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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Knight-Sunderland on Sunday 19 February 23 21:39 GMT (UK)
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Hello,
I started researching my family tree in 2008 at the age of 15. As you can expect I did all the usual stupid things and by 2014 I realised that my tree was so full of errors and mistakes and guesses that cleaning it up would be laborious and more work than fun. So I made the decision to start from scratch and start a new file (at this point I was 21).
Now I am almost 30, and I am looking at my tree (22k individuals) with a similar feeling to that which I had in 2014. I have noticed various errors and mistakes that I made in my early 20's and before I refined my research abilities to the level they are at today. There are facts which I have recorded that I have no idea where I got them from and I'm frustrated with myself for not making the effort to record that information. It's not horrendous, but I just feel like if I started today I could build a cleaner and more well referenced tree than the one I started nine years ago.
Yes, I'm tempted to start from scratch again.
Just wondered whether anyone else has ever done similar, and regretted it? Or perhaps did so and realised it was a good decision? I am 50/50 whether to start again, or put the work in and go person by person, branch by branch, and do a full scale clean up.
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I say go for it.
The work you've put into those previous attempts isn't wasted. It's taught you the research skills. The ones that we're right you'll soon find again. The ones that were wrong you won't miss.
But ... do what I do. I don't have a "tree" as such. I have a series of Word documents, telling the life story of each of my ancestors in narrative form. If you'd like to see what this looks like, PM me with your e-mail address and I'll send you an example.
I give each generation a letter (A for my parents, B for my grandparents, C for my great grandparents and so on) and each ancestor in the generation has a number (C1 is my father's father's father; C2 is my father's father's mother; C3 is my father's mother's father; C4 is my father's mother's mother; C5 is my mother's father's father ... and so on)
So there's a Word document for each generation, with a sub-heading for each ancestor in the generation (after a certain point I only include the sub-headings for those I know anythign about ... for obvious reasons). And then I apply the basic historian's principle of supporting EVERY statement I make with a footnore referencing its source.
And I keep a separate paper file for each ancestor, contining a copy of EVERY document I have which relates to them.
Slow? Yes.
Tedious? Yes
Methodical? Yes
Worthwhile? Undoubtedly
But ... make your own mind up when you see what it looks like in practice.
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I sympathise. I made mistakes in my tree too. Some my own fault, a few because of misleading statements in records. I've had to lop huge branches off, and it does feel awful at the time. I think it's worth doing though.
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You might find this more tedious than starting from scratch, but have you checked to see if there are any trees online which include the same families? If they have well researched trees with sources, and your current tree tallies with theirs you might decide that enough of your tree is correct and it easier to just double check everything.
There is more online these days so it might not be too difficult to go over your old tree and look for sources.
In the end I suppose it depends how big your tree is and many mistakes you think you’ve made. :)
Added: I skipped over this when I read your question, but did you say you have 22,000 individuals on your tree? And you did this 20 years ago when you were 20 years old, when there was a lot less online? If so, where did you find all these people? Were you throrough in your research or did you just grab anyone who sounded about right and add them to your tree? Did you back up your findings with certificates and other documentation? Depending on how you worked 20 years ago, and how confident you are with your past researching methods, perhaps you should start from scratch? :-\
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I'd advise doing a clean-up rather than starting again from scratch. First, make sure you have the tree backed up. Then go through it, branch by branch, using some sort of color codes to highlight problems - missing data, unsourced data, contradictory information, dubious relationships and whatnot. If you find totally rotten branches, prune them out. It will be slow going but probably less tedious than starting all over again.
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We started in 2010 and we were very similar to you so we revisited our pedigree lines person by person to 1837 when Registration come into being.
Then worked from my parents sideways, then sideways at Grandparent level until we had everyone rechecked.
Then worked back line by line until we were confident all entries were accurate and had as much info attached yo them as we could.
We use Ancestry with Roots Magic as out backup using Tree Share to check the Ancestry tree for errors. Within Ancestry where there is still doubt I assign as their header image a jpg file of a — ? — so it is visible when I am in tree view where the doubt resides. With 22k people in your tree that is a task and a half keeping track if who you have checked, perhaps a similar action to my question mark but in your case an image of a ticked check box could signify that the person has been verified
Then after having our DNA test results in a high cM match now questions the accuracy if the tree as somewhere in my tree there is an NPE yet despite all the citations and documentary evidence supporting everyone the person subject to the NPE and their predecessors may well all be in error.
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I've adopted a similar variation to jbml by researching individuals in the tree and creating life stories.
Writing about individuals can also help better under a section of the tree. For instance (and an obvious one), is why a certain family or individual suddenly moves to another location.
