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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Maggie1895 on Saturday 11 September 10 23:24 BST (UK)

Title: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Maggie1895 on Saturday 11 September 10 23:24 BST (UK)
We probably all do it from time to time, and me more than many.

Get carried away and make a connection that, if I'd bothered to take the time to really think it through, I would have realised couldn't be right.   This isn't another rant about other people's inaccuracies (please), all I'm asking is which has made you laugh the most?     

Personally I quite enjoyed the exploits of my great great great grandfather in Antrim, [no relation to Bruce Forsyth] who was, according to one tree, apparently swimming the Atlantic with monotonous regularity to simultaneously father children on both sides of the pond - for about 20 years.  Oh yes, and using two surnames as well.   Not bad for a penniless Ag Lab!   If only the Olympic selection committee had known..

Tonight, I'm following back the line of Margery Colclough, born in Wolstanton, Staffordshire in 1647.    An awful lot of people will be descended from this lady, but as I'm one of them I thought I'd see if I could get any further back.  Well, yes, her baptism gives her parent's names: Johanis and Mariae. 

Fair enough, I thought, it was probably Church formal recording, and I'll try John and Mary.    Looked at the parish records and wondered if they were already recorded on a tree by anyone else.  Eureka, on a well known site whose trees are so beloved of Rootschatters, there they both are (allegedly), and John's entry reads:

John Colclough - birth, 1621 Staffordshire
Death - 1642, Staffordshire
Marriage - 1646, Staffordshire
Birth of Margery: 1647, Staffordshire.

That's some feat!    Made me laugh anyway.  So what are your favourites?
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Jean McGurn on Sunday 12 September 10 06:27 BST (UK)
Daft thought  ;D perhaps freezing egg cells wasn't a 20th century  discovery but was first tried in the 17c and the mother was a beau of John who wanted John's child so the marriage was by proxy and the birth by Artificial Insemination ?

Jean
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Finley 1 on Sunday 12 September 10 06:37 BST (UK)
Yes somewhere out there -- someone has my Robert travelling the great divide and married to a 9 year old child  some relation of Pocohontas... lovely...
Thats why I have naturally always been on the side of the Red Indians  when watching a good old 'Calic'...

Xin
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Maggie1895 on Sunday 12 September 10 13:04 BST (UK)
Jean, great idea : silly me for thinking the tree owner had it wrong!  Though I don't know why I keep thinking about Dolly from 'dinnerladies' wittering on about a turkey baster..

Xinia.. fascinating!  A 9 year old relative of Pocohantas?  Tell us more, please!
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Deb D on Sunday 12 September 10 14:47 BST (UK)
My fave is the A******* tree that included my Welsh gt-gt grandfather, allegedly married with 3 children, and living to his dotage in the UK.

Funny, that, ... seeing he never seems to have met the lady in question, and was on a ship to Oz at about 17.
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Finley 1 on Sunday 12 September 10 20:13 BST (UK)
I Will Maggie...  I have just managed to get back on line ... the big V letting me down today... I will look up the records and give you some more idea...  bfn

xin
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Finley 1 on Sunday 12 September 10 21:08 BST (UK)
Well of course I cant find the link.. so it seems like I was exageratttttting But believe me I wasnt. 

I typed in to Ancestry  (look no asterixs)  my Rellies name  Robert Clarke  born 1750 Leicester.. father Robert

son John....   and I found him married to a Lady called Agnes Gay  who was 9 years old   on one tree   and on a.nother Agnes died and then married Robert 3 years later...

But apart from these I honestly  ( :-[ :-\)  found a tree naming pocohontas  way back in 16 something  or other.  I will probably find it again-- and let you know if and or when...

xin
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: RJ_Paton on Sunday 12 September 10 21:52 BST (UK)
A tree on Ancestry (not mine I hasten to add) has some ancestors  of a child allegedly fathered by my great grandfather 2 yrs before he was born and on a different continent from where he lived and died as Mr & Mrs Odin, address Valhalla.
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Maggie1895 on Tuesday 14 September 10 20:21 BST (UK)
Deb, perhaps your great great grandfather went to the same swimming class as mine...

Oh Falkryn!  Mr and Mrs Odin, Valhalla...  isn't that brilliant?  I reckon that's unbeatable unless someone out there has a Mr and Mrs Claus at the North Pole

Xinia, hope you turn up Pocohontas at some point, it must have been a real relief to the person whose tree it is - think how long they could have spent searching for a John Smith born England otherwise
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: coombs on Tuesday 14 September 10 20:24 BST (UK)
A bride aged 1.
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Finley 1 on Tuesday 14 September 10 21:06 BST (UK)
yes  so do i   otherwise i will begin to doubt i ever found it... but it was definately there  but under a Robert Clarke of Augusta Virginia I think.....??

the reason the errors were being made  was because if you type in Robert Clarke Hinckley the drop down box gives Hinckley USA as well as UK and sometimes if your not careful your looking in the wrong area.  (not me I never do that  ;D ;D ;D)

xin
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: groom on Tuesday 14 September 10 21:18 BST (UK)
The one that made me smile was a tree on Ancestry that had my father born in England but dying in America.

