Genealogy Chat

I think it depends on the types of proof you are using. Assuming 1841 onwards, I tend to cross reference certificates against as many censuses as possible (2 census years is a good indicator - not least because it has a knack of throwing up other family members). I try to find common information between the sources. I also attempt to find alternative people, assess their information and try to eliminate them from my enquiries so as to strengthen my assertion on my preferred choice. If I'm confident that the others are wrong and that I have sufficient facts to make my story stick I'll add them (but may caveat them if a seed of doubt still remains). Don't ask me about pre 1837 - I haven't got there yet! Anyone else? Jonathan

At what stage does everyone accept that a name should be added to their tree? I won't add anyone to my tree without at least 2 items of proof and preferably 3 and I don't mean the IGI !!! I would be interested to know at what point others make their decision to include someone on their trees. Eileen

I reckon years from now our great-grandchildren will be using DNA to check out the family trees we've worked so hard on! Then, I reckon most of our family trees would suffer from Dutch Elm Disease!!!

I agree with the comment that you can never be certain about your tree and that you go by common knowledge...my husbands great grandmother gave birth to her last daughter,Helen, when she was 46 and her husband 50 - 15 years after her previous daughter. It was thought, and sometimes the opinion expressed, that Helen was the child of her eldest daughter. It is something that can never be proved. Helen married and had children and should her decendants be tracing their family tree they will never know that they may be wrong...their family is our family...but there are many twists and turns !!!!

Oh, yes, check check check! I had a contact from someone who had their tree back to the 1500s and claimed my information fitted. The name we shared was not on his descendant branch, but was a sibling. I can only presume that this was why he failed to notice that the man he had down as my direct descendant died aged two. He must have just seen the name, realised the dates fitted and the villages were nearby and assumed it was the same bloke! Warning bells should have started ringing when he told me that one of my relatives had married when she never did (I have census returns and certificates to prove it). Oddly enough I haven't heard anything from him since I pointed out this mistake.

Hi, I think there is a difference between genealogy and Family History. To be really sure we're chasing the right genes maybe we should only research the female line. If a child was a member of the family that's good enough for me. Only his mother would be likely to know any different! Gwynne

Brenda, there is a space for "additional" information on the GR tree, where I put such comments as "this information not proven" or, "this document not seen by me", whilst I am in the process of verifying/denying something - its easy to go back and delete it or update it when you have proof.

At the end of the day you cannot prove any parent child relationship unless you were at the conception. (For example my g gran gave birth to her dead husbands son and daughter 10 months after his death)

Nobody can ever be 100% certain about their trees. Our certainties are based on the sources we are aware of: there may always additional sources to disprove our theories. The trouble is that we usually don't know what we don't know. The software I use for my master tree allows you to allocate both a source and a degree of certainty to each new piece of information received, which means you can add second hand information that you can check later. The GR trees are so basic that such subtleties are lost. On the basis that a tree is an hypothesis, it seems perfectly reasonable to submit it to the scrutiny of others. All seekers after truth will accept just criticism! Brenda

I quite agree, the excitement is going back another generation and finding the right people. The downside (as I've found) is that in your passion to go back and back in a hurry, you don't write up all the details of the stages and generations you've been through. You quickly forget what stages you actually went through. Seems laborious, but extensive note-taking of your methods is essential I guess what I'm saying is that it's a good idea to put their proposed names on the internet but not wildly (e.g. just because they have the same surname and are from the same time) but rather with some degree of credibility (ages, other family members, occupations), call it an educated guess. If they're wrong and someone else knows better, great! Everyone gains from the shared knowledge.

I think that's fine, Jonathan, as long as everyone who contacts you is aware of how you've added that person to your tree. I think part of the fun is in making connections and assumptions.....and, even better, being able to prove later that you were right. Only problem I have is when people (less thorough than yourself) turn their assumptions into a 'definite' and I end up having to do serious tree surgery to sort out the facts!!

Jonathan, it always looks like that on the first message. To get it to format, just put see below on your first message, then click add reply and put the formatted version. This will keep the paragraphs.

Nice to know that GC removed my paragraphs - now it looks like a garbled mess!

This follows a previous thread but I'd provide a slightly different angle. Of course, for my own peace of mind I like to make sure that the everyone I name in my tree is related to me (or that their spouses are). This usually means cross-referencing different sources. However, you have to admit that quite regularly you have to make a judgment on whether you have the right person. You look at all the different sources (census, BMDs, IGI etc) but, because you are further back than any living member of your family has knowledge of, your are never rock solid sure. Instead you have to work on the basis that you are ‘almost certainly’ correct or, even worse, ‘probably’ correct. This is somewhat influenced by how common or rare the surname is. One part of my tree has a very unusual surname so research was easy. Another part concerns Jones’s in Wales. I am faced with having to gather info from many sources and to make a qualified judgment on the person I have found. Everything suggests that she is the correct person – by name of father, father’s occupation, location, age and that the servant who works for her future husband has the same name as her father (and so probably the way that they met). So you surmise that this must surely be her but you realise that there is always an element of doubt – particularly as there is an alternative with a father of the same name (but different occupation and slightly further away). In such circumstances there is a strong argument to publish it on the internet anyway in the hope that someone will either confirm or challenge it. After all, this is the basis of advancements in medical science. You publish your findings and wait for someone to challenge it (the ‘all rabbits are white’ principle). Last week I made contact with someone who published their family tree and included (as a sister of their ancestor) my great, great grandmother. Problem was, they’d listed her as married to someone else. I contacted him and showed him my evidence (certificates) and he admitted that it was information given to him by someone else and he’d been having doubts about its reliability. The fact that he’d published it at least offered the opportunity for someone to comment on it. Now he has the correct info (and a whole new branch of his family tree) and likewise for me. I’ve also found a new distant relative! One useful tip where you have an element of doubt is to attach caveats, perhaps even a score out of 10 on how confident you are about this person. You justify this by writing for your own benefit and others, what information agrees with your supposition and what disagrees. I found it helped crystallise my thoughts. So I say if in doubt, put it out on the internet and see if you get a response – you have nothing to lose and everything to gain!!!