Do not believe everything that you read online :)

[Joy Dean]

Just idly browsing around, I came across a site from which I learned, allegedly, that my father and uncle had another brother - not true! - and my grandparents married in Wandsworth, Cumbria - when did Wandsworth move from London?! (or Surrey even, as it was then)

[Lindag]

According to the Ancestry OneWorldTree my 2x great grandfather died in Canada. If he did why was his death registered in Hackney

Linda

[margaretmarch]

It's those awful drop down lists on ancestry trees that cause all this, people think they are selecting the right city/county for automatic entry and don't check that in fact they have chosen a namesake place on the other side of the world!
Margaret

[Joy Dean]

Allegedly, my grandfather was an only child - no, not true - and his father was Hector - not true either

Amazing.

I felt cross to start with, but now am just amazed that people can put such rubbish on the internet without verifying it.

[Guest]

I had a contact who had a boy married to his sister ???

[the meercat]

i married a ten year old.
my husband was allegedly born in 1959 on a genes reunited tree.
they havent even asked his permission to put it on either.

[Guest]

I always giggle to myself, let them sort it out eventually.

[Joy Dean]

i married a ten year old.
my husband was allegedly born in 1959 on a genes reunited tree.
they havent even asked his permission to put it on either.

Meercat is a cradle snatcher

[Caroline]

We always laugh at these mistakes, but how many of us might be guilty of something similar?????

Back in 2004, I added some names to my tree in good faith which had been passed on to me - they came with no dates and in those days I couldn't check them. A very distant branch of an enormous family with an unusual surname, so left them there.

Today I was contacted by somebody who had found the names online from back then (on a site which won't let me edit my tree unless I pay a sub whereas it had been free then....) . Of course I could check things now and spent the day doing so before I got back to them. I found Violet on the 1911, then her birth, sorted out the correct parents for her, which had been wrong .... Today's contact was in Australia and I couldn't find the marriages so looked in those BMDS. Then to my horror, I found that the donor of the information had married a Fred to a Violet with the same unusual surname ... no problem, Fred did marry a Violet with the same surname, except it was the wrong Violet and the one I had been given would only have been 7 years old!! If the Australian BMDs weren't available now, I would still be in the dark .... the bonus is that I have now sorted out what happened to three members of the family who had all gone out to Australia between 1841 and 1851.

But the misinformation is still out there and I can't do anything about it!! The person who gave me the stuff 6 years ago had made lots of other errors and when I sent h** some other corrections (about my own direct line), I never heard from them again ...

It was only recently that I realised that I had a major typo in my tree too .... my great great grandmother was apparently buried 100 years after she died ... and nobody seemed to have spotted that one.

[janeyanne]

Just idly browsing around, I came across a site from which I learned, allegedly, that my father and uncle had another brother - not true! - and my grandparents married in Wandsworth, Cumbria - when did Wandsworth move from London?! (or Surrey even, as it was then)

my father in law was apparently born in quebec canada. He nor his mum didn't even have a passport.

[Jill on the A272]

I'm never sure whether to leave a message or not pointing out bloomers. Just had a message about mine which I was grateful for as I'd put a son in twice.

I've left or sent messages & sometimes extra information and the recipients have either
a) altered their tree without comment
b) entered into a mutually fruitful dialogue
c) ignored/never read my comment
d) got stroppy

[Oakum Picker]

I always giggle to myself, let them sort it out eventually.

The problem is they don't & with so many internet genealogists & name collectors about, these errors are copied & perpetuated until most of the online trees bear no resemblance to the truth.

I spend several hours every week sending messages & posting comments on Ancestry with about a 40% success rate.

[Guest]

well I dont bother anymore especially after being told by one that it must be them as thats where they lived in the previous census as long as mines correct I'm happy.

[Olde Crone Holden]

I have just "helped" someone who appears to have picked a name out of the hat and pushed it to fit. I pointed out a much better match which fitted with mother's maiden name etc.

Contact thanked me fulsomely and has entered all this new information in her tree. Not a single certificate bought to back up my HUNCH and she has left the old, incorrect marriage on the tree so now it looks as if he was married twice AND he still has the wrong parents.

OC

[Jacqueline]

I had one, which the man was born and bred in Isle of man, supposedly married in France, Died in Montpelier, Washington USA. His wife born IOM, died in Phillipines. Neither of these people ever left IOM. I just laughed. Then I decided to put them right. I have been ignored.
Then I found one on Ancestry, where grandmother was head and her 10 year old grandson was with her. But granny was only 9 years old. Closer look was she was actually 89....I placed a correction and the next day had a lovely email from ancestry thanking me for their error. Now I correct wherever I see a problem.
Jackie

[Sunny Kate]

Two trees on Ancestry show my paternal grandmother married .... to another woman who has the same surname as my grandfather! Since when has Annie been a man's name?

Another Ancestry tree has a completely wrong name for my grandfather's mother. When I sent a message indicating the error and said I have a copy of his birth certificate as well as many details about his mother's family, the response from the tree owner suggested that I have the wrong certificate because this person took their information from One World Tree - and THAT was accurate!!!

Another online tree shows my late FIL fathering a daughter when he was 8 years old and his first wife was all of 5 years old.???????

[MarionH]

- and for another giggle - I spent several hours yesterday checking a tree I found online, pasted everything in a word doc and highlighted the items that agreed with my tree - back from the 1600's. Amazingly they seemed to have their records correct - they all agreed with mine. It wasn't until I reached someone in the early 1800's where they even had the same comment as me. Uh - thinking alike? No - I had sent them all the information in the first place - they just uploaded it! Must have been another of those senior moments!!!

[Somerset Sal]

I've also found someone in the One World Tree, where several people have contributed the date of death, but they've all gone on to show him fathering children for at least 15 years after this date of death... People just don't look very carefully.

[Somerset Sal]

One of my daftest mistakes was to have one woman apparently married to her own mother. Not quite sure how I managed that...

[Oakum Picker]

One of my daftest mistakes was to have one woman apparently married to her own mother. Not quite sure how I managed that...

That's the sort of mistake I can accept - human error.

I've also found someone in the One World Tree, where several people have contributed the date of death, but they've all gone on to show him fathering children for at least 15 years after this date of death... People just don't look very carefully.

That's the sort I can't - poor research.