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  • Why bother?

    Found some trees that have my german 3rd great grandparents in them. Two of these trees i had no knowledge of prior. I emailed both asking the connection.

    The first was related to a wife in the family, my great grandfather's sister in law.

    This was the reply of the second tree owner: "paternal grandfather of husband of sister-in-law of 1st cousin 1x removed of husband of 3rd great-aunt".

    I asked the first why she had my family in her tree since she wasn't related. She had a good response, stating that it's useful at reunions to have the spouses families as often they will appear more than once, cousins marrying etc.

    The other tree just blows my mind. There is literally no connection. Why bother? Not only that, the part concerning my family is riddled with half research and errors.

    I don't understand people who research families they are not related too. It's different if the research is on behalf of someone, or it helps you with information on your family. But that second tree owner is just a joke.

  • #2
    Oh dear, I am afraid I am guilty of this! Sometimes I research so far sideways I meet myself round the other side!

    But.....sometimes this kind of unrelated research leads to a connection you would never have otherwise found and, prior to about 1900, my relatives never married a stranger so I research as far as I can.

    OC

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    • #3
      Me too - I recently discovered that a 3rd cousin on my mother's side is also my5th cousin on my father's side. My maternal and paternal forbears were separated by 200+miles - apart from the family that moved.

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      • #4
        I'm like the first tree-owner you mention kylejustin, because not only are there are marriages to very distant relations, but my husband's distant family also tap into a local history project I have on the go, then every time I find an old will I have to have a ferret around to see how the beneficiaries are related and have found many previously unknown people in unexpected locations this way.

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        • #5
          Yes Guy, the chase! At some point that becomes more important than any family link and I love it.

          I have two village trees on the go. One contains lots of my relatives and the relationships are so intricate that I cannot afford to ignore anyone because I am related to all of them in some distant degree. The other village tree MIGHT be my relatives but no connection proven other than surname. I have over 5000 people on that tree because I simply could not stop researching them in the hope I would stumble on a connection. Having done all that research over a period of 25 years I am not going to abandon it because they are "not my family" and anyway, the research may be useful to someone who IS their family.

          OC

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          • #6
            I understand in this context, a small english village. But my ancestors were german in australia, and all the other 'connections' were of british descent. The town was a goldfields one, so maybe that has something to do it. Or it's a name collector.

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            • #7
              Quote from Guy: "Perhaps that is why I have transcribed thousands of census and parish register pages, but perhaps others do not understand why people do that either."

              I do that too, its sometimes the only way to sort out loads of people with the same names. Make them into mini trees to see who might go with who. I have found myself doing this the last two days and beginning to regret starting because I'm going away soon! Started with the burials of one surname in a group of villages, so far so good. Then started on the baptisms ... and found they all had huge families. I can't stop now or my incomplete table will just be a waste of time. I just hope I'm going to come to some worthwhile conclusions by the time I've done the marriages. LOL
              Anne
              Last edited by Anne in Carlisle; 30-07-18, 23:49.

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              • #8
                Guilty of having a large (and growing) tree!!

                I just spent a happy two hours adding a dozen or so people who are not blood related to me at all after spotting a familiar name on a Facebook page. The person was a first cousin to my great x2 grandmother's first husband. I will continue adding his descendants because (a) they are local to me and (b) I want to and (c) given that they seem to have a habit of marrying cousins I may find out where the great x2 great grandmother's ancestors really came from since she was born nowhere near here (well, across the county border).
                Caroline
                Caroline's Family History Pages
                Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

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