When you find an error on someone else's tree, do you tell them?

[patty38]

Can i Just say that I was contacted by someone after I added a photo to my tree, in good faith and after much research and it turned out to be no relation, just the same name . They had gone to all the trouble of finding a record of my relation which proved my information was wrong but also confirmed other information about the rest of my family was correct so I was very grateful to them.
I thanked them for their help and was happy to remove the photo and other information so now my tree is as true as possible.
We all make mistakes at times and hopefully learn from them. I look at other trees now but don't add anything unless I have my own proof.

[Duodecem]

I had details of my 3x g.grandfather on my Ancestry tree and I was contacted by a distant relative telling me that I was 3 years and 3 miles out with his date and place of birth -and, of course all his ancestors were wrong as well!
I checked the facts with the help of Rootschat and found that she was correct.
Not only was I able to correct my tree, I also made contact with a relative who lives in the area of our ancestors and is able to visit the PRS whereas I am 250 miles away and researching online.
So -I  reckon you should always tell someone about their errors but don't waste time with loads of details and documents. If they are interested they'll contact you for more information -and they ought to pay for copies and postage too!

[Ringrose]

Tonight I found my great grandmother with totally the wrong parents on Ancestry.....the births of the few children mentioned wrong .Although born in London her parents were Scottish with a strange spelling of her surname.Having in my possession the BMDs I know Im right and feel so annoyed that someone has really put down impossible names for parents.This person really has to only look at censuse to get the family.
I was so annoyed I put a comment on th page.
Ringrose

[Blue70]

I realised that the death/burial information I had for someone on my tree was incorrect so the person might still be alive. It was a pain trying to convince someone who had hoovered up my tree that they needed to change their details for this person because they might be alive.


Blue

[Duodecem]

Hmm well, after reading all these replies I thought I'd better email when I found my grandmother married off to the wrong man on someone's Ancestry tree.
The problem with Ancestry hints is that it's very easy to link up people with very similar names. Some of the errors are obvious -children supposedly born after the death of  their mother, for example and you wonder why people don't check.
However some errors are easily made, the marriage that wasn't my grandmother's took place 10 years after her marriage, but the town and the bride's name were both the same.
My family also -like many others I imagine, had the habit of repeating the same names in various combinations through the generations ,so William Joshua begat Joshua William, while his brother Samuel George had George Joshua and William Samuel and I won't begin to mention the variations on Mary Ann.
Didn't they think of the poor genealogists of the future!

[joboy]

What is important is that you are confident that your own efforts are correct and that you have the appropriate records.
We are all likely to have areas that we are uncertain about and the best thing to do is raise them on rootschat where there are so many people who are experts at ferreting out information in places that you would never believe.
I,personally, would not tell anyone that their tree is incorrect as it may lead to an argumentative state which is unpleasant at any time.
Just 'plug on' and maintain 'your 'objective and disregard anything that you know is wrong or suspect.
Joe

[fruitytooty]

I just had to respond to this one! For centuries a member of my family tree has been linked to a famous person and it is really not true. But responses include-we do not want to know any of the info other than that info that will help prove this relationship. This info is even included in an obit from 1899. And this info is in most family bios I can find for the family. And more importantly a book written in the 1890's that most family members refer to. I am just going to point out who this concerns because the story of the search for her real parents is a book in itself! Elizabeth Morton said to be the dau of the signer of the Declaration of Independence even though a google search for this important man will show you his dau Elizabeth died of consumption UNMARRIED. Then the book Wakefield Memorial (she married a Wakefield)states she is the niece of the signer. He was an only child-his father died while he was in his mothers womb! None of this matters and now I am told that the identity of the signer is merely speculation and that his dau died unmarried is also speculation! So for lets say for 2 centuries this has been attached to her as family. And hundreds of family trees in ancestry, familysearch, and archives have this information in them. And yes I have contacted organizations affliated and disproved it and now I am suppose to get in touch with the National Historical Organization-per a moderator and I do not know what good that would do! fruitytooty

[christiek]

Yes.

This really bothers me. I'm just a beginner in the world of family history research but sometimes I feel like slapping my head at some of the family trees that pop up under hints in Ancestry.

In one, it actually had both my parents names in it listed as deceased (my parents are very much alive and in their 40's) with 6 children! I humorously contacted the person to ask them if they knew a big family secret I didn't and where where my 3 mysterious abandoned sisters...I didn't hear anything back for a few months but they eventually came back to me and said they were sorry and deleted things off their family tree.

For me, I do look at other peoples trees because they may have had access to information I haven't come across yet. So I get really excited when I see someone else has my furthest back ancestor and has parents for them. If it's not apparent where they got their information from I send them a polite message asking them how they got back that far...only to be really frustrated when I get a "Uhhh...well I just counted back twenty years and then attached this Knox in a similar area because they have the same name as one of the kids (when the name is John)". I've got one person whose got all the kids in a generation right, but then has the father listed at different addresses in different localities all over Durham, Scotland, Berwick, Newcastle and Northumberland...without the wife or kids, with a different occupation and different named parents every 10 years. It boils me because really, it's not too hard to compare information on a census and if you have the kids names, surely you'd be looking to see where they were? And bingo - there's the father listed at the same address! It's not rocket science!

[Flattybasher9]

The way I look at it is, some of the official information recorded is based on an/the individuals memory who is supplying that information to the recorder. Memories can be flawed. To err is to be human, to worry about it is pointless. Recorded history is just the memories of the person recording it, or the account being supplied to the person recording it, accurate or not. How many contradictions of the accounts from the last 100 years have been turned on their heads after official documents have been released under the guise of official secrets. We will never know.

Regards

Malky, or am I!!!! You have only me to believe.