errors on trees

[eadaoin]

I think (said she, cautiously) that anyone who researched at all before online records became available - must be considered as an improver rather than a newbie!

I know that my researches in the middle 1990s, trudging from archive to library to GRO etc, have made me more sceptical and thorough, thogh quite capable of barking up the wrong tree branch . .

[BumbleB]

I think (said she, cautiously) that anyone who researched at all before online records became available - must be considered as an improver rather than a newbie!

I know that my researches in the middle 1990s, trudging from archive to library to GRO etc, have made me more sceptical and thorough, thogh quite capable of barking up the wrong tree branch . .

There is also that old adage - "he who never made a mistake, never made anything"    But then there are mistakes and MISTAKES!!

[dobfarm]

With most average folk with a need to find time do a job, time to have/run a families needs, housework, garden to tender, shopping, cooking, decorating, pay the bills, holidays, clean the car, maintain it or pay the garage, look after the kids problems, school, quality time with them and their hobbies. Then one thinks of the time involved to do proper research of just a few ancestors and usually the ancestors are scatted around the country with need to visit various repositories/graveyards etc, around the country, time/cost to travel, overnight accommodation  and costs of ancestry in general. Then we are talking in many thousand ancestors being researched in depth. We all know the hit and miss the further back we go pre 1837, no parents given on marriages, to the single line parish entries pre 1812 and 1754 marriages- if lucky you may get a gravestone or a Will and sure as heck there will be 3 baptisms with the same name as the one you want and near years your looking for. 

Just read the posts on this website with people wanting help with brickwalls or asking or hope someone can visit a library/archive for a Parish entry as they are not online, or a graveyard because the live at the other end of the country or in New Zealand etc . Train fare can cost in the 100 pounds plus at peak travel single.

There maybe a few people fortunate to have the means and time with a  life dedicated to one thing or a dedicated hobby but seems unlikely most folk will

[StevieSteve]

I have a private tree on Ancestry, but have never been contacted by anyone

Self-fulfilling, really 

I only ever see sight of private trees in non-focussed searches and an icon for a hidden photo is displayed. In such cases, I'm happy to respect their wish for privacy

[torre]

I have a private tree on Ancestry with 2000 relatives on it. The direct ancestors have been extensively researched, and the rest, I have made sure really are related before they are included. I have lost count of the number of BMDs I have bought and the Parish records I have got from various counties.
I was therefore quite annoyed when I found my great uncle (my grandmother's brother) on a tree of someone in Australia. She also had my grandmother on her tree.
She has my great uncle as married with a son and living in Leicester. He never married and he always lived in Southampton.
I have his birth certificate and his death certificate. Her tree states that he died in 1952, I sent her a PM giving her all the details on his death certificate. He died in 1951 and his death was registered by his niece and the executor of his will was his sister. (Neither of these women are on her tree)
She did reply, saying that she was going to look into it!
That was six months ago!!! No changes on her tree.
I can understand her reluctance to remove him from her tree, because that would mean over half her tree is gone. i.e all my great uncles ancestors, who are nothing to do with her.
But why, oh why would you want a family tree to show to your family, which is no connection whatsoever to any of them?

[Jomot]

I have a private tree on Ancestry, but have never been contacted by anyone

Self-fulfilling, really 

I only ever see sight of private trees in non-focussed searches and an icon for a hidden photo is displayed. In such cases, I'm happy to respect their wish for privacy

My tree is now private, not because I want privacy, but because I'm sick of great big chunks of it being copied wholesale onto other trees - often being super-glued onto families that are completely unconnected but vaguely in the same area (or not, as the case may be!).

I tried to add a message to my profile to say I'm happy to be contacted but there doesn't seem to be the facility to do this.

[Bee]

Thanks for all your replies/suggestions.

My tree is not on Ancestry and I've no intention of putting it there.  As there are 15 trees that contain the same mistake I will probably try and contact the one tree owner who I think might be a very distant cousin and explain their mistake and just ignore the other trees.

[smudwhisk]

There maybe a few people fortunate to have the means and time with a  life dedicated to one thing or a dedicated hobby but seems unlikely most folk will

As has been said before, it depends very much what you choose to spend your money on and what time you have to do it.  Ill health has meant in recent years I've had far more time than previously and have made use of it researching as couldn't do much else.  I've also made use of what microfiche copies of parish registers we've purchased over the last 16 years and what's available online. 

While all my research starts in London, we've been fortunate that my maternal grandmother's family moved into London post 1800 and therefore we've found out where they moved in from and had access to the parish registers either on microfiche or visits to the local Archives which weren't that far away.  In the case of my three other grandparents we've not been quite so lucky as all three had ancestors in London before 1800 and for a number of lines we haven't managed yet to find out where they originated as they died before the Census.

While yes we've spent quite a lot over the years, its probably no more than some people spend on a new car every few years or numerous foreign holidays, none of which we tend to do but that's our choice.  I would definitely not say we are loaded, just we tend to target available money where its most useful and work from there.  If the families stayed in the same area for 100 or 200 or more years, it tends to make life easier following lines forward on multiple family lines.  That's really how our combined family trees have grown so large.

[snooziflooze]

My tree is now private, not because I want privacy, but because I'm sick of great big chunks of it being copied wholesale onto other trees - often being super-glued onto families that are completely unconnected but vaguely in the same area (or not, as the case may be!).

Yes, this puts me off ever going public with my tree, whether on Ancestry or Tribal pages or anywhere else...