Starting from scratch

[Knight-Sunderland]

Hello,

I started researching my family tree in 2008 at the age of 15. As you can expect I did all the usual stupid things and by 2014 I realised that my tree was so full of errors and mistakes and guesses that cleaning it up would be laborious and more work than fun. So I made the decision to start from scratch and start a new file (at this point I was 21).

Now I am almost 30, and I am looking at my tree (22k individuals) with a similar feeling to that which I had in 2014. I have noticed various errors and mistakes that I made in my early 20's and before I refined my research abilities to the level they are at today. There are facts which I have recorded that I have no idea where I got them from and I'm frustrated with myself for not making the effort to record that information. It's not horrendous, but I just feel like if I started today I could build a cleaner and more well referenced tree than the one I started nine years ago.

Yes, I'm tempted to start from scratch again.

Just wondered whether anyone else has ever done similar, and regretted it? Or perhaps did so and realised it was a good decision? I am 50/50 whether to start again, or put the work in and go person by person, branch by branch, and do a full scale clean up.

[jbml]

I say go for it.

The work you've put into those previous attempts isn't wasted. It's taught you the research skills. The ones that we're right you'll soon find again. The ones that were wrong you won't miss.

But ... do what I do. I don't have a "tree" as such. I have a series of Word documents, telling the life story of each of my ancestors in narrative form. If you'd like to see what this looks like, PM me with your e-mail address and I'll send you an example.

I give each generation a letter (A for my parents, B for my grandparents, C for my great grandparents and so on) and each ancestor in the generation has a number (C1 is my father's father's father; C2 is my father's father's mother; C3 is my father's mother's father; C4 is my father's mother's mother; C5 is my mother's father's father ... and so on)

So there's a Word document for each generation, with a sub-heading for each ancestor in the generation (after a certain point I only include the sub-headings for those I know anythign about ... for obvious reasons). And then I apply the basic historian's principle of supporting EVERY statement I make with a footnore referencing its source.

And I keep a separate paper file for each ancestor, contining a copy of EVERY document I have which relates to them.

Slow? Yes.

Tedious? Yes

Methodical? Yes

Worthwhile? Undoubtedly

But ... make your own mind up when you see what it looks like in practice.

[Stanwix England]

I sympathise. I made mistakes in my tree too. Some my own fault, a few because of misleading statements in records. I've had to lop huge branches off, and it does feel awful at the time. I think it's worth doing though.

[Ruskie]

You might find this more tedious than starting from scratch, but have you checked to see if there are any trees online which include the same families? If they have well researched trees with sources, and your current tree tallies with theirs you might decide that enough of your tree is correct and it easier to just double check everything.

There is more online these days so it might not be too difficult to go over your old tree and look for sources.

In the end I suppose it depends how big your tree is and many mistakes you think you’ve made. 

Added: I skipped over this when I read your question, but did you say you have 22,000 individuals on your tree? And you did this 20 years ago when you were 20 years old, when there was a lot less online? If so, where did you find all these people? Were you throrough in your research or did you just grab anyone who sounded about right and add them to your tree? Did you back up your findings with certificates and other documentation? Depending on how you worked 20 years ago, and how confident you are with your past researching methods, perhaps you should start from scratch? 

[Erato]

I'd advise doing a clean-up rather than starting again from scratch.  First, make sure you have the tree backed up.  Then go through it, branch by branch, using some sort of color codes to highlight problems - missing data, unsourced data, contradictory information, dubious relationships and whatnot.  If you find totally rotten branches, prune them out.  It will be slow going but probably less tedious than starting all over again.

[Biggles50]

We started in 2010 and we were very similar to you so we revisited our pedigree lines person by person to 1837 when Registration come into being.

Then worked from my parents sideways, then sideways at Grandparent level until we had everyone rechecked.

Then worked back line by line until we were confident all entries were accurate and had as much info attached yo them as we could.

We use Ancestry with Roots Magic as out backup using Tree Share to check the Ancestry tree for errors.  Within Ancestry where there is still doubt I assign as their header image a jpg file of a — ? — so it is visible when I am in tree view where the doubt resides.  With 22k people in your tree that is a task and a half keeping track if who you have checked, perhaps a similar action to my question mark but in your case an image of a ticked check box could signify that the person has been verified

Then after having our DNA test results in a high cM match now questions the accuracy if the tree as somewhere in my tree there is an NPE yet despite all the citations and documentary evidence supporting everyone the person subject to the NPE and their predecessors may well all be in error.

[Wayne N]

I've adopted a similar variation to jbml by researching individuals in the tree and creating life stories.
Writing about individuals can also help better under a section of the tree. For instance (and an obvious one), is why a  certain family or individual suddenly moves to another location.

And rather than having my own tree, I have opted to build onto FamilySearch as my main tree and keep a backup using RootsMagic... Just in case an online family becomes very broken and needs repairing. Although I'd have to say, if there is enough credible evidence on sections of the FamilySearch tree, then they will stay intact. While the branches in doubt have a better chance of growing if others can also research them.

[Biggles50]

I've adopted a similar variation to jbml by researching individuals in the tree and creating life stories.
Writing about individuals can also help better under a section of the tree. For instance (and an obvious one), is why a  certain family or individual suddenly moves to another location.

And rather than having my own tree, I have opted to build onto FamilySearch as my main tree and keep a backup using RootsMagic... Just in case an online family becomes very broken and needs repairing. Although I'd have to say, if there is enough credible evidence on sections of the FamilySearch tree, then they will stay intact. While the branches in doubt have a better chance of growing if others can also research them.

The Op’s error prone tree is precisely why doubt must always exist about the accuracy of an online Global Family tree.

One quickly learns how error prone Ancestry Trees are, I do not see a Tree on Family Search being any different, others contributing to your tree is a recipe for disaster.

[oldfashionedgirl]

Some great advice there, I really like the idea of writing life stories for each person.

Living up to my Avatar mine is still on paper  , just because that's how I was taught at a class I went to 15+ years ago.

I am now starting to digitise it and with a collected wealth of knowledge I'm not so much starting again but checking and verifying what I have and adding photos, documents and anecdotes I've gained along the way.

I'm not looking at it as a whole as this is so daunting but looking at each person individually.
I think jbml's fab idea of a life story for each individual will greatly compliment this.

At the beginning I made many schoolgirl errors, paid for information I already had if I had looked at family papers more closely. I'm not going to beat myself up about it, just smile at my naive enthusiasm and realise how far I've come.

I have found lots of interesting information on The British Newspaper Archive which really add flesh to the names and dates bones.

At the beginning I was in a rush to get as far back as I could but them realised that it wasn't as interesting as trying to discover more about each persons life. Thankfully I was able to have a few conversations with some oldies in the family before they died and those anecdotes were invaluable.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.