How do you tell someone they have got their tree wrong?

[mofid42]

I am wondering what is the best way to approach someone who I know has got their tree wrong from the beginning

I already tried twice last year as politely and gently as I could to tell them  that they had the wrong parents  so subsequently the rest of the ancestors were incorrect too...(basically my ancestors, not theirs!)  Although they replied and told me they were researching for a friend, they took no notice and carried on as before. Consequently they now have generations of my ancestors, their photo's, documents etc all attached to the wrong person.

Should I bother or just leave them to their ignorance?

[lizdb]

You have already bothered, it seems.

I would just ignore them, and concentrate yourself on researching a correct tree.

The worrying thing though is always that in the future people take incorrect trees that people have put on to websites as FACT , as a source, rather than going back to proper records.
You see it already on here when people quote something  e.g Jane Bloggs was born in 1822 in Croydon and when you say what was the source, the reply is "a tree on Ancestry" or similar.
The main reason why I never ever will put my tree on to the web! Dont want someone to wrongly attach it to people who are NOT related!

[groom]

Hi

This problem is often discussed on here, it's a difficult one. If I were you I would try again, perhaps giving them as much proof as you can as to why you think they are wrong, and saying that you are only telling them as you hate to think that they are wasting time following the wrong family, and that you would be very pleased if someone did the same for you. Once you have done that, if they still ignore it, there isn't a lot you can do. If they are researching for a friend it may be that they have already given them information and now don't want to admit that they were wrong.

If they have a tree on Ancestry there is the opportunity for you to add a comment, you could say on there that it is the wrong family so that others see it.

Jan

[mofid42]

Thanks Liz and Jan

I am frustrated by them. Last year  I explained why I knew they had got it wrong as I had documentation etc to back up my research. But they didn't even query what I told them, instead just carried on adding more and more, copying everything from a public tree that belongs to one of my cousins (mines private)

Finally fed up with their behaviour I wrote a comment on their tree stating that the tree was wrong....never heard another thing for months, then today they started working on the tree again, still adding all the wrong people.

I can see why they have gone wrong. Their ancestor has the same name as my ancestor and born about a year before mine but the birth registration for their ancestor is missing from FreeBMD, however it is on FindMyPast. I thought about writting to tell them this information but them wondered why I should bother.
If someone had written to me and told me I had gone wrong I would have taken notice and spent ages double checking everything!

[danuslave]

Just ignore them!  You've done your best already and they've taken no notice.

As long as you are sure that your research is correct, you can't solve the rest of the (Family History) world's problems - frustrating as that may be   

Linda

[BW252]

I would love it if someone told me something was wrong with my tree.   There must be loads of people who see something wrong with a tree but do not say so, in my case I would thank them very much for putting me right.   I would hate it if, in the future, some desendant of mine found out that my family tree is a load of rubbish because I did not listen to other people.

[meles]

Someone has done that to me. Very tactful. "Do you think...?" "Did you check...?" "What was your source...?"

And, my goodness, he was right!  

I am sort of disappointed, but pleased to get it all back on track. Trying to uncouple people in FTM and attach them to the right people.  

meles

[Gone]

I came across a web page that someone had put wrong information on. It referrd to a woman as being "married" to the man in whos house she lived for some years. she had several illigitimate children and even though the births were not registered and no records named a father, not even the childrens marriage certificates the web page claimed that the same man married to her was the childrens father. this was very misleading and anyone googling the family name would come across the web page.
I tried to contact the person but was unsuccesful.
Just goes to show you, dont trust other peoples research.
griff

[sallysmum]

You can only do so much.  I've had this situation recently.  The cousin was adamant that he was right and I pointed to compelling evidence that suggested I was right (I am keen to point out that in lots of cases, you don't entirely know for sure and that you are making educated conections based on a lot of factors).  Eventually he did see it my way which although I was pleased at, his reply was 'I've decided to put x's parents as y' - no recognition that that was my research!

He is very much a name collector - in the first few weeks that I was in contact with him, I kept getting email notifications that his tree on A******y had new names.  It is so much easier at times when you cannot find a rellie to make something up!  My tree is on that website but technology got the better of me  and thus it is very sparse.  I don't mind sharing info with genuine researchers but it has to be a 2 way thing.  I wasn't getting anything back from him.  I don't see why I should do all the hard work and someone else get the credit for it.

rant over!

sallysmum