And rather than having my own tree, I have opted to build onto FamilySearch as my main tree and keep a backup using RootsMagic... Just in case an online family becomes very broken and needs repairing. Although I'd have to say, if there is enough credible evidence on sections of the FamilySearch tree, then they will stay intact. While the branches in doubt have a better chance of growing if others can also research them.
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I've adopted a similar variation to jbml by researching individuals in the tree and creating life stories.
Writing about individuals can also help better under a section of the tree. For instance (and an obvious one), is why a certain family or individual suddenly moves to another location.
And rather than having my own tree, I have opted to build onto FamilySearch as my main tree and keep a backup using RootsMagic... Just in case an online family becomes very broken and needs repairing. Although I'd have to say, if there is enough credible evidence on sections of the FamilySearch tree, then they will stay intact. While the branches in doubt have a better chance of growing if others can also research them.
The Op’s error prone tree is precisely why doubt must always exist about the accuracy of an online Global Family tree.
One quickly learns how error prone Ancestry Trees are, I do not see a Tree on Family Search being any different, others contributing to your tree is a recipe for disaster.
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Some great advice there, I really like the idea of writing life stories for each person.
Living up to my Avatar ;) mine is still on paper ;D, just because that's how I was taught at a class I went to 15+ years ago.
I am now starting to digitise it and with a collected wealth of knowledge I'm not so much starting again but checking and verifying what I have and adding photos, documents and anecdotes I've gained along the way.
I'm not looking at it as a whole as this is so daunting but looking at each person individually.
I think jbml's fab idea of a life story for each individual will greatly compliment this.
At the beginning I made many schoolgirl errors, paid for information I already had if I had looked at family papers more closely. I'm not going to beat myself up about it, just smile at my naive enthusiasm and realise how far I've come.
I have found lots of interesting information on The British Newspaper Archive which really add flesh to the names and dates bones.
At the beginning I was in a rush to get as far back as I could but them realised that it wasn't as interesting as trying to discover more about each persons life. Thankfully I was able to have a few conversations with some oldies in the family before they died and those anecdotes were invaluable.
Good luck whatever you decide to do.
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I do have a family tree, but in addition I have filled two large books with the information I have gathered about each individual, one for each side of my family. They start with the earliest ancestors I have found, called Generation 1, and each entry includes all the information I have about them, with details of any certificates or references I have found about them. Each has his/her partner and children listed with dates (they will get their own pages later). I find that all this information can be contained on two large facing pages. These books are intended as a quick reference for my children and other family members who may be interested. The pages are numbered and there is an index at the beginning of the book. All the BMD certificates are kept in a file and other documents in another file. (I love to have things on paper!)
It's a long process, but refreshes your memory as you go along, however it's not the same as writing a story about each family member, as it is really more just notes about and references to my ancestors. If I do find an interesting story about one individual I will write a document about it and keep that in a separate file, which has named dividers for easy finding.
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My Father started researching his tree in the late 1980's.
By the early 2000s, dementia meant that he no longer knew what he was doing so I took over his work.
I soon realised there were lots of mistakes and several huge "leaping to conclusions" so I set out to check and verify as much of his work as possible. I tried to do it branch by branch, but I probably missed out a few individuals / families along the way
Even now, I still come across the occasional mistake.
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I think, for me, it would depend on what and where the errors are as to whether I'd start again or not. The lack of referencing, in my view, wouldn't necessarily be a reason to start from scratch, as you are still going to need to revisit that information whether you start from scratch or clean the tree. I have ended up pruning the odd branch because of errors, I have also had to do some moving about of people where I have people of the same name and roughly the same age where I've attached the information to the wrong person, but in most cases, these have been for distant cousins or connections by marriage and haven't really affected the direct lines.
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I wonder if there is an easy way to delete whole branches when I have the wrong person and delete them from ancestry tree.it leaves their parents siblings and children as floating branches which I have to delete 1 by 1
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when I have the wrong person and delete them from ancestry tree.it leaves their parents siblings and children as floating branches which I have to delete 1 by 1
That's one of the reaons I gave up on the whole online tree idea: I didn't understant the software well enough to be able to use it efficiently and I'd sooner stand under a cold shower ripping up my life savings than devote hours to trying to understand someone else's computer programme. (That's just a personal preference and not intended as a criticism of those who revel in getting to grips with a softeare application. It's just not my "thing".)
We've each got our own reasons for researching our families and we each have different things that we want to get out of it. The important thing is to find a solution which works for you and delivers results in a format that you can work with and use.
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Hey, sorry to bump an old thread, but I'm the original poster and thought I'd share the story of what I ended up doing here.
As I mentioned in my original post I was very tempted to start from scratch and do my whole tree again as I was not confident I had been accurate during my research in my early 20's before I refined my research skills to what they are today. But the idea of starting from scratch (again) was utterly depressing.
