Some amazingly well researched trees

[7igerby7he7ail]

I always fancied that I might be a descendant of John of Gaunt [this is before I ever thought of Gen resaerch].
There are lots of people especially stateside who claim descent from John of Gaunt.
Anyhow I digress, I have found in the IGI, women bearing children at the age of 8 and 94.
Which brings me to another point, one of my co-workers found out that I was interested in genealogical research and brought in his family tree that had been researched by a 'professional' researcher. I offered to check some of the data for him, needless to say, most of the research had been done via the IGI, '81 census, VRI etc and a lot of it looked like guesswork. I dug further. I only got back as far as his g grandparents and discovered a BIG error, This 'professional' had assumed a birthdate without checking, I checked and found two people of the same name, christened 5 years apart in the same church, with entirely different parentage and unrelated, the researcher had chosen the wrong one!. so my friend had a tree that was 80% not his.
I corrected it all and my friend now has a tree going back[so far] to 1670 and free!
Has anybody else encountered shoddy work by researchers commercial or otherwise?

Tom G

[Clincher]

Hallo Tom, if someone hires a 'professional' to do a 'total' job I guess it is because the client is unable to do the job him/herself because he/she is (a) distant from the sources (especially if they are overseas) and/or (b) lacks time and/or (c) doubts his/her own skills. If all those circs exist the 'professional' might be tempted to cut corners and the client will probably never have a chance to verify the work. I hope that in the case of a qualified member of the Society of Genealogists that would never happen.
As I think I said earlier in this same thread I get too much fun/interest out of doing my own tree and, unless a special area of expertise were needed, I would never call in a pro. It follows that I have no personal experience of any shoddy work but you hear of others...
Changing the subject slightly in a fascinating UK Channel 4 TV prog a few days ago about the Peasants Revolt 1381, it was alleged that the financial plundering of one John of Gaunt was partly responsible for the peasants discontent......Not winding you up or anything but what do you know?

[7igerby7he7ail]

Which reminds me of the joke............

'Sire,Sire, the peasnts are revolting!'

to which the reply

'The peasants have always been revolting'

Tom G

[CarolBurns]

The high you get from finding and conifrming the "right" person cannot be found over night but after years of hard work.  You can tell a person who is searching for their roots by the glazed over look in their eyes and the excitment they have when they open the mail and they have to tell everyone they know they found the "missing" link!
- Kristin

I know this is an old post but thought I would go through them all and see what there was.

Anyway I found this and sat there laughing to myself as this description is me! 
I have a constant glazed over look and am always trying to work out the next road to look down if I have a brick wall across another. If I get any mail that is in an envelope with my own writing I know it is something of much greater importance than the gas or electric bill (lol my priorities there being - Family research,telephone (for the broadband)  food, gas, electric, rates and any other bill that follows after)


"  I want to do them justice by trying to find out the real story of how I came to be. My ancestors were no one famous but I am on a journey to make their lives known to me and to future generations.  Even if they were a tailor or ag laborer or iron worker or cotton weaver or the best is vermin catcher.  Their lives are unique and they would be amazed that we care so much to know about them.  "

I also feel this way Kristen - they seem to come alive with each bit of info I find for them and especially with photos

Carol

[nutkin]

Carol,

Funny that you brought up my old post.  I have been in a nit of a rut with my tree. Just no new leads and seem to be spinning my wheels in place.  Nice to read and refresh myself on what I am doing with my tree.

[Burrow Digger]

I couldn't resist playing in the worldconnect site and found 1227 entries for Adam and Eve on people's submitted databases!!!

I take a strong dislike to anyone who makes such claims that they are descended from Royalty, and  that they keep mentioning this connection frequently. 
I choose to ignore anything further that they have to say or post.


BD


 

[MarieC]

Carol

Thanks for bringing up this post!  I hadn't seen it before, and it is very relevant.  I've enjoyed reading it.

Re people tracing ancestors to BC people, I had an LDS member tell me that she had done just that, one day when I was at the LDS.  Yeah, right.  I just smiled sweetly and said something like, "How interesting".

But I don't want to poke fun at the LDS; they are kind and helpful, and I don't know where I would be without them.  The Director at my local centre, though, gets driven mad by genealidiots!!  He told me that a woman came in one day and said she wanted to look for her Gran.  He said, "Righto, what was your Gran's name?"  She replied, "Oh, Gran - that's what I knew her as"      Head-banging time!!

MarieC

[allycat]

I couldn't resist playing in the worldconnect site and found 1227 entries for Adam and Eve on people's submitted databases!!!

I take a strong dislike to anyone who makes such claims that they are descended from Royalty, and  that they keep mentioning this connection frequently. 
I choose to ignore anything further that they have to say or post.


BD


 

Hello fellow Rootschatters, I've just been reading all your posted messages and I heartily agree with all of you.

I had been trying to find a message I saw posted on one of those genforums think it was for Germany/Prussia wherein this guy reckoned he was King something or other the third (III) of Prussia.  And boy did he get blasted by a genealogist who knew all about Prussia's history.  Phew.  Wish I could have found the link for you all ... but boy did I have a giggle. 

I'm quite proud of all the farmers, convicts, agricultural labourers, yeomen, etc that I have in my tree.  But more importantly, I feel for all the silent voices of women of whom you usually can't find anything about.  Most often than not their names are usually "Mary unknown" or something like that.  You know that they would have birthed maybe 10 or 13 live children (or more), and then ended up dying in childbirth with the last one ... with their husbands only to remarry so they could have someone to tend the children (and have more children).

http://scproductionsweb.tripod.com/

And I think about the high infant mortality rate, how all the dear little babies died of the simplest things, and all the heartbreak that that entailed.

And I absolutely treasure the teensiest bits of information that I am able to dig up. Most especially the photographs, and I am forever grateful that there is a photograph restoration board on this site.  As I have received some photographs in the most dreadful state, and somebody somewhere has been able to not only fix them, but make them colour as well.  Truly amazing.

And when I hold the restored photo and look into my ancestors eyes, I feel like I have done something for them, and that they know.  (Sorry, also the sign of a 'true' family historian.)

Allycat.

[Headbanger Veron]

I totally agree with most of what everyone has said here. There's nothing like finding the info out yourself, it beats using someone else's research into a cocked hat. I also agree about treating the trees on any of the free hosted sites with a great deal of caution.

Having said that, I do actually use Rootsweb to host my own family tree (as carefully researched as I am able to make it) as I find that their security is much better than (e.g.) GenesReunited, where you cannot cut out all the living people. It's what you make of it in the end, I have looked on all those sites and found other people looking for my ancestors, some a lot better researched than others, and contacted a couple of people with no reply.

On the other hand I have been contacted myself by someone who found an ancestor of his, who married someone in my tree, so hopefully I've managed to help him in his own research.

Veron