check. Unfortunately not all my Contacts follow up after they have received my information so I seldom know if others have found errors. I wish they would.

Get this - I had one man email me saying he 'collects surnames', and could he copy mine down. What's that all about?!

Jennie I can full understand your frusration and anger, One contact i had found on GR had my dad on her tree,,,but she also assumed that my mum was born at the same time and in the same area,,,in fact there were over 200 miles and 13 years between them, It took a couple of e-mails before she corrected it,, I should know when and where my mum was born for gods sake,,! Another link to my husbands side had 2 x great grandfathers d-ob completly wrong but then argued with me that as it was passed onto her by someone else , it MUST be right, As i have the actual certificate,,i know which is the correct date and which isnt, Some people,,,,,!!!

I don't allow access to my tree unless I know that there is a connection, had one chap contacted me recently as three names came up in 'Hot Matches' and he told me that he just adds names and has thousands of people in his tree, he let me look at his tree, I am not able to find a connection and not able to see how he got these names that do match and they are the same people on his tree as mine, do some people just like adding names, like many I have to prove they are mine then add them to my tree, isn't that is what genealogy is all about?. have a good day everyone Pam

I fully understand your anger and frustration about errors as well as 'wanting to do your own tree using your own research' but sometimes this is not possible. Since 1967 I have been stuck on my wife's father's line. All I knew was his mother's name. This year, through 'Genes' I contacted a very kind person [Evelyn], who had the same name on her tree. Since then I have met Eve and have found out SO much information re the family. We traded information [and still do] as when I found out info from Eve, I was able to research things at the Colingdale library [as I have a British Library readers card] and supply background info that is not easily available. There is a sizable network of individuals researching the same line, and when we discover even the slightest thing, we email 'the group' to seek their opinions and verification. As to the information, I recheck it [although in this case], everything I have been provided with is 100% accurate. [Thanks Eve] There have been other times when I have been given info and I am unsure BUT I recheck ALL info before I accept it. The IGI I find a valuable point of reference [I am talking about the extraction programme here] but I still check it out incase of inputting errors. Even the info provided by LDS members I recheck to see if it is correct. If anyone wishes to provide me with info, I accept it at face value. After checking it out, I accept or reject and if I reject it, I let the individual know why. In the 1970's I came to a brick wall having found 2 Jane's born within a 5 yr period. Last yr, through genes, I was able to smash that wall with the thanks of a young lady, Marion. Even then, it appears that we may have taken a slight 'wrong turn' later on with her GF but it was easily sorted thanks to another Genes member. This is what it's all about the making of mistakes, correcting the mistakes AND helping one another BUT at the end of the day, if I was to try and stay on my own, I would be no further forward than I was in the 1970's on some lines. Alan

Christine No, you could never annoy me as I know from reading your posts how accurate you are. It isn't that I don't expect people to make mistakes - I certainly do - but what I object to is the type of 'tree' I was sent that was full of mistakes that I have seen elsewhere so it was obviously not researched by my contact but just copied. My surname is unique to my county, Lincolnshire. Everyone with my name is related to me and so it makes it easier to get things correct. Jennie

I may well pass on info which is incorrect - but I try to indicate where it came from, so that the reader can tell whether it's from certs, or censuses, or from other people's research, or whatever. I feel that it's worth passing on (subject to suitable editing out of anything potentially sensitive, such as living names) in that state, so that the recipient has as much info as I do. They can then go on and check for themselves. I often transpose characters when I'm typing or writing (and have a number of tricks for spotting numerical errors in accounting, to try to combat the problems that that generates!). The difficulty is that you can't really proof-read your own work very reliably: you just see what is meant to be there, and not what is actually there. I can see that I could very easily annoy you both - but with the best of intentions! Christine

Thanks Snowdrops for your sympathy. I'm beginning to cool down now apart from the time its taking doing anything on this site. My 'wheel of death' is whirling forever!! Jennie

Oooooh Jennie, I can feel your anger for you. It's bad enough when they make mistakes which you know are wrong (in their tree), but for them to give you your own tree and it be wrong - what are they on? Unfortunately not everyone is that bothered about checking the facts and figures and they just add any information given to them willy nilly and they in turn pass it along. This is how 1) errors are passed on so readily and 2) how people get so many ancestors in their trees so quickly. Just ignore them Jennie, as long as you know what you're putting in your tree is right let them get on with it.

Thanks Merry I just wonder why people like him bother doing their tree at all. I don't think it's my day today as I keep getting the 'Traffic Jam' sign on here every time I click on something so I think I will do some old-fashioned paperwork!! Jennie

Fancy sending it to YOU with so many mistakes too!! You would have thought that even if he had taken the info from someone else without checking it, he wouldn't send it on to someone on that line without checking it first. Otherwise it makes him look a complete plonker!! Absolutely no point in him telling you any other info as you won't believe it! I had someone send me their tree with themselves on it. I compared it to my own version of their line and it matched up, all except the date of birth of the person sending me the tree. I assumed I had made a typo with the GRO record, but when I checked it, I found they had reversed the figures for their OWN date of birth!!! lol Merry

Yesterday I made contact with someone whose g grandmother was sister to my g grandmother. Great, I thought, a third cousin. He said he would send me a 3 page pdf of info, (I didn't ask for it) which I received today and I wish I hadn't. Because we are so closely related he had my family on there, my granddad, his siblings and descendants. I cannot believe how many errors there were. There were so many mistakes I couldn't bear reading it all. I know he must have copied some details from others as there is one mistake that I see all the time elsewhere - my g uncle's middle name. Why don't people bother to check registrations etc to get the right details? I never rely on other peoples research as I want to do it all myself as that is the fun part and I feel I owe it to my ancestors. I am so disappointed that he obviously is sending all this wrong info out about my family. Sorry for going on but my blood is rushing round at the moment and I thought it would help me to calm down. Jennie