My father was the world's worst traveller - he wouldn't even consider setting foot on an aeroplane and the only boat my mother ever persuaded him to board was the Isle of Wight ferry.  ;D ;D I'm still trying to work out how he got to America.  ??? ???

Jan
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: BumbleB on Wednesday 15 September 10 08:39 BST (UK)
Pocahontas - someone does claim to have Pocahontas in their tree - she is said to have married John Rolfe, came to England and her name was changed to Rebecca.  If all this is correct, and I have no reason to doubt it as I haven't done any research, then by a very roundabout way she is in my family tree!  The article was published in The Clock Tower which is the newsletter for the friends of Medway Archives in May 2007. http://www.foma-lsc.org/Downloads/Issue%206.pdf

BumbleB
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Finley 1 on Wednesday 15 September 10 09:02 BST (UK)
Well there you go... Your Kendalls are not related to Rendalls from Leicestershire  are they... I have very distant Rendalls..with a link to an R Kendall.. ???

its crazy we are all related and thats all there is too it...

xin
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: BumbleB on Wednesday 15 September 10 09:30 BST (UK)
Hi xin:  not that I know of.  As far as I'm aware all my Kendalls came from the West Riding (except me)

BumbleB
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Finley 1 on Wednesday 15 September 10 10:27 BST (UK)
oh  okay 

xin
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Maggie1895 on Wednesday 15 September 10 20:34 BST (UK)
Pocahontas -  The article was published in The Clock Tower which is the newsletter for the friends of Medway Archives in May 2007. http://www.foma-lsc.org/Downloads/Issue%206.pdf
BumbleB 

That rings a very distant bell - nothing to do with my tree but I'm sure I read or heard years ago that she was buried in Gravesend in Kent
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Beatle on Wednesday 15 September 10 20:41 BST (UK)
No strictly a howler but Ive been researching my tree for over twenty years and it suddenly occured to me that I haven't got my full birth certificate.   ::)

Too scared to get it after all the time any money spent!!! Now that's a howler I dont want.  ;D
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: giraffe on Wednesday 15 September 10 22:28 BST (UK)
A mother aged 7. - And we think the young of today are precocious!
I contacted the member who had made the error, and they were very grateful for the info - fortunately!
giraffe
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: LizzieW on Thursday 16 September 10 00:40 BST (UK)
BumbleB, some of what you know about Pocahantos is true.  She wanted to go back to USA and took ill on the ship, was taken off again and died - probably of smallpox.

I've been to a National Trust house somewhere (can't remember where though) that has paintings of her and John Rolfe.

Lizzie
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: BumbleB on Thursday 16 September 10 07:37 BST (UK)
Lizzie:  I'm sure the Pocahantos story is correct, and she was buried, I think, in Gravesend.  But I haven't done any research into checking the validity of a claim that would link her to my tree.  It's far too distant and circuitous.

BumbleB
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: youngtug on Thursday 23 September 10 08:28 BST (UK)
Someone as just added my gtgrandmother to their tree, a tree that goes back to ADAM & EVE  :'(. Including along the way Charlemagne, Methuseula and looked like Ra. ::) God knows who else is on there, but its not a family I want to be a part of. ::)
 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: AngelaR on Thursday 23 September 10 08:54 BST (UK)
Someone as just added my gtgrandmother to their tree, a tree that goes back to ADAM & EVE  :'(. Including along the way Charlemagne, Methuseula and looked like Ra. ::) God knows who else is on there, but its not a family I want to be a part of. ::)
 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

If it's like the tree I just found, God is indeed on there  ::)

PS You learn something every day in this game - I had NO idea that the garden of Eden was in Vermont USA  :o  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: kdunn on Friday 24 September 10 21:00 BST (UK)
Re: Pocahontas: My mother's mother's family had a tradition that they descend from Pocahontas and Captain John Smith. I have found reference online to the alleged son of this pair (allegedly named Peregrine) in somebody's family tree, and he even comes up in FamilySearch.

I'm not brave enough to list either Pocahontas or Captain John Smith in my tree, but I have looked for some evidence (anything!) that there might be some truth in the story. It doesn't look promising: John Smith never married, and Pocahontas is recorded as having only the one son (Thomas Rolfe).
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Lemontree on Saturday 02 October 10 16:05 BST (UK)
I had a freidn who was traceing his family and asked for help, he emailed the information and I had a look.

