Starting from scratch

[Gillg]

I do have a family tree, but in addition I have filled two large books with the information I have gathered about each individual, one for each side of my family.  They start with the earliest ancestors I have found, called Generation 1, and each entry includes all the information I have about them, with details of any certificates or references I have found about them.  Each has his/her partner and children listed with dates (they will get their own pages later).  I find that all this information can be contained on two large facing pages.  These books are intended as a quick reference for my children and other family members who may be interested.  The pages are numbered and there is an index at the beginning of the book.  All the BMD certificates are kept in a file and other documents in another file.  (I love to have things on paper!)

It's a long process, but refreshes your memory as you go along, however it's not the same as writing a story about each family member, as it is really more just notes about and references to my ancestors.  If I do find an interesting story about one individual I will write a document about it and keep that in a separate file, which has named dividers for easy finding.

[Marmalady]

My Father started researching his tree in the late 1980's.
By the early 2000s, dementia meant that he no longer knew what he was doing so I took over his work.
I soon realised there were lots of mistakes and several huge "leaping to conclusions" so I set out to check and verify as much of his work as possible. I tried to do it branch by branch, but I probably missed out a few individuals / families along the way
Even now, I still come across the occasional mistake.

[Mvann]

I think, for me, it would depend on what and where the errors are as to whether I'd start again or not. The lack of referencing, in my view, wouldn't necessarily be a reason to start from scratch, as you are still going to need to revisit that information whether you start from scratch or clean the tree. I have ended up pruning the odd branch because of errors, I have also had to do some moving about of people where I have people of the same name and roughly the same age where I've attached the information to the wrong person, but in most cases, these have been for distant cousins or connections by marriage and haven't really affected the direct lines.

[brigidmac]

I wonder if there is an easy way to delete whole branches when I have the wrong person and delete them from ancestry tree.it leaves their parents siblings and children as floating branches which I have to delete 1 by 1

[jbml]

when I have the wrong person and delete them from ancestry tree.it leaves their parents siblings and children as floating branches which I have to delete 1 by 1

That's one of the reaons I gave up on the whole online tree idea: I didn't understant the software well enough to be able to use it efficiently and I'd sooner stand under a cold shower ripping up my life savings than devote hours to trying to understand someone else's computer programme. (That's just a personal preference and not intended as a criticism of those who revel in getting to grips with a softeare application. It's just not my "thing".)

We've each got our own reasons for researching our families and we each have different things that we want to get out of it. The important thing is to find a solution which works for you and delivers results in a format that you can work with and use.

[Knight-Sunderland]

Hey, sorry to bump an old thread, but I'm the original poster and thought I'd share the story of what I ended up doing here.

As I mentioned in my original post I was very tempted to start from scratch and do my whole tree again as I was not confident I had been accurate during my research in my early 20's before I refined my research skills to what they are today. But the idea of starting from scratch (again) was utterly depressing.

So I decided on a compromise, I decided to create an ancestor list (ahnentafel), starting with myself, and going backwards through the generations, verifying each link, sourcing every fact, ordering every available certificate for every ancestor (a lot easier with digital images now available), and attaching a link to every source and image available so that the evidence for each fact is available at the click of a button.

I started in January 2024, and am back to generation eight (6x great grandparents) so far, and the results have been extraordinary. It's amazing what such detailed research on every indivudual can unlock.

The first correction I found was a fact about myself! Turns out the name of the hospital I was born in was different to what I had thought (whoops). It was little details like this that made me realise I needed to check absolutely everything.  Going back through the generations, there have been several changes and developments I've discovered:

- Several branches of the tree have been chopped as they were found to be either totally wrong or the evidence was not strong enough to justify the link

- Several new branches have been added after new evidence was uncovered proving new connections or verifying previous theories as correct (I've broken four brick walls I previously considered to be solid)

- Found so many facts I had initially missed or that were perhaps not available or transcribed when I originally did the research. For example deaths/burials, subsequent marriages for widowed ancestors, military/mariners records etc.

- So many notes and comments in original records that I viewed for the first time that weren't included in the transcription I had initially relied upon (for example a fathers occupation in a baptism, which can then be used to prove a death record to be the right one etc).

I am not finished at all, but overall this has been one of the most worthwhile exercises I've ever done when researching my ancestry. Highly recommend!

[brigidmac]

Congratulations 🎉
Thanks for the update it's always interesting to see how others do things .

I thought it would be a shame to start completely from scratch .

I help a few other people with their trees .
& Have permission to prune their trees
 
I love the merge button when you realise a person has been replicated.

+ Regarding floating branches I have learnt to delete the people from the lowest branches first if you delete a child ancestry switches you straight back to parent but you have to eliminate all the children and the spouse before you eliminate the wrong connection.

When you change an ancestor it throws thru lies out too

It seems to take several days before thrulines will realign to accept new ancestors

I recently added correct great paternal grandparents to a tree and all the thru line suggestions disappeared on the paternal side .even tho they had been suggesting that particular couple

It's been 3 days .

[coombs]

Also thanks for the update. I have a similar approach with my Ancestry tree where I have attached sources so they can be available at the click of a button, and I often add notes in the life events of them.

In the past week or so I have been going through some of my ancestors with a fine tooth comb yet again looking for new clues, and it can be exhausting and time consuming and often with little to no breakthroughs in getting further back.

I also know the feeling of circumstantial evidence but it being not strong enough to make a link. Such as with my 1700s London and Oxford Newman/Inkpen, Reeves ancestors, and even the chance they were not even born or baptised in Middlesex or Oxfordshire. Several of my North Oxfordshire ancestors had Warwickshire and Buckinghamshire roots further back. And my South Oxon lot had some Berkshire blood and Wiltshire further back.

And one ancestor sent to Australia in the early 1790s, then known as New Holland I think. A trip from say, Bristol to Oxford in 1800 was very, very easy and doable in comparison. Maybe a whole day's travel on horse and cart.

[Wayne N]

In the past week or so I have been going through some of my ancestors with a fine tooth comb yet again looking for new clues, and it can be exhausting and time consuming and often with little to no breakthroughs in getting further back.

The amount of breakthroughs I have been able to find has been venturing into branches that aren't necessarily, directly related (or whom I'm searching for), but have had dealings of some sort with the person or relative I'm researching. Some of the common records; wills, depositions and deeds. And one that can be easily overlooked is the witnesses on marriage records.