RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: wini on Friday 27 December 13 01:16 GMT (UK)
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I have just started to re-look at the early part of my research and discovered I have made a mistake. Nothing too dramatic but I suppose I might find some more. Do others check back on their early research?
wini
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wini
I started off my research and fell in to the trap of following other family trees on Ancestry.
Got my paternal family tree back to late 1600's in no time.
Only when I started to fill in more details of marriage records did I find that one generation b early 1800's fathers name on marriage records was different.
Deleted about 6 generations off the tree and re-tracked my own research.
Lost a few generations, but far more interesting and satisfying to have your own research and evidence at hand.
Thanks to some fantastic help from people on this forum, I have a much more detailed tree now, but not quite as far back..
Easy to follow other people's errors as well as your own...
good luckwith your continued research
Colin
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I'm always checking, especially when my ancestors are made up of 'Browns', 'Robinsons', 'Adams' and 'Rees'. My one major gaff was when I skipped a marriage cert to keep costs down, (because it was a small town in country Australia in the mid 1800's) and followed it back a couple of generations.
It was only when I was talking to some elderly relatives that a g-g grandmother was alive at a certain time that I double checked. What bad luck was there to have two Elizabeth Browns, getting married, in the same small country town, in the same year. I went and purchased the marriage cert and a whole new family came to light.
I also never follow other people's trees, - I just use them to check their research against mine.
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No I didn't follow anyone else just my oen stupid mistake.
I think at the beginning I was just trying too hard.
wini
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Think we are all guilty of making mistakes I always check other tree's and it's amazing the mistakes I find .....I get people taking pictures off mine and adding it to theirs without thinking never mind it keeps us all busy :)
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I recheck - especially the research done years ago. I didn't always think to look at things like witness names, address at time of marriage etc., so I often find bits of 'new' information when I look back over the older things. :)
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I am now going to go through and recheck everything and since I have managed to find more detail will add it to my tree.
I have 2 blank spots and no matte what I check I can't find them.
Will repost on the Scotland and Ireland sites and see if anyone can give me any fresh inspiration
wini
:) :) :) :)
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Was just going to say Wini why don't you post details and maybe we can help :) :)
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I recheck - especially the research done years ago. I didn't always think to look at things like witness names, address at time of marriage etc., so I often find bits of 'new' information when I look back over the older things. :)
no errors (said she cofidently-ish)- most of my tree was done before there was much on-line stuff, so the only way was slogging through records carefully.
Like sami, I keep rechecking, to see if inspiration will strike, and it sometimes does.
The only undocumented stuff is OH's distant cousins - we DO know the link is there, and that it's around 1830, and they know from grandma where it is,( but it will never be documented, as the records are gone)
eadaoin
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I'm always re checking particularly the notes I made decades ago, pre internet . Surprising how useful they have become now. I made a silly mistake in my early research , I had written a lady's birth date the same date as she married , confusing for awhile lol. Since then I check.
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I blame the parents or in this case grandparents. On my paternal grandparent's 1908 marriage certificate, my grandmother's father is named as 'William', and not a 'common' surname'.From this I discovered a William living in the same street in the 19O1 census, two doors away.A daughter with the same first name as my grandmother. 'ah this must be the one'. So I 'followed' them logically back through census and Free BMD. I then accessed the 1911 census for my grandparents when it came on line. Where the birthplace of my grandmother was in the 'wrong place'.
So further digging revealed my great grandfather was Thomas with the middle name of William.
The William living in the same street turned out to be a third cousin of my great grandfather.
Much deleting and correcting of family tree. I always double check any new info now of course!
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Thanks for the offer Rosie I think I have fixed that one.
Going to post my other problem on both the Sutherland and Lanrakshire sites since my GGrandfather didn't seem to know his age.
wini
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I check my tree once a month. With over 2000 entries, and web sites updating and inputting new information, I often add information, but usually only from census records. Any dead ends are checked against any updated information, and just left if no reliable source information can be found at that time. I will not take information from another tree without checking it against as many sources that I can find. I always remember that all of the information I have may not be correct, as some of it is based on witness statements, some of which could be wrong. I have no way of knowing. I just accept it as is.
History is just a version of the past recorded by individuals, each of whom will have their own opinion.
Regards
Malky
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I find that I check my tree quite often. Every time a new bit of information - dates, marriages, siblings, etc. comes up I check through. From time to time I'll formally add census records etc., and i really must admit I'm very suspicious of a lot of other trees I find that seem to have adopted my rellies in, and often merged 2 or 3 sets of different children ... I mean, I know families were a lot larger, but I'd expect them not to have two different "same first name" siblings, both growing up! I'm used to re-cycling of names of dead children, but you'd think some of these compilers might suspect it was a bit odd to have to call two "Same first name"s in each evening?
And I agree; just because I think I'm correct doesn't mean that essentially I am more correct than anyone else.
It's actually quite fascinating where you do find you've found a mistake in your work, it leads you to re-check everything leading in both directions.
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I have just started to re-look at the early part of my research and discovered I have made a mistake. Nothing too dramatic but I suppose I might find some more. Do others check back on their early research?
wini
All the time.
The more research I do, the better my research skills become. Early errors which escaped undetected then may show up now.
None of it is effort wasted.
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Always glad to hear I am not the only one who has made mistakes in the past.wini
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Occasionally when I go back to something I find I've made a typo, like getting the wrong century ;D
Two of the most incredible ones I've seen on other trees have been a woman still giving birth in her 60s and also one masterpiece that went back to the 1700s, someone got typo'd as 1800s... but then the tree started working backwards again from the "1800s" back to the 1700s! I was stunned! lol
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hi,
Yes i have found some mistakes during my early research but found errors in others trees as well -
At least 5 people took the info from a GEDcom on the web which had some details wrong -
Also the millenuim files are not right as it has my gr gr grnadad born in Eccles when he was born in Tyldesley - he also had 2 wives not one as the millenium only lists one wife as mother to all his children which isnt quite right - he had an earlier marriage - first few children where to his first wife - people seemed to assume he was 'living' with wife number 2 befire they got married which isnt strictly correct -
A great deal of EARLY research is now not quite right as so many NEW records are now available so some things need updating -
i also think that some of the things on the IGI might not be right
Still - as we are up till 1.30 and will sleep fully clothed as its getting late to find the pjyamas (as they are in the wash) not only me thats addicted to this
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just a quickie as this is a useful tool if you dont already know it - the kind people on ancestry told me about this -
ok if you have a mistake for eg you put the wrong wife or whatever - you can delete the relationsip without deleting the person from the tree - you click on relationships for that person and remove whats not right the person will still be hanging on as a 'floating person' and you can then later add to a different part of your tree when its right but searching in the box - so if you add the wrong children you can re-add them as well somewhere else - particularly uselful if you had the wrong census and you added a whole bunch of children -
happy hunting
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has anyone put a marriage it which sounded right as the parents where right and then you look again and you found they married at age 9 or something then you realise you have the wrong couple !!!!!!!!
ancestry also puts a little warning if you have put the wrong century in - it says - are you sure you want to use this is before the childbearing age ?? or too long after fathers death !