Ancestry

[Muriel]

Yes, we need to be wary. It's particularly annoying on Ancestry if you've put a photo on & you suddenly discover it on a public tree - although I have to say it did do me good once because I discovered someone else had a nearly identical photo of my gg grandfather &, yes, he is a distant cousin. It gave me some info from English records I didn't have & I think I gained more than him in the long run

Muriel

[Falkyrn]

Sadly, it is likely that the situation will only get worse. Yesterday I heard a senior representative of one of the major companies involved being interviewed on radio. He was extolling the virtues of their latest innovation - smart match - I believe he called it which in his words "enables you to copy sections of trees without all of the effort"

[Muriel]

Oh no . Makes you want to take all your trees off everything!

Muriel

[Alan SHARP]

I believe all who have been researching, over time, four or more generations, will have case studies that they can quote, about jumping to conclusions that don’t stack up. Worst case of all, is when we have been tempted, to do the same ourselves.

Their loss if they stuff up, just let's concentrate on getting ours right.

Alan SHARP.

[LesleyB]

"enables you to copy sections of trees without all of the effort"

Oh dear...er, aren't they missing the point somewhat here...isn't the "effort" the reason we do this, and the fun part of research????

(Ok, the effort is the fun part when it reveals the answers....which does not always happen in that order!)

In one sense I fear this will just mean loads and loads of completely inaccurate data circumventing the world. Heck, who would bother to go to the effort of consulting those pesky OPRs, Kirk Session records, Sasines, testaments and all those other wonderfully rich sources with all that blooming difficult writing and archaic phraseology if you could just lift a whole section of a tree. Job done. But no effort = no real gain at all!

[Falkyrn]

Personally I get great satisfaction when the effort put into an enquiry pays off and what seemed to be a brick wall starts crumbling. Or even putting some substance to the lives of the individuals concerned.
I don't understand the fascination with sheer numbers or just "tree gathering" and the errors getting perