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A recent distant cousin questioning the validity of a family photo got me re-examining other photos I have "collected" over the years doing family research.

The following two photos were the results of googling the names of 'Frederick William Cooper' and 'Rose Chesterman.' I may have added other queries with that, but this being 12 years ago now, I have forgotten. I do recall it was an independent website centred around genealogy, and that the names, dates and locations all corresponded, so I thought this a great find. I never got a response from the website owner, so just plowed on thinking I was correct.

However, recent validity of other photos has made me look at these photos with a newly critical eye. Frederick was born 1870 and died 1940. Rose was born 1871 and died 1947. Both in Oxford.

I suppose these photos to be of older origin, and I can't shake the feeling these two are American and not English looking dress wise.

Any help and advice would be appreciated.

Awesome news! Now there will be even more potential cousins not bothering to investigate their ancestry beyond what the DNA test states. What a great move by Ancestry. I'm sure it won't be negative at all.

As the title suggests, there is a potential DNA connection that works out spot on paper trail wise. The only part that has me being hesitant to believe both the paper trail and the DNA connection is the inclusion of two children with the same names whilst both are still alive.

eg: Richard married Sarah and named their 3rd child Elizabeth b.1738 - d.1791.

Sarah dies and Richard remarries to a Hester and eventually has another child (9th) named Elizabeth b.1752.

Was this a thing that happened? I've never seen it happen before.

It occurs mostly where some of the other trees from which Ancestry is taking its thrulines have:
a) only got one half of the couple in their tree
2) both people are there but not spelt in exactly the same way as you have so Ancestry is unsure whether they are the same people

Pheno

Thanks for responding. I had noticed a few had one parent and not the other, or both parents but with different spellings, and even locations, but really I hadn't thought Ancestry would not compensate for spelling differences.

You would be better going by the amount of cMs, % (Percentage) & Segments to try & determine the relationship with your match & any Shared Matches.

It may be worth trying the LEEDS Method...

https://www.yourdnaguide.com/leeds-method

Annie

Thank you, Annie. I'll give that guide a go.

Does that help ?

It certainly has. Thank you.

I have noticed a couple of mispellings, or add-ons to the names, and even some stars and other emojis which must puzzle the algorithm. Having looked back on a couple of lines that weren't matching correctly, the system has now altered their guess to including both parents, and these were on lines I started sorting out and adding descendants to, so ultimately it's on me to check, check and add to help the system auto-correct.

One of the ones that I found most surprising is that by default Ancestry uses the genealogical standard format for dates, (ie dates in the form 22 Sep 2022). Not that it is surprising that a genealogical programme using the standard genealogical format (though ironically the "British" Find my Past does not). What was surprising to me at least, was that most importantly she stressed that any other format can, as she put it, "confuse" the algorithm they use, not just in cases like 5/12/22 (is it 12th May or 5th Dec) but even for example 22 SEPTEMBER 2022 or even 22nd Sep 2022.

That is interesting! Something so minute has a potential to confuse. I admittedly make an effot to format my date as 22nd Sep 2022, and notice a lot of other users stick by what Ancestry defaults. Perhaps my "tidying up" of the dates has hindered me.

Thanks for the reply, and thank you to the others who replied. It looks like I have a bit of work to get on with. 

My first glance was Question but it didn't seem right 

At least you could decipher it. 
I've genuinely never heard of that surname before. You learn something new everyday.