Is this cheating?

[grandma]

A little over 4 years ago I put my first query on Roots Chat. Got a reply from someone I think was called Pauline. From the info she gave me we were able to find 4 different family trees. Rishworth from 1350, Barkisland from1200 through to Gledhill,1292 and Barker abt.1562. Needless to say we downloaded all the info and put it on FTM.  Almost over night got several hundred names on my tree. Since then I,ve found thanks to Root Chat people loads more, but I still think I,ve done something not quite according to Doyle, using all the info someone else has done.
My ggggrandmother was Nancy Gledhill who marrid Joseph Barker in 1806.
Mary

[LizzieW]

It's not cheating, but not as satisfying as find out the information yourself.

If the information wasn't verified it might not be correct.  Did the people who gave you the family history, also give you details of all the parish records searched, etc. for pre 1837 records?  I've been given a lot of information about branches of  my family tree, but I always check it out thoroughly before adding the information to my tree.  In some cases, the dates of births, marriages or deaths have been wrong, and quite often place of birth has been wrong.

Lizzie

[grandma]

Thats exactly how I felt by not finding the info myself. It was  all  through info from LDS, so felt reasonably sure it had been properly investigated. I,ve since found other tree resembling the ones we found and they were the same thought they could be copies.
Mary

[grandma]

Should have said Hoyle...l
Mary

[meles]

No, not cheating. You should take advantage of all sources.

However, I do feel I know most of the people on my tree as it's taken blood, sweat and tears (and several quid on certificates!) to find them one by one. As a result, I sometimes I follow some lines from intuition, which often prove fruitful.

I suggest you now look carefully at your tree, so that you get to know them all.

meles

[behindthefrogs]

Submitted entries to the LDS are one of the major sources of error.  They creep into a large number of trees and there is a huge danger that you use one of these trees to confirm that yours is correct.

In one of my branches some years ago I discovered an error which had been made some twenty years earlier by an elderly lady.  I tried to discuss this with her niece but she stopped communicating with me because I had the audacity to question her aunt's tree.

I am now aware of this error having been copied onto at least half a dozen trees published on GR.  I am 100% sure because I have checked the parish register and I have found the place where she combined two adjacent marriages to get the wrong wife.

David

[glenclare]

I am almost in the same situation on my fathers side as you. Not long after I started I contacted a distant rellie who, unknown to me, had actually published the family tree which went back to 1300's. I was sent a copy. I briefly glanced at it to confirm it was the right family and haven't looked at it since or done any work on that side of the family. That was over a year ago, and there is no joy in doing anything about it. It is detailed, well sourced, and doesn't mean a thing to me. I hope at some time I will be able to get over the feeling and be able to look for it all myself as finding out about my Dad's family was why I started in the first place.

[grandma]

Have studied these different trees and seen how the different branches have come to-gether to my ggggrandmother. Have found a lot info on the net about the different families. Of cource I cant be positive that every thing is true, not doing it myself and seeing the proof myself. Makes good reading though. I,d never in a hundred years had the time or knowledge to find it all. Still have it in the back of my head though that it,s not my work.
Mary

[nickgc]

What I do when I find other trees that seem to connect to mne is make note of them, and sometimes even copy the gedcom.  I don't put them into my tree without first verifying as others have stated.

For example, a year ago I discovered that a GG GM was a Chisholm.  It took me a year  (off & on) to verify siblings, parents, etc.  A couple of weeks ago I came across a book done in late 1890s or early 1900s called "History of the Chisholms".  It is a scholarly work that takes this line back to the mid-1200s and posits that the original line came to Scotland with William the Conqueror.  It is very interesting reading, but I will not put all of these people in my tree until I verify them (if ever) myself.

Echoing meles , I feel the need to do the research that helps me know these people: otherwise I'd just be collecting names to no real purpose.

Nick