Family history is thoroughly corrupted

[spark]

What is more annoying is when you find wrong information, point it out to them and they don't get in contact with you!

Recently I bought a male relatives death cert, death was notified by wife B.  I was certain this was my man and I knew wife A had died >20y previous in childbirth.  So trawlled freeBMD found 2nd marriage for my man to wife B and bought cert.  All present and correct. Updated my tree on ancestry with wife B.  She appears on 4 other trees, with out marriage to my man and all quote  a the same death details!  I took the pain to ask them all (4) to confirm source of death as I thought it was wrong.  Needless to say only 2 bothered to contact me back and I filed them in on what I had found.  One of those despite quoting a death date on their online tree even asked me to "if I knew the death cert to let them know"

Spark

[Luzzu]

I found my family on a tree with refs to living people, I have asked three times for them to contact me, then requested that all refs to my tree be removed but have received no reply.

I also found a tree with references to living people including myself, my sisters and cousins and as the owner hadn't obtained the information from me or my close family it wasn't that accurate either. I contacted the tree owner and made a complaint to Ancestry.  Ancestry said they investigated but because the information on the tree was incomplete, i.e., not full dates of births it wasn't in breach of their conditions.   The tree owner hasn't removed them and doesn't seem bothered that she has caused offence.
 

I do have my tree on Ancestry and Genes but I am very careful who I open them to and never reveal living persons.  When sharing photographs and documents, I have also learned my lesson as someone I thought I could trust just uploaded a photograph without asking.  They have paid a price though because I have since uncovered some new photographs which I know they would die for but no way.  Whenever I share something now, I make it a condition that it is kept for private use within the family and everyone agrees and I think that without exception everyone has said they prefer to work anyway.

I have noticed two trees which include my gt grandparents and gt, gt grandparents and which are totally inaccurate.  Its like the owner has just taken pot luck with the census returns.   I have thought about contacting the owners but then I think they wouldn't have gone so wrong if they were researching properly and from reading some of the replies tonight, would they thank me  for it?

On the positive side, I have made a handful of excellent contacts (distant cousins) who I can trust and it has been a pleasure working with them and we have really helped each other.   Making contact with these people and joining Rootschat have made my research all the more pleasurable as I think sometimes it can be a lonely hobby.

 

Luzzu

[joboy]

.......  A data source box/window should be a compulsory 'tick'. 

Excellent and right to the point!!
Verification .. Verification .. and Verification!! ... the 'tick' would be a great way to minimise those expansive trees.
I dont explore trees which list over 10,000 entries on the basis that the owner must be either very rich to have afforded so many (listing cousins so far removed etc) or the owner has just not understood the importance of verifying.
Of course it is wonderful when one contacts another who is happy to pass on the actual verification ... that has happened to me I am glad to say.
Nick29 said of my original post;
"That seems rather selfish to me.  If everyone adopted that attitude, what would be the point of sites like Ancestry or GR"
Well I have no answer to that ..... I joined the first site that you mentioned and am getting good value from it but only on my terms ... which are simply not to place my tree there and I have benefitted by being able to remove lots of dross and through this am able to find little gems with new found relations.
Footnote ... I know that many wont believe this but one tree that had a few names in it that interested me listed over 100,000 names ........ I ask you 'is it possible?'.
Joe

[Guy Etchells]

I have been doing family history research for over 50 years and I have at least one tree/database with well over 11,000 names on it.
I have others with around 2,500 names.
None of my trees have been grabbed from the web in fact most of the research was done before the internet was invented and much even before the IGI was invented.

My online trees do not show sources simply because the programs used at the time did not have the facility to show sources (even though they held them).
I may eventually re-upload my online trees with sources but this takes time and I have other more pressing things to do.

As far as I am concerned an online tree is simply a guide to what records may be available. If the researcher who uses any online resource cannot be bothered to check then that is their look-out.

Eventually new comers to family history (including those who have only used online sources) will realise that many if not most sources contain errors.
Even official sources (census, births, marriages deaths, baptisms burials etc. etc. contain errors and must be checked against other sources.
Only when a number of different sources of information have been assembled can the possibilities be weighed and a conclusion reached.

Family history research involves balancing the accuracy from many secondary sources as virtually no primary sources exist.
Even where a primary source exists it is only a primary source for a small proportion of the information it contains.
Cheers
Guy

[Lesanne]

Hello Guy & Joe..

I can understand Guy, you don't want to start the mammoth task of thousands of sources  that would take another 50yrs +   
         
                       Any new data, just a name, even 'self' or TBC (to be confirmed) would stop wholesale copying and let people new to our 'addiction' see the justified entry.

Best wishes,
Lesanne.

[kerryb]

I'm sure some people would simply ignore TBC 

Someone once said, not sure if it was on here that if it is on the web it must be true - NOT! 

Kerry

[Lesanne]

    Hi kerry,  Yep, they have.... and added the futher 3 generations..... after I'd put TBC... cause they've copied the lot    and it's all wrong family.... 

   Well, I'm NOT gonna tell them.... 

     OOO.. is that naughty of me.

[Nick29]

I'm sure some people would simply ignore TBC 

Yes, they do !  I added two "possibles" to my tree, and clearly put "NOT CONFIRMED - COPY AT YOUR OWN RISK" in the details.

Within a month, three people had copied it.  I think this is partially the fault of Ancestry - their hints only show the basic "facts", and not the actual page containing them.

The bottom line is, of course, that hobbies mean more to some than to others.  Some people have a train layout, and are quite happy to watch a plastic model go round and round in circles for hours, whilst others have to build everything themselves, exactly to scale, and exactly to period and region.  They both probably get the same amount of pleasure from it.

For most of us, genealogy is just a hobby, and we all have our own ways of doing things.  My tree currently stands at around 5,500 names, and the accuracy of the data in my tree really depends on how far you stray from the main branches.  When I hit "dead ends", I will often look down branch lines, to see if I can pick up any clues.  I have also researched the branches of cousins at their request, but I draw the line on obtaining certificates for their family, so they're not fully verified either.  Now, that may fit in with the ways of some others, but I'm not doing it for them - I'm doing it for me, and I'm not forcing anyone to look at my tree.  I think we spend far too much time in this country worrying about what other people are doing  

[MarkyP]

Everyone has made some really good points, but as Nick has pointed out, it is basically a hobby for most people! It is done for your own pleasure or gratification and as long as you do what you think is right for your own tree, then no one can fault you. However, if you choose to show it off to the world, you have to accept the consequences and be prepared for other people to disagree with your findings, hence the reason for having sources to back up anything you have. You also have to accept that the same people might just plunder all your hard work for their own. It has been happening since the beginning of time, either through the spoken language or the written word, it is what people do! Future genealogists will have to sift through all the various family trees done by different branches of the same family and decide which is the right one, lets hope they choose yours!