What do I do?

[TerriLea]

Hi All,

I don't know if this goes here or not... Sorry if it doesn't!!

I know family history can be frustrating when you get stuck at a brick wall, but what do you do when you come across pages of family history that is wrongly connected? I have certificates to verify things before even adding it to my own computer program for family history, how come so many people think if they find someone born in the same year, with the same name, that they think it's the right person? I've recently come across lots of my family history with wrong information, or connections. A friend was showing me how ancestry works, and all the benefits of it, and we looked at my family history, but there is a lot on Public Members Trees, that is wrong! SO do I now have to join Ancestry to let these people know that what they are putting up is wrong? A lot of it doesn't have any "citations" either, so it seems like because they can't find the real connection, they'll put in whatever they come across!
Just very, very frustrating!

There we go, I've had my vent, feel a little better, but still....what do I do?

Thanks for your help.

[Alexander.]

Hi TerriLea,

Welcome to RootsChat!

I think there is very little you should or can do - to contact and correct all the incorrect trees would be a thankless task that would probably not be very successful.

We have to consider why other people do their family history. Bizarre as it may seem to us, not everyone is researching their ancestors to find "the truth". People have varying degrees of interest - some try to "do" their family in an afternoon, while others spend countless hours in archives going through original documents. Some people may only be researching their tree to find their connection to royalty or illustrious individuals, and the finer details of how they are related my be insignificant (even if outright wrong).

To quote a message I got from one distant relative when I told her a branch of her tree was incorrect, she said:
"I can't find any other baptism for that name, so in the absence of anything else I'll leave it as it is for now. I have to admit that once you get that far back, I'm not that picky!! (it's not like a picture's going to turn up you can point to and say "that's my nose!!")"

Needless to say, I haven't been in touch with her much after that.

Alexander

[TerriLea]

Thanks Alexander,

I guess I hadn't looked at it that way...Silly me, thinking everyone wants to do it right! 

I guess I think it's frustrating because I make sure I get it right and spend money on certificates and try to do the right thing by others as well by making sure I have my family history connected properly. I have just received 5 certificates back, and 4 of them are right, but the 5th is something I just put down to "oh well, keep looking for the right ancestor!" But I guess some people don't really want to spend money to get the right family connection.

Terri.

[Deb D]

I firmly believe that the first and most enforceable rule of genealogy should be

"Thou SHALT do thine HOMEWORK ... and if thou art not prepared to do so, stop now!"

Sadly, it isn't yet legislated ....  

[Alexander.]

Well, you have my vote Deb   

[Deb D]

 

[TerriLea]

Yes Deb, I agree with you!

Would be great if all the family History sites wouldn't "join" family trees or upload info unless there is a citation connected to the info on it! Then just have a different spot to put "possibilities". 

[CarolA3]

Hi Terri 

A slightly odd woman ran up to me in the street a while ago shouting 'Claire! Claire! I haven't seen you for ages!'.  She would not accept that I wasn't Claire and insisted on telling me all about her personal life - very loudly, in public.

An apparently sane (and sober!) young woman in our local pub told me that she'd been talking to my daughter, who looks and sounds just like me, and I had to be so proud of her progress at college.  Guess what, I've never had a daughter.

In both cases I tried to set them straight, but they weren't having a bar of it.  There's nothing you can do about people whose minds are made up, even when you know you're right.  Just don't waste time and energy on them, and above all never waste a single penny/cent on trying to prove them wrong.

All the best,
Carol

[rancegal]

   Ah, but do you wonder about the mysterious family living in a parallel universe, Carol?