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

[groom]

I've come across a couple recently where they have the person's death in 1895 including the burial and then,miraculously, they have them alive in the 1901 and 1911 census. That shows people just attach things without looking at what they have previously.

I must admit, I've given up telling people now. As long as I'm sure that my tree is as correct as I can get it that is all I'm worried about.

[Shirleyjjj]

i made several mistakes at the beginning and then amednded them - my neice has done a tree as well and put my grandmothers last totally incorrect.

i probably still make mistakes.

But, sometimes i think people are just testing things then they change things and amend them - so long as you are testing things you can change your people from time to time - i put a whole family in the other day to 'test' only to realise its the wrong ones

there are also so many parellel families - i know 2 people living in the same street same name lets say for arguments sake it was diggle totally unrelated and got married

its easy to get mixed up
so long as you know your own tree is correct i wouldnt bother wasting time unless its about your parents like the other lady just said

[ronoc]

There is a tree on ancestry that copied details and certs of my g.grandparents and gg.grandparents.  They have one my grandaunts married to an incorrect person.  the place where they married was on her tree.  I contacted this person and exchanged a couple of emails explaining what was wrong. I even purchased the correct marriage cert for her and sent it to her.  she still has not amended her tree. so I have deceided just to leave it be.  The tree has 7500 people in it.  It would appear that some people like to gather names 

But about two weeks ago I saw this same tree owner on rootschat giving advice to other people............   makes you think.     I personally don't put anything on my tree unless I have documentated proof the info is correct. 

[Shirleyjjj]

yes, i think that people should not copy your pics without permission someone did this to mine as it was public - i have been talking to some people in america who were relatives so i was ok with that and i copied theirs. So i was ok with my distnat cousins doing that it was fine.

but someone else copied my mums pic and then my nans and i have never spoken to them and their tree was wrong it had 740 people in it

[BristolClark]

I have had one woman bring to my attention the actual death date for the brother of my great-Grandfather, but at the time I didn't take any attention to it as I had been told he died in England and not Canada. It wasn't till I found some ships passenger documents with his name, and the name of his father, that I paid attention. Finding this out took me onto the name of his wife and his eventual death date and location.

I don't mind seeing others making mistakes, but I suppose I would if it involved direct ancestors that simply aren't correct. It is humorous to see others putting down Holcombe in America rather than Holcombe in Somerset, England, but it does get frightening when you see the amount of people who simply copy every bit of information they find on others trees, so you get ten or 20 people ALL stating this person died in Holcombe, America and not in England.

Actually, whilst on the subject of informing others about their ancestors, I have been reading a lot books regarding Bristol's more dark history and have contacted others to inform them that their ancestors are mentioned in these books, but they never reply. I put links to articles on death records instead, so others in the future can find them and appreciate the knowledge.

Some research was done which found that about 1 in 20 of the fathers stated on birth certificates wasn't actually the real father. This means that the further you go back in time there will be an ever increasing number of people on your tree who are not biologically related to you, even if you have got the correct "theoretical" line. The only lines you can really be certain of are your paternal and maternal lines which can be verified by DNA.

Have you a link to this research? It does sound interesting. Luckily on my paternal side, the resemblance of us Clark's in photos goes right through, so paternity is definitely assured that way

[Flattybasher9]

And just to confuse it more, the German government has agreed a draft bill allowing mothers to give a flase name when her child is being born. The idea of this is that they think that this will lessen the amount of abandoned unwanted children.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21774845

Regards

Malky

[Stanwix England]

I would be really grateful if someone told me about mistakes in my tree. As I've been going through looking at things I've uncovered several places where I've made errors, so it's probable that there are more.

I haven't noticed anyone else with errors in relation to my own tree. I do see people who don't have as much information as me, but for the most part I don't bother to contact them. I don't feel confident in my research so I don't feel that I can't tell them about mine.

[Shirleyjjj]

ye i ve made errors but no-one has told me about them - ive hopped onto other peoples trees and realised the mistakes - and then corrected them -

its not easy as there are always about 5 johns same last name that might be your ancestor - so you put in the one which seems to fit best - if its not right you find out later - you can amend .

ive noticed mistakes on other peoples trees but i think that having local knowledge is great and we shouldnt judge our American and australian cousins who have no idea that x church is so many miles away from y village ect ect .

what i have found is that everyone seems very polite and they go out of their way to help - which is really nice - ive made some good contacts too and found new cousins i didnt know i had

[fastfusion]

andreajjj: ''ive noticed mistakes on other peoples trees but i think that having local knowledge is great and we shouldnt judge our American and australian cousins who have no idea that x church is so many miles away from y village ect ect .''

it would help if some folk used a map once in a while as well..

but sometimes not even the locals know where they live or wots around them.....