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Accepting other peoples tree searches into your own?

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  • Accepting other peoples tree searches into your own?

    Hello all, been on Ancestry.co.uk and quite a few people have links from their own searches that appear to be linked to mine. Would you take their searches as gospel and link them to yours or still carry on doing searches and buying certificates to be 100% sure its the right person?

  • #2
    ooer well short answer is NO, although I do sometimes add bits then check it out, you would be amazed at some of the things people add without checking,I have had all sorts of strange things in others trees, including sisters married to their own brothers etc.

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    • #3
      Thats what I have been doing and not just directly linking them together. Been looking at their research and checking facts, would then start getting certificates to be really sure its right person(s). Better safe than sorry I think.

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      • #4
        Absolutely not Paul - there are many, many, trees on Ancestry that have glaring mistakes, never mind the less glaring ones. Women having babies in their 70's and sometimes even years after they have died.

        If you find a tree however that looks promising, then why not contact the tree owner and try to find out how they came to these conclusions. If their research has been done well you might find that you can exchange information and even certificate details.
        Last edited by Chrissie Smiff; 01-04-13, 13:18.
        Chrissie passed away in January 2020.

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        • #5
          Hi Paul
          My view is that you should never take anyone else's research as gospel. Always contact the tree owner to check out their sources. By all means use other tree info as a hint & then test it out for yourself to see if it stands up to scrutiny. If you are lucky you will come across other researchers who are willing to share their sources & possible even certificates etc with you. However, even the most diligent researchers make mistakes & some "research" out there is just downright sloppy, copying from other people's incorrect trees & perpetuating errors. I have seen many an ancestry tree where someone is "married" several years after their death, or to their sister or whatever! This is something I really don't like about the ancestry set up, it makes it far too easy to just link to someone else's research & accept it as accurate.
          And in any case, if you don't do the research yourself you miss out on all the fun in my view
          Happy hunting!
          Sandra

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          • #6
            Can see where mistakes appear, even on Ancestry.co.uk in the census inputs the amount of times you can see the names differ from the actual census to the person who has transcribed the image.

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            • #7
              I only use other's research as a guide, and confirm everything myself before putting it in my tree.

              Other's research can be very useful, especially for post 1911 families. They may have access to living relatives who you have never met, and the information from these can be priceless.

              I had not been able to trace my 3 x ggf for many years after the birth of my 2 x ggf. It was only by looking at someone else's tree that I found he had gone to Australia and had a whole second family! The Aussie contact knew nothing of his family here either. However we both checked each other's research before admitting it, but that in itself was a bonus as I got my work checked for free!
              Co-ordinator for PoW project Southern Region 08
              Researching:- Wieland, Habbes, Saettele, Bowinkelmann, Freckenhauser, Dilger in Germany
              Kincaid, Warner, Hitchman, Collie, Curtis, Pocock, Stanley, Nixey, McDonald in London, Berks, Bucks, Oxon and West Midlands
              Drake, Beals, Pritchard in Kent
              Devine in Ireland

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              • #8
                Originally posted by paul67 View Post
                Hello all, been on Ancestry.co.uk and quite a few people have links from their own searches that appear to be linked to mine. Would you take their searches as gospel and link them to yours or still carry on doing searches and buying certificates to be 100% sure its the right person?
                ..................... Most definitely NOT! Nor would I go along with the answer "But everybody's got that on their tree so I know it's right" ... probably because "everyone" has relied on someone else's research and followed suit, rather than trying to find out for themselves. I've come across some horrors e.g one man having 3 wives and (their children) in the same time span and appearing in 3 different places in the same census, when it's quite apparent from the birth places in the census return that there are 3 different men with the same name. That's bad enough, but someone else has copied it and can't see that there's something wrong!
                Janet in Yorkshire



                Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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                • #9
                  I never believe anything unless i find it for my self and so only have myself to blame if it is wrong.Tho I am prepared to accept hints or suggestions from other trees and check them out. someone got hold of some of my research and his tree is up on ancestry with a man married to his mother in law as he copied it wrongly from the word document. ha ha ha
                  Angelina

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                  • #10
                    Poor little Mary Trafford died aged 4 in 1736. It's in the original parish register, along with the names of her parents. It is also, quite unusually for a death, on the IGI.

                    19 people are descended from her. Many of them have contacted me and when I tell them they CANNOT be the descendant of a four year old, several of them told me that I must be wrong because "lots of other people have her in their tree".

                    No one can produce a marriage for her, but that hasn't made anyone look at my evidence.........I don't call this their MISTAKE, I call this abysmal research!

                    OC

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                    • #11
                      I agree with all of the above, the way i do it is i have a folder called "Maybe" i print the info i think would be usefull and the take that folder and reasearch each item, the reason i put it in a folder is so i can take it with me to the Family History Society when i get stuck.

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                      • #12
                        i can always tell it's wrong when my ancestors are linked in american records. i have maybe 3 in the last 200 years that went that way, yet there are plenty who cite census, passenger lists and forebears as american.

                        there is this woman who has research done by her mother in law, but still mangled my grandmother's family. grandma's grand aunt was australian born to german imigrants. she married an english man and died in victoria. this tree has legitimate photos of my family, but has the wrong parents, who she has as having wrong names, and were american? she has somehow found a hint, and tagged that tree on mine. my family have never been to minnesota! i told her she was wrong but she didn't correct it. pity too, as her mother in law had the original photo of the german parents. i was trying to get a decent scan of it.

                        i always check out other trees, and in minutes can tell you what kind of researcher they are. just because they have citations doesn't mean their work is right. i look at all of it, and if it uses correct sources, i'll think it's a good tree. if they have something i havn't seen before i will message them and ask about it.

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                        • #13
                          Yes, I would say always, always check information on other trees. My half-cousin has a completely wrong great grandmother on her tree, but will not accept the evidence I have shown her that the right lady was married before and had 3 daughters that she left in the workhouse when she remarried to our great grandfather. Even though I have shown her BMD certificates, and am in contact with 2 grand-daughters of the abandoned daughters, one of whom has photos!! It used to drive me insane to see her tree on Ancestry with all this wrong info, but now I have given up telling her stuff. Whenever I am contacted by someone that has the wrong lady and children, I know straight away that they haven't done their own proper research.
                          On the plus side, I have found several genuine contacts (including the above grand-daughters) who have been able to tell me more about the family's chequered history, and that has been wonderful to learn about
                          Denise
                          Last edited by darannon; 06-04-13, 14:46.

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