So I decided on a compromise, I decided to create an ancestor list (ahnentafel), starting with myself, and going backwards through the generations, verifying each link, sourcing every fact, ordering every available certificate for every ancestor (a lot easier with digital images now available), and attaching a link to every source and image available so that the evidence for each fact is available at the click of a button.
I started in January 2024, and am back to generation eight (6x great grandparents) so far, and the results have been extraordinary. It's amazing what such detailed research on every indivudual can unlock.
The first correction I found was a fact about myself! Turns out the name of the hospital I was born in was different to what I had thought (whoops). It was little details like this that made me realise I needed to check absolutely everything. Going back through the generations, there have been several changes and developments I've discovered:
- Several branches of the tree have been chopped as they were found to be either totally wrong or the evidence was not strong enough to justify the link
- Several new branches have been added after new evidence was uncovered proving new connections or verifying previous theories as correct (I've broken four brick walls I previously considered to be solid)
- Found so many facts I had initially missed or that were perhaps not available or transcribed when I originally did the research. For example deaths/burials, subsequent marriages for widowed ancestors, military/mariners records etc.
- So many notes and comments in original records that I viewed for the first time that weren't included in the transcription I had initially relied upon (for example a fathers occupation in a baptism, which can then be used to prove a death record to be the right one etc).
I am not finished at all, but overall this has been one of the most worthwhile exercises I've ever done when researching my ancestry. Highly recommend!
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Congratulations 🎉
Thanks for the update it's always interesting to see how others do things .
I thought it would be a shame to start completely from scratch .
I help a few other people with their trees .
& Have permission to prune their trees
I love the merge button when you realise a person has been replicated.
+ Regarding floating branches I have learnt to delete the people from the lowest branches first if you delete a child ancestry switches you straight back to parent but you have to eliminate all the children and the spouse before you eliminate the wrong connection.
When you change an ancestor it throws thru lies out too
It seems to take several days before thrulines will realign to accept new ancestors
I recently added correct great paternal grandparents to a tree and all the thru line suggestions disappeared on the paternal side .even tho they had been suggesting that particular couple
It's been 3 days .
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Also thanks for the update. I have a similar approach with my Ancestry tree where I have attached sources so they can be available at the click of a button, and I often add notes in the life events of them.
In the past week or so I have been going through some of my ancestors with a fine tooth comb yet again looking for new clues, and it can be exhausting and time consuming and often with little to no breakthroughs in getting further back.
I also know the feeling of circumstantial evidence but it being not strong enough to make a link. Such as with my 1700s London and Oxford Newman/Inkpen, Reeves ancestors, and even the chance they were not even born or baptised in Middlesex or Oxfordshire. Several of my North Oxfordshire ancestors had Warwickshire and Buckinghamshire roots further back. And my South Oxon lot had some Berkshire blood and Wiltshire further back.
And one ancestor sent to Australia in the early 1790s, then known as New Holland I think. A trip from say, Bristol to Oxford in 1800 was very, very easy and doable in comparison. Maybe a whole day's travel on horse and cart.
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In the past week or so I have been going through some of my ancestors with a fine tooth comb yet again looking for new clues, and it can be exhausting and time consuming and often with little to no breakthroughs in getting further back.
The amount of breakthroughs I have been able to find has been venturing into branches that aren't necessarily, directly related (or whom I'm searching for), but have had dealings of some sort with the person or relative I'm researching. Some of the common records; wills, depositions and deeds. And one that can be easily overlooked is the witnesses on marriage records.
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In the past week or so I have been going through some of my ancestors with a fine tooth comb yet again looking for new clues, and it can be exhausting and time consuming and often with little to no breakthroughs in getting further back.
The amount of breakthroughs I have been able to find has been venturing into branches that aren't necessarily, directly related (or whom I'm searching for), but have had dealings of some sort with the person or relative I'm researching. Some of the common records; wills, depositions and deeds. And one that can be easily overlooked is the witnesses on marriage records.
Witnesses to marriage records are fundamental. I used to buy some parish register marriage record CDs but many of the 1754-1837 marriage records just noted the names, dates and parish and omitted the vital witnesses, it seems some were taken from bishops transcripts. Now more scans of original records are coming online, it is easier to get names of the witnesses. Although it can be a kick in the gut when you find the witnesses, or one of them was a regular witness.
I also look at the 1710-1811 apprenticeship duties paid, and find several of my ancestors was listed as a master or apprentice. For example in 1745 in Burford, Oxfordshire I found my ancestor James Gater took on Thomas Wentworth as a baker apprentice. James' father James Gater was a maltster and may have come from Lambourn in Berkshire, and there was Wentworth families there, and one of them was a baker.