An oldie's lament

[ThrelfallYorky]

Now: why doesn't ancestry have an "Ignore all American results" button? That might help - mightn't it?

[Erato]

Why do you need an "Ignore all American results" button if you're searching a non-American database?  If I search the US census, I only get American results; if I search an English census, I get English results.

[ThrelfallYorky]

That's what I'd expected too ... but from time to time, it happens! No idea how! If it was just family trees, I'd understand it, but .....

[IgorStrav]

I must say that I do find the hints - when rigorously examined! - very helpful.

On more than one occasion recently, when searching for a female, I have had a hint of a woman with a completely different surname, but same dob/pob.  And sure enough, with a bit of diligent searching, I have then turned up the relevant marriage, name of husband, and matched it on a subsequent census with the person I was looking for.

You just have to check the hints carefully as of course - as people have said - they are sometimes well off the mark.

[jbml]

Perhaps the clue is in the name ... they are only "hints" 

[iolaus]

I remember picking up a baptism off of their hints - they'd attached it to the wrong child but it was the right family (the first Chrissie died when she was three and they'd baptised the next female Chrissie) the baptism was for the first Chrissie but suggested as a hint for the second

[clairec666]

I must say that I do find the hints - when rigorously examined! - very helpful.

On more than one occasion recently, when searching for a female, I have had a hint of a woman with a completely different surname, but same dob/pob.  And sure enough, with a bit of diligent searching, I have then turned up the relevant marriage, name of husband, and matched it on a subsequent census with the person I was looking for.

You just have to check the hints carefully as of course - as people have said - they are sometimes well off the mark.

Yeah I've found some marriages that way too, of course I check it out properly rather than blindly accepting what Ancestry says. Sometimes it seems to add up - right age, right birthplace,  right husband - but if there are two girls born around the same time with the same name, Ancestry's hints aren't clever enough to know which one is which!

[joboy]

Having read this and all responses I can understand the dilemma that seems to overtake people searching and forever searching ...... often you reach saturation point so which way next?
Just lately I have thrown my lot in with http://www.wikitree.com/ for answers....... it's not easy if the name you seek is Smith or something similar but it does give a chance of comparing a name/names with others and I am an old dog who is favourably impressed with what I have gleaned so far... it may not appeal to some but at least it is quite free.
Joe

[aelfric]

I remember picking up a baptism off of their hints - they'd attached it to the wrong child but it was the right family (the first Chrissie died when she was three and they'd baptised the next female Chrissie) the baptism was for the first Chrissie but suggested as a hint for the second

This is not unique to modern online sites.  One child of my great(x6) grandparents was baptized in 1711, and died two years later. A second son was baptized with the same name 2 years after that: all events recorded in the same parish register.  When the second son died aged 63 his burial record and gravestone record him as 68.

And a Victorian journalist made a similar mistake when recording the death of Pablo Fanque the circus proprietor (as in Sergeant Pepper).  The internet has just increased the chances of perpetuating error, just as it increases the opportunity for disseminating fact.