RootsChat.Com

Hi, idiot here, because apparently my tree size alone is enough is 'proof' that I don't know the concept of genealogical proof standards." Interesting that one measurement can be consider proof of not valuing evidence.

I have been researching for 26 years.  It is my sole hobby, I also have no social life.  So when I'm not working, doing housework or parenting I work on my tree.  So I have put a lot of hours into it.  I very much value evidence and trying to do it properly.  I can say that not one error in my tree has been down to lack of trying.  Tiredness perhaps, conflicting sources eg when people make up a father on marriage certs to hide illegitimacy.  When I find a mistake, I work to correct it.

Not one of my sources are another tree from Ancestry.  My sources are from a wide range: BDM certificates, parish records, kirk session minutes, census returns, shipping records, passport applications, university matriculation records, graduation records, poor law records, professional registers, employment records, family records, family Bibles, books that people on my tree have written (as evidence of work they produced not of names etc), newspaper BDM records, newspaper articles, tax records, wills, probate calendar entries, prison records, court records, HEIC records, Commonwealth War graves, medal rolls, honours lists, Hansard, to name a few.

Numbers do add up.  Just one small part of my tree.  There's me obviously, I have been married twice (may as well add another failing) and I have 2 children.  Granted that's only 5 people. 

Then we add in the siblings from my generation which is 6 and 5 of them have married so far.  I record the parents of a spouse when adding them as part of their identification so that is up to 24 people.

Between them they have had 10 children so far, one of whom married and had a child so far which takes us up to 38.

Add in my parents and those of my ex husbands, then add the 35 siblings they had between them which makes 79. 31 of these siblings married and had 84 children between them taking my tree to 260.

Of these children 60 of them have married so far and 175 children have been born so far.  That's 621 people. 

Every single one of these people were born after 1900.  I have met 75% of these people and the remaining 25% of them I know people who met them.  Repeat this process for grandparents, their siblings etc and the numbers mount up fast.  I have spent many days in Scotland's People Centres and before that New register house before it was digitised.  If you plan these visits you can get a lot done in one day.

It's not compulsory to read my posts HTH.

I do find though that an overabundance of self-confidence can make it difficult for people to consider alternative explanations for things such as people finding an outlet for their frustrations to make it easier to hide how they're feeling from loved ones such as their children.  Or perhaps any negative views they may have have been shaped and reinforced by those who cannot help but tell them what they think of them.

I second that,  we are here as a support to anyone .

Surely courts are there to help  however complicated  a case is,  that is what they get paid for

LM

They are there to uphold abuser's rights.  They never help, only punish.  The letter I got from the court at the very beginning made it clear that the only way to avoid an adverse outcome was to concede to all demands but I know that he would just ask for more and more.

Feeling upset and angry today.  Yesterday my daughter got another offer yesterday but it was a conditional.  Please don't get me wrong it is not that it is a conditional but what the condition is.  Because of her postcode the condition is that she attend summer school otherwise they think that she wouldn't handle uni.  I have looked it up and the summer school is advertised as for students meeting a list of disadvantages who narrowly missed the entry requirements to help them make up credits.  There are two entry requirements the preferred and the slightly lower minimum, my daughter met the preferred grades so does not need extra credits.  Since she stayed at school, if they wanted to put in a condition they could have asked for a particular grade in one or more of the subjects that she is doing this year.  That seems fairer as would then be based on her personal work and achievements rather than placing an extra barrier in her way (that will have costs attached) based on my failure at life.

To make matters worse the media here is full of articles saying that Edinburgh uni is making offers to poorer students, who don't deserve it at the expense of more deserving students from better backgrounds because they have "gone all woke".  That has infuriated me.  She earned those grades with her own intelligence and hard work and she did this while being dragged through court. AFAIC she earned and deserves her place at least as much as any student out there.  I fully accept that I am a failure, that people view me as sub-human scum, the sign of all that is wrong with this world.  But why do my children have to penalised and written off because of it, it shouldn't wipe out their genuine achievements.  She studied the same courses and sat the same exams as the children of proper parents so her grades should be judged on the same level.

Her Dad's family want her to accept the conditional offer as they see it as such a good university.  I don't want her to as I think the nature of the condition indicates that it would not be a supportive learning environment and may be actively nasty, make her feel like she doesn't belong.  That is not conduisive to her best university experience.  I'd rather she go where she is wanted, excel and show the b****ds

Whoever he is complaining to must realise that he hasn’t seen the house for years so he won’t have a clue what it’s like, and therefore he is wasting their time and (someone’s) money.

Public money as Social services have to investigate every report.

The logic is that he cannot have his rights stepped on.  He is deliberately not doing anything about collecting it to extend control.  Also means he can accuse me of hoarding and be sure there is some 'evidence' of it