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contacting possible connections

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  • contacting possible connections

    I have now activated my ftm subscription
    I have come up with leaves on quite a few of my ancestors and when I look at the possible matches how do I go to the next step
    do I jus contact the people, via ftm, that the program says has matches or is there another way of checking their facts first
    brian
    avatar is my paternal grandmother Hazel May Sheridan (Coles /// Callaghan)
    researching Coles/Sheridan from Broken Hill Callaghan from Sydney P.J O'Flynn M.J Campbell from County Clare plus others as they pop up

  • #2
    i would see if they have a public tree and look through that and also see ifthey have asked questions on the message boards which i think is under 'community'
    Angelina

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    • #3
      As you have uploaded FTM and got your subscription then you can contact people via Ancestry. Have you gone into Ancestry proper yet?

      Just because there's a hint doesn't mean they are your family, so you have to carefully work through them, discarding obvious non-connected.

      Looking in a census I fell foul of two families of the same name in the same town and got it wrong until I got a marriage certificate which proved I was wrong. The father had died young and the mother's name mis-spelt.

      Look at the information the hint gives likes census's, births, marriages etc. and try and work out whether it is correct. You have to get certificates at every stage in your tree to prove things - it's too easy to assume and go off on a wild goose chase. Start with yourself and work backwards using certificates - you'd be amazed what certificates can reveal that even close family know nothing about - ie unmarried parents, second marriages, different or no fathers etc. Even census's can mislead you (makes researching interesting lol)

      If it's a public family tree - have a look and see what's there and whether you could be following the same line. Often family trees following the same lines have conflicting information so beware. Some people just copy other people's trees and so you can have mistakes in them all which makes people think it's correct.



      Researching Irish families: FARMER, McBRIDE McQUADE, McQUAID, KIRK, SANDS/SANAHAN (Cork), BARR,

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      • #4
        I've found that some of the "leaf hints" have nothing to do with the person(s) in my tree!

        They might have the same name, but the birth year is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay out (like 200 years), or the county or even country is wrong.

        So do check the hint carefully first.

        Then, as JBee says, be very aware that people copy from other trees with gay abandon. One person makes a mistake and 20 or 30 people will copy it.

        I found one last night .............. I used my father's name to check how the new Public Trees looked, found a "new to me" tree owner name, looked at the tree and saw my grandfather had a younger sister I had no record of, and with a different birth place from any of his other siblings.

        It took me about 2 hours, but I eventually discovered what was what ...........

        .......... two mothers called Elizabeth, one father called Joseph and one called James who both died before the 1891. Both Elizabeths born in the same village in Buckinghamshire but living in the same town in Lancashire in 1891.

        Yep, one of them had a daughter called Margaret Ruth, but it was NOT my grandfather's mother!


        Six trees had the same mistake, but I didn't seem able to find the old Comment section where I could have left a message saying they were wrong, and hope they paid attention.


        The best advice is to use those hints AS hints ............. look at the tree very very carefully, decide whether it looks valid. Do they cite documents such as birth, marriage or death certificates, or any information from between censuses? Are there definite dates for bmd events, or is everything "ca 1870"?

        Check against any other trees for which you get the same hint. Do they all seem to have the same information?

        Try to check yourself by using ancestry to look at censuses, bmds etc etc.

        THEN and only then, contact the tree owner and say you think you might be related.

        If the tree is a Private Tree, please do not ask simply for the tree to be opened to you .......... explain why you think you might be related, with names, dates and places. Trees are private for a reason ....... the tree owner does not want the information taken willy nilly without their knowledge.


        and, most important, add the information to your own tree only after checking it very very carefully and proved it to be as accurate as you can make it.
        My grandmother, on the beach, South Bay, Scarborough, undated photo (poss. 1929 or 1930)

        Researching Cadd, Schofield, Cottrell in Lancashire, Buckinghamshire; Taylor, Park in Westmorland; Hayhurst in Yorkshire, Westmorland, Lancashire; Hughes, Roberts in Wales.

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        • #5
          Angelina/jBee and Sylvia c thanks for your replies and hint I will keep them in mind as I continue my research
          brian
          avatar is my paternal grandmother Hazel May Sheridan (Coles /// Callaghan)
          researching Coles/Sheridan from Broken Hill Callaghan from Sydney P.J O'Flynn M.J Campbell from County Clare plus others as they pop up

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