To make a very long story short I recently had my family tree crumble in a matter of minutes. In October of last year I finally made the break through that other members of my family had failed to do; namely, I discovered the full name of my great grandfather. Once I had this name I was off to the races and was soon pushing the family line back to the middle 1700's in Cornwall. Needless to say I was beyond excited, and that's where I made my fatal mistake. I think I stopped being objective and testing each "fact" I discovered. When the last bit of the 1911 census was uploaded ( ie The Channel Islands ) there was my "great grandfather " alive and well and living on Guernsey; when he actually died in 1896. So, almost 12 months of research down the drain.
But my main reason for posting this tragedy is that I wasn't the only one to make the same mistake. I arrived at my great grandfathers full name through the assistance of others ( unknown to me ) on Ancestry; we all had bits and pieces of information and they all seemed to fit once we "found" each other. At the time I believed that we were all being very careful and that we had struck paydirt. Not so. As i mentioned it is a very long story but the long and short of it is this; you must have proof to back up your findings. Certificates, parish records, probate records, etc etc. In my case the proving documents are what did me in.
So, I'm back to square one. Lesson learnt. Any one know of a Henry Mellor who died in 1896 in Lancashire?
But my main reason for posting this tragedy is that I wasn't the only one to make the same mistake. I arrived at my great grandfathers full name through the assistance of others ( unknown to me ) on Ancestry; we all had bits and pieces of information and they all seemed to fit once we "found" each other. At the time I believed that we were all being very careful and that we had struck paydirt. Not so. As i mentioned it is a very long story but the long and short of it is this; you must have proof to back up your findings. Certificates, parish records, probate records, etc etc. In my case the proving documents are what did me in.
So, I'm back to square one. Lesson learnt. Any one know of a Henry Mellor who died in 1896 in Lancashire?
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