General Chat

That's really what I meant ..................................


to me, one should NEVER blindly take whatever anyone else has posted on a tree without doing your own double, or even triple, checking to ensure that they and you really do have the correct information.


The lack of mention of documentation to me indicates that the tree owner might well not have done that checking, but accepted what someone else has posted.


If nothing else, the recording of a source means that I can find that source and double check that it is indeed correct for the tree, and then determine whether it is correct for my ancestor.

Having a source document recorded is not proof either. I can cite dozens of trees on web sites I have examined in detail quoting mounds of documentation, yet are completely wrong, and by the same token many others without any documentation that I believe to be perfectly correct.

My 'rule of thumb' is not to take anything face value until such time I can check it out to my own satisfaction, nor to rule anything out as fiction either until proved to be so.

Thanks everyone for your help. I have the marriage cert for William it records John as being a labourer. Sarah's parents were witnesses so no help there. I have looked at census records but he does not appear to have lived with them . There is a John ag labourer who appears in a few census records on different farms in the area but without a wife. :-)

sorry, RMS


My rule of thumb is that unless a document is mentioned ........... not necessarily put on the tree ............... then I assume they have just copied the information from another tree.



when you have 6 trees, all with the same information, all showing information on birth year and place taken from censuses, and no mention of baptism ........ then I'm sorry, but I think it has to be left for the viewer to see if they can find documentation before copying over to their own tree.


I found that marriage record for William Moulton, which could save having to buy the actual certificate ........

.......... question really is ......................... did he tell the truth about his father's name?



and who were the witnesses?


The certificate would help there ............... as well as telling us if the putative father was alive or dead and what was his occupation.



All that kind of documentation can be added with very little problem!

"NONE of them have any documentary evidence, so cannot be believed"

How do you know? Maybe they have but haven't figured out how to put it on. Yes, I have a tree on Ancestry but have no documented evidence, so all my hard work and no one is going to believe it????? :-(

there is this record on ancestry




England, Select Cheshire Bishop's Transcripts, 1598-1900 about William Moulton

Name: William Moulton
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Single
Birth Date: 1824
Marriage Date: 29 Sep 1852
Marriage Place: St. Mary on the Hill, Chester, Cheshire, England
Marriage Age: 28
Father: John Moulton
Spouse: Sarah Williams
FHL Film Number: 1655537



father is named as John Moulton ............................................

that's if William told the truth :-)

there are several Public Family Trees on ancestry that have William's father as John


Most of the trees say John was born in 1796, one says 1776



NONE of them have any documentary evidence, so cannot be believed.

for our information ............


Marriages Sep 1852 (>99%)

Moulton William Great Boughton 8a 449
Williams Sarah Great Boughton 8a 449



1871 Census

Name: William Moulton
Age: 45
Estimated birth year: abt 1826
Relation: Head
Spouse's Name: Sarah Moulton
Gender: Male
Where born: Gresford, Denbighshire, Wales
Civil Parish: Eccleston
Town: Eccleston
County/Island: Cheshire
Country: England
Registration district: Chester
Sub-registration district: Chester Castle

William Moulton 45 Ag Lab
Sarah Moulton 43 b.ca 1828, Handbridge, Cheshire
Harriet Moulton 14 b.ca 1857, Eccleston, Cheshire
John Moulton 12 b.ca 1859, Eccleston
Annie Moulton 3 b.ca 1868, Eccleston




when you say you KNOW that William's father is called John ................. how do you "know"?


Do you have the marriage certificate for William and sarah?

It may be that none of them is the correct one.

Basically you need to look for clues such as names of other family members to narrow it down to the most likely.

I presume you have some census information to give you some idea. Often a parent comes to live with the family in later years which can help.

You may have to resign yourself to not finding out which one. Sometime a new clue turns up later which identifies the correct person.

My gt gt grandfather William Moulton was born in Gresford ,Wales between 1822- 1826 and married Sarah Williams from Handbridge . I know his father was John but there are 3 of them in Parish records between 1795 and 1800 . How do I know which is the correct one?