How reliable are other peoples trees

[Kevinshouse]

I have found someone on ancestry who has put a family tree on that slightly covers mine.  The thing is they appear to have more children  born to a couple that I didn't know existed.  George William Hutchinson and Elizabeth McMillan are on the 1891 census with their daughter Elizabeth who is one year old.  One the 1901 census they have Elizabeth, Ethel Born 1894 Eva born 1898 Ray (female) Born 1899 and George 6 months (George was a twin his sister Jessie died in the same quarter that she was born).  On the ancestry tree there are other children Jessie Born 1893, John Born 1895, Harry Born 1897 and the really tricky one Jane Born 1899 - this is the same year as Ray.  I thought they might be twins (twins run through my husbands family) but I cannot find a birth registration for a Jane.  All these children that I don't know about were born between census records and then seem to disappear.  Can anyone help me or give me some advice.  I have tried to view the 1911 census, but I keep getting page error on the free information site, just to see if any of these missing children turn up. 
Hope I make some sense here - I am going dizzy
Many thanks Susan

[Roger The Hat]

Hi, Susan,

I'm still a relative newcomer, no pun intended, so you may wish to take more experienced advice, but I found one tree on the 'net that linked to my wife's, through a marriage which I knew to be wrong (I already had the correct certificates).

By all means take pointers, but rely on your own research for the proof.

'Hat.

[Kevinshouse]

Many thanks for reply Roger the Hat - I think that you are correct in what you say, about relying on my own research.  This really threw a spanner in the works for me because I knew nothing of the these children,  They are my husbands family, and he believed that his grandfather was the only son born to his g grandparents after the girls (so find out there were some other brothers if this is true) was a big suprise - like I said before we knew that his grandfather was a twin - we have his birth certificate with the actual time of birth written on (the time of birth is always put on the  birth certificates of multipal births, my brother in law and sister in law have the times  they were born on their birth certificates and they are in their fifties). I wonder if they still put time of birth on the certificates of twins etc. these days.
Thanks for answering my request
Regards Susan

[Roger The Hat]

Having thought about it I can honestly say that I've never met any twins, let alone had any in our families, so I don't know about writing times on certificates - sorry!

Good Luck.

'Hat.

[AnneMc]

Hi there

my grandfather is a twin and the time is written on his birth certificate.  Think this was to common thing that was done.

Cheers
anne

[Erato]

My mother was a twin and there is no time on her certificate.

[Ruskie]

I would treat the other tree with caution. People do get mixed up which is easy to do. Perhaps there were two couples with these names having children and they've just lumped them all together? Have you checked the 1901 for another couple of the same name?

Have you tried to contact the owner of the tree to ask about these extra children and if they have sources?

It's possible but unusual to have so many children born so close together:
1890
1893
1894
1895
1897
1899
1899
1901
(hope I haven't missed any)
A gap of two years is more usual.

It's definitely the 1911 census you need to see if the production of children continued at this rate ....  

You could also purchase a birth certificate (or two) of some of the unknown children to check parent's names and occupations.

[danuslave]

There have been lots of discussions on RC about other people's trees and the general opinion is

use them as a pointer, but don't trust anything you can't verify yourself

Linda   

[KateHayes]

I totally agree with danuslave...

I have found many trees on ancestry that have my GGGGreat Grandparents as remarrying (which they never did) One tree even has them dying in Canada when i have their Death certificates and Grave receipt for Melbourne General Cemetery in Victoria, Australia!

Just use it as a guide.... and make sure you see documentation to prove these, as in certificates.

Cheers & Happy Researching