How irritating is this?

[Lisajb]

Sorry Lisa, he was Capt. Edward HERBERT RN (approx 1758-1820), whose ancestry is a bit of a mystery anyway, due to extra-curricular activity

No worries, the Calvados/Gloucestershire bit jumped out at me, as I'd seen that in an ancestry tree as a birthplace/ marriage place/ death place for one of my Stinchcombes from Hawkesbury, Gloucestershire. A couple of them went to America, but the vast majority never left Hawkesbury.

[groom]

According to a tree on Ancestry my father died in America. That was news to me as I was with him in England when he died. When I pointed it out I was asked if I was sure as the name fitted. The laughable thing is that my father never left England during his life - he refused to fly and it was as much as he'd do to get on a ferry to the Isle of Wight, yet alone a ship across the Atlantic. Nice to know that what he didn't do in life he accomplished in death. 

[Rosinish]

When I pointed it out I was asked if I was sure as the name fitted. The laughable thing is that my father never left England during his life - he refused to fly and it was as much as he'd do to get on a ferry to the Isle of Wight, yet alone a ship across the Atlantic. Nice to know that what he didn't do in life he accomplished in death. 

  This is the proof there is "Life after death" !!! 

[jess5athome]

................................... Nice to know that what he didn't do in life he accomplished in death. 

Bless, ................that made me smile 

Frank.

[KGarrad]

Part of the problem is that, on Ancestry. people don't enter placenames fully - including the country!

Then, Ancestry in it's wisdom, decides that a place in USA or France or Africa is a better fit!
I have had in my English tree people with with places in Somerset, Kentucky or Suffolk, Virginia, etc.

If, in the original error spotted, the Ancestry user had just entered "Glos." as the placename, then there's no guessing what Ancestry will make of it!


Of course, other users are to blame for blindly copying everything!

[majm]

I am in New South Wales, Australia.  The capital city of NSW is Sydney.   Back in the 19th Century and into the first couple of decades of the 20th C,  New South Wales would be written on BDM documents as "N S Wales".   
There's also a Sydney in Nova Scotia, which as I understand it was often abbreviated to Sydney, N.S. as opposed to Sydney N.S.Wales.

So, at local family history gatherings where I reside, we have cheerful meetings with fun topics about the latest confusions found on the submitted online trees.

I should also add that I shop in Swansea, NSW;  my nearest big city is Newcastle, which is in the Northumberland County of NSW and Cardiff NSW is not too far away either.  Nearby, but further north from Newcastle is Gloucester, NSW, and of course to the south there's Brisbane Waters NSW which is no where near (hundreds and hundreds of kilometres south of) Brisbane the capital city of Queensland. 

So there's plenty of times our NSW based deceased ancestors have managed, even in the 19th century, marry in NSW, have children in NSW and miracles fly beyond our seas to have babies in same month and year in far away lands (Britain, USA, Canada, "Japonica" ) and even after becoming deceased in NSW, and buried in NSW, photographic evidence of the scan of the BDM cert etc, well, they recover, climb out of their grave, and manage to continue to have children way past child bearing ages,  and all this in those foreign lands far beyond the seas  .....

Sometimes our meetings run overtime with the latest tall tales to be told.

Cheers,  JM

[DavidG02]

The advantages outweigh the disadvantages, however.

I tend to take this attitude. What a correct or incorrect tree does for me is give me a pathway. If I choose to walk upon it without looking then I am bound to stumble.

If I can confirm for myself then I will tend to trust a tree- but only so far. I still need to check.

The worst thing is pointing out errors to the senior family researcher ''who has been doing it for 25 years so I oughta know what I am doing !!!''  ( and this is in my own family ) 

[majm]

The worst thing is pointing out errors to the senior family researcher ''who has been doing it for 25 years so I oughta know what I am doing !!!''  ( and this is in my own family ) 

   

Well, ummm,  I've been 'doing it' for a tad longer and when I share stuffs with my family I announce "I am allowed to make mistookens, and I expect I have made far more than any of you, afterall, I have been doing this since before some of you were born.  One time I figured out for Uncle Bertie that Aunty Flo was his aunty.  He then told me that Aunty Flo was actually not his aunty, but his twin sister  .   That usually breaks the ice and lets them know that I can get things stuffed up. 

Cheers,  JM

[Rishile]

I agree it is irritating but, as previously stated, I only use Ancestry trees as a guide - not as gospel truth.

I have contacted a lot of distant cousins in one line of my family and some of them have trees on Ancestry.  I assumed that because they started a long time before me that they were correct. One particular tree is correct up to a point then goes in a totally different direction to mine but as this is distant for her and direct line for me I don't worry about it too much. 

I occasionally use these trees to give me a starting point - even if they are wrong.  At lease I enjoy the process of proving they are wrong and it can even lead me in the right direction eventually.

Rishile