The christain/first name of the woamn he thought was unusual and had her married in birmingham, whereas I looked at her place of birth on the census and foudn she was from Colechester and therfroe why would she marry in birmingham when her hubby was form frankton (near rugby)

He had asked me to help as on her second marriage certificate she gives a complelty differnet fahters name - well of course hse does as the birmingham certificate is wrong and there is the correct marriae in Colechaester

But when looking firther - the real ancestor female was much more interesting as it did seem that the second marriage was bigamous and they travelled some 10 miels to marry in warwcik and then when there chidl was born made out to the local vicar in frankton that they wern't married

far more interesting than the family he had been tracing who wheren't his and very normal
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: helvissa on Wednesday 06 October 10 15:21 BST (UK)
I'm always amused by the fact that so many of my ancestors were born in Essex, Massachussetts, rather than that other Essex in England. Colchester, Massachussetts, no less!

(now I've said that there probably *is* a Colchester in Massachussetts, but you know what I mean!).
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Brie on Wednesday 06 October 10 16:05 BST (UK)
Lizzie,

I seem to remember that Lord Mountbatten's wife is descended from Pocahontas - so it may be her family's home you saw the pictures in.

Brie
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: LizzieW on Wednesday 06 October 10 18:46 BST (UK)
Brie

It would have been a NT house somewhere.

Lizzie
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Velveteen on Sunday 10 October 10 20:31 BST (UK)
Someone who is also researching(although perhaps it should be "researching") the same line of Nevis based Choppin's as I am, has, in order to make them fit with the slightly later St Vincent and the grenadines-based Choppins, taken all the people who actually do fit into the nevis line, and placed them very randomly about the family tree. He has mother marrying son, sisters giving birth to their own siblings, and in one case, grandfather marrying grandaughter ::)

To make it worse, theres no excuse. This particular lineage(the real verson) is printed in documents that were contempory to these people's lifetimes... >:(
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Maggie1895 on Sunday 10 October 10 21:17 BST (UK)
Velveteen, welcome to Rootschat, I'm glad this thread rings bells for you.   It is so frustrating, isn't it?

One of my line, the one I was working on when I originally started this thread, has my gr.gr.gr.grandmother, Ann Massey, b 1752 in Shrewsbury in Shropshire, according to several trees on a very popular site (starts with an 'A')  part of a very strong line right back to the 1500s with even a sniff of a gateway ancestor (which my lowly lot don't have at all). 

Only problem is that would make her the daughter of one Bartholomew Massey, and have  lots of well recorded brothers and sisters - all born in Staffordshire.    I was really pleased when I found all this.   There are several public trees with that information, all with the same detail.   I've no idea which one linked her to Bartholomew Massey and his wife in the first place, but all the others must have copied them.   Nobody seems to have noticed that whilst Ann was born in Shropshire all her supposed 'brothers and sisters' were born and baptised in Staffordshire.   I suppost both counties started with an 'S' so that would do!

It would have been so easy to ignore the fact that my own research showed it was  a mistake and couldn't have been my Ann, and adopt the trees that were all telling the same story, after all there are a lot of them to support the claim - problem is, there is absolutely no evidence to justify them: quite the contrary.   Ironically, Margery Colclough, which is where this thread came in, has now had to be deleted from my tree, because she certainly existed, but sadly not in relation to my family.

That's what I like about Rootschat - nothing but accuracy will do.   Stick to your principles, it's the only way to go!
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Elvina on Tuesday 12 October 10 12:15 BST (UK)
I'm always amused by the fact that so many of my ancestors were born in Essex, Massachussetts, rather than that other Essex in England. Colchester, Massachussetts, no less!

(now I've said that there probably *is* a Colchester in Massachussetts, but you know what I mean!).

I've found similar entries on Ancestry trees. I think it's something to do with Family Tree Maker which gives suggestions for places when you make an entry and you don't notice. I've done it myself a couple of times until I learnt to check my entries carefully.
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: Maggie1895 on Tuesday 12 October 10 18:06 BST (UK)
Elvina, welcome to posting on Rootschat.    I think you're right - Genes Reunited tries to do that as well.  I always find it intensley irritating as it tries to turn the village or town into block capitals, plus suggests the modern day counties - for example, Southport or Liverpool it always wants to list as Merseyside, which is where the towns are now.
My husband's family were all born and bred Lancashire for generations and the idea of my putting 'Merseyside' on their tree would not contribute to marital harmony..
Title: Re: What is your favourite tree 'howler'?
Post by: youngtug on Tuesday 12 October 10 21:17 BST (UK)
That may be the case sometimes, but not always. One of my gtgtgrandmothers was Ann Pitts of gloucestershire [born and died there] I found a picture purporting to be her on a tree on ancestry, when I traced it back through three trees to the original upload it was to an Elizabeth Ann Pitt , born, married [ to someone else than my gtgtgrandfather] and died in America. I am no longer a paid subscriber to ancestry, but the last time I looked several more trees had adopted the photo and I noticed the information attached had started to "infect" these trees.