Uneasy about online tree

[yn9man]

This is one of the better threads of late.

I am in complete agreement with suttontrust, kerryb and Helina. 

You are probably right that the sites don't care if the information is correct or not. The more information the sites contain the more "researchers" the site will attract. Hence the probability of incorrect or wrong information.

Annoying .... very much so but what can we do about it?

yn9man

[Inchworm]

Not a lot prob. At least on GR people have to ask to view your tree. Trouble is they all seem nice at first - then they add everything to their own tree, including your own name. Would be polite to ask first.
Oh dear, I sound like a "Grumpy Old Genealogist" 

[kerryb]

So do I Inchworm, but I've had my fingers burnt once too often now!!!

Kerry 

[senojekips]

I am quite ambivalent about this matter.

In general, I have found that most persons whom I have contacted about my tree are completely selfish. (Those who regard themselves as more serious genealogists are generally by far the worst). They all want a copy of your work, but often will not even give you their own details or those of their family. I would estimate that this applies in one degree or another to more than 90% of all persons contacted.

So for many years I had a strict policy that they must provide some information regarding themselves and immediate family before I would send them what I had. It didn't seem to work, so now I just give my info to everyone who asks, at least sometimes they will contact you to point out a possible error.

Expect nothing in return, that way you are never disappointed, and sometimes you have a win. It is far better for your blood pressure and you will live longer.

Now my tree has become fairly large (12,000+ entries) it would be impossible to give credit to all of those who helped me, so in effect I am only giving away (sharing) information which for the better part was given to me. In this case, the tree does not belong to the person who has compiled it, but to all of those who have provided information in the first place. I now merely regard it as a Family resource which belongs to "the Family".

Personal information, is private and as such is covered in this country (Australia) by the Privacy Act, but no one has proprietorship of family history regardless of how much time and money it has cost them.

I compile my tree as a family resource and for my own pleasure. I have long since given up hoping for any recognition as in most cases it will just never happen. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to many hundreds of people who have helped over the years. My way of showing that gratitude, is by sharing that information with others of the family.

My advice is to make your records freely available to the public, but do so in a manner that would require a lot of work to transcribe, that way persons wanting large slabs of your info will generally get in touch with you asking for a Gedcom. Then you can negotiate some form of exchange of information.

Anyway, that's just my view.

[yn9man]

Trouble is they all seem nice at first - then they add everything to their own tree, including your own name. Would be polite to ask first.
Oh dear, I sound like a "Grumpy Old Genealogist"

So do I Inchworm, but I've had my fingers burnt once too often now!!!

Kerry

Couldn't agree more kerry.  Nothing worse than "burnt fingers". Has caused me to build brick walls around myself and information ...and I really don't need anymore brick walls .... the relatives do that already.

yn9man

[senojekips]

I also noticed a discussion on disclaimers as to the accuracy of information on the last page.

I feel that disclaimers should be entirely unnecessary, as no one can reasonably expect that information in a tree is any better than than the records used to compile it. Even the public records contain errors. (Many many errors)

e.g. In my tree my one of my Gt gt Grand fathers was shown in the 1881 Census as being a female. (See Francis Clark b. 1816),

 Name     Relation    Marital Status    Gender    Age    Birthplace    Occupation    Disability
 Francis CLARK      Head      W      Female      65      Cumberland, England            
 Robert CLARK      Son      M      Male      29      Newcastle, Northumberland, England      Coal Miner      
     
Source Information:
    Dwelling     71 South Row
     Census Place    Horton, Northumberland, England

ANY information found in ANY family tree is no better than "the best information available at the time" transcribed with all due care.
No guarantees can be given or implied by anyone regardless of how much care is taken.

This applies to all family trees regardless of the owners assurances. And anyone who expects any more than this is just fooling themselves.

[suttontrust]

I have seen family trees which are based on pure guesswork.  I was researching a tree and was happy to find one of its twigs on a tree online.  Unfortunately, I spotted a flaw straight away.  They had found someone with the same name, assumed it was him, and put it out that he was a servant at Buckingham Palace for a few years conveniently between censuses.  I emailed through the site to say that they'd made a mistake since the guy was in the local directories back in Scarborough, working at an entirely different profession, for all those years.  I got no reply.  If we're all doing our research properly, saying that we don't know when we don't, and giving our sources, all well and good.  But not everybody does!

[senojekips]

I must admit that I too have found "convenient" people added to trees. And I must also say that I have entered people who look like probable additions to mine, but always put (Possible Connection Only) alongside their name. Generally I try to weed these out before passing any information to others. Or inform the receiver that they are only included for research purposes as a "possibility".

I am also very wary of persons added that have "famous" connections. It is amazing the number of persons who contact me about my Hepple connections who tell me we are related to the Hepplewhites of Furniture  renown and that the family were either famous and/or rich. I think that I have as much information as any on this branch of the family and have never found any possible connection. The truth being that they were tenant farmers and later coal miners in the north of Northumberland who spread to Durham.

Family stories handed down orally seem to be the worst sources of these "Furphies" and should be investigated carefully before adding them to the family tree.

[KathMc]

I am also very wary of persons added that have "famous" connections. It is amazing the number of persons who contact me about my Hepple connections who tell me we are related to the Hepplewhites of Furniture  renown and that the family were either famous and/or rich. I think that I have as much information as any on this branch of the family and have never found any possible connection. The truth being that they were tenant farmers and later coal miners in the north of Northumberland who spread to Durham.

I couldn't agree with you more on this one. I have an uncle who has insisted on a lot of fabrications, including being related to a big furniture company in NYC. I was able to prove that false, but his daughter keeps holding back our research by insisting on believing everything he said.

I still like to share though. I haven't had the kind of luck that senojekips has had. I have had great luck in contacting and sharing. I have also found inaccurate trees online, like the one that has my great-granddad married to a competely different person, and my Irish gg grandmother married to a Russian man, instead of my Irish gg grandfather. I have contacted both tree owners and they don't respond. I also had the woman, who when I contacted her and then mailed a package out to her, I never heard from her and she removed her tree.

But the positives have outweighed the negatives for me and I have shared a lot of info, received a lot from distant relatives, and made some great friends of my new relatives.

Kath