Why do my offers of help seem to be rejected?

[RJ_Paton]

"You only have to look at the number of people in a tree to know if the owner is worth contacting or not."

Hogwash.

 

There are many well researched large trees and probably as many badly researched smaller trees.

as to the original topic - I've offered certificates and original census entries to some individuals who appear to be researching the same lines but have been turned down "because that's not what Ancestry says" 

[coombs]

I agree with Erato, some people with large family trees may have spent years collating their tree through hard graft of researching, and are not just "name collectors".

[AllanUK]

Today, RJ_Paton said:

as to the original topic - I've offered certificates and original census entries to some individuals who appear to be researching the same lines but have been turned down "because that's not what Ancestry says" 

This has happened to me a couple of times -- obviously that fact that I have original certificates for several generations of the same family, I must be the one that is wrong as the reply in each case was on the lines of 'Ancestry doesn't agree with you' -- if only some FT enthusiasts looked at original sources (parish records, BMD certificates etc) instead of just 'googling' and taking the 'results' as gospel.

[Sapey10]

I wish you were in my family!!

[melba_schmelba]

This has happened so many times to me. Unfortunately I think some people take people contacting them with corrections, however politely put (i.e. you made the same mistake yourself etc.) as something that makes them embarassed, frustrated, etc. etc. and they simply clam up and either never look into the info you have given them, or do look into it, but then either get frustrated or perhaps simply can't be bothered to put in the correct info. As you say, people (including me!) can go off on tangents tracing lines back several hundred years and it can be very frustrating if you find out that was all wrong .

[Erato]

Everyone makes some mistakes.  Hopefully you find them early on or someone points them out to you so you can nip them in the bud.

I've found that many of my mistakes have not been linking to the wrong person but, rather, misunderstanding an ancestor's position in society.  I develop a mental picture of an ancestor, but it often turns out to be wrong.  Several times I have mistakenly assumed that someone was poorer or less educated than he, in fact, was.  As a result, I overlooked some sources of information.  For example, I spent ages looking for cousin Charles Boyd.  Finally, I stumbled upon his passport - it turns out he was a quite prosperous importer (socks and underwear) who was constantly traveling back and forth to Germany and eventually died there.   I had pictured him as a low-level clerk living in a NYC tenement.

[Essnell]

Hello  everyone here, 

 have learned by disappointment what to share and what not to share and who with over many years. However there is one that I will never understand. The person has an ancestry tree and a whole family from a census record. As far as I am concerned the last name is miss transcribed or wrongly interpreted or simply doesn't belong in this family. 
 I diligently went through all the info on that tree and some is close to correct but needs tweaking.  But the 6 or so children all given with DoB etc cannot be found with the person as mother on GRO.  The all come up with two different Aunts as the mothers.  I do not know how often i have re chcecked this and it is a;ways the same. Sent all the referenes and the tree is still as it was from years ago.  Others have copied it !!!    I gave up.

Essnell

[coombs]

A couple of times I have had to lop off a branch or two of my family tree. Makes me not want to take that leap of faith in the future, as you may find that inconvenient burial as an infant of someone you thought was your ancestor, or they married another person. Or a will which means they married a different spouse to yours. I tend to become too determined for a certain ancestor, trying to get back that bit further, but usually, as we know, FH gets harder the further back you go, especially before 1800.

[BushInn1746]

I tend to become too determined for a certain ancestor, trying to get back that bit further, but usually, as we know, FH gets harder the further back you go, especially before 1800.

I agree and feel the rise of Nonconformism in the 18th Century has made life difficult for me!

Regarding Wesleyan Methodists, Wilberforce Morrell said ... it did not occur to them to preserve any record of their efforts.

Wesleyans numbered 444 in just one Yorkshire W.R. circuit.

Until the early 19th Century when the Registrar General collected Registers c.1837.

The Selby, Yorkshire, Baptist / Unitarian Chapel began in 1690, but records didn't survive, until the late 1790s.

This list shows how extensive surviving Nonconformist records held in West Yorkshire Archives (WYAS), are ...

West Yorkshire, Non-Conformist Records, 1646-1985
https://search.ancestry.com/search/dbextra.aspx?dbid=2268

Mark