totally tempted to tell

[Finley 1]

 I know we have discussed this on here so many times.  !
But I have just come across a TREE on Ancestry. 

And oh dear  what a terrible mess - and such a shame.

You can see that the person has worked hard with their research, but not followed the simple rules.

Well my simple rules of research are:
Name - should be known
year or approx. dob
Birth AREA
 and later on Employment

and of course its handy to know family names.

these things usually help in research.

So if your main research, finds the person born in say ---- 1820 in Lubenham and a silk weaver
why then do you take on as same person someone in 1851 that says born in Lincolnshire.
and a bloomin guitar player (just an example) 
They then follow the wrong man through the census NOT checking Birthplace (seemingly)!!!!

DO I tell them, I really feel tempted to advise them - and I have records and things to prove =
that they just didn't look hard enough.  Or do I leave them to it!!!

I don't know.

xin

[groom]

Depends how strongly you feel about it and whether you can cope with either being ignored or perhaps being told that they can't possibly be wrong!    If you are lucky, they may thank you and accept your help but unfortunately those people seem to be in the minority, especially if they have gone a long way following the wrong person. 

I tend to contact people and then forget about it. If they get back to me fine, but if they don't that is their loss.

[CaroleW]

Tell them.  You have to think about others who may also see that info. 

It could be a lesson for the tree holder re: how to research

I came across somebody researching a branch of my own FH who had a tree on Ancestry with incorrect info.  I had BMD certs/census info etc and emailed them to him as proof but he insisted he was right so his tree is still showing the wrong person.

[Finley 1]

I will sleep on it ... seems he hasn't visited Ancestry for a month or so...

oh dear.


xin

[groom]

The other alternative if they ignore you, is to add comments to their tree, which you can do if it is on Ancestry. That way, if if they take no notice, others who look at it may be alerted to mistakes.

[dowdstree]

Totally agree with you groom I usually email them politely and if they reply great if not although I fume I just leave it. Never thought of putting a comment on their tree must try it next time.

Maybe the person who had my great great grandmother going to New Zealand and dying there when I know she died here in Scotland and have visited her grave. This person had some very very obscure family connection, which I am still trying to figure out.

We can all make errors but those who blindly follow another's info without doing their own research really bugs me.

Dorrie

[anne_p]

I have seen it all before
When will researchers take note of places of birth and occupations?
I used to get annoyed, especially when it concerns my ancestry, but I gave up emailing or advising anyone
It's the blind copying of incorrect and unsourced info that I  now laugh at.

Just last week, I found the "same" info relating to one of my relatives on at least 10 trees.
He did not marry the wife in question and of course, the children involved were not his.

A wealthy farmer who has also just inherited from his grandfather's estate does not suddenly become a coal miner.
Meanwhile, my relative and his true wife have already emigrated to New Zealand where they are happily running their prosperous farming business!

[LizzieW]

There are trees on Ancestry that have my maternal gran's elder sister dying on exactly the same day as my gran and at the same address.  Clever that seeing the elder sister died 16 years before my gran.  I know I'm right as my gran lived with me, my parents and my brother and she died when I was 8.  Her elder sister died 6 years before my parents married and at least 3 years before my gran and my mum (still single at that point) moved into our address.

I've tried telling one person but they've not corrected it and I really can't be bothered to tell the others.

I've also got my g.grandfather's alleged parents shown on numerous trees, but although they were parents of two sons (one died) of the same name, they are not the parents of my g.grandfather.  I don't know who his parents are, I just know they're not the ones everyone thinks they are.  I've no idea who the tree owners are, as they don't seem to have any connection to my family, so I guess they're just people who go around collecting trees.  If I look at the trees to see where a connection can be made, there isn't one.

[groom]

I think that's the most annoying thing, when it is a close relative that some one has wrongly claimed and when the person is claiming they are a distant relative of theirs. If someone told me that the person I thought was my great uncle's wife was their grandmother and had proof, I'd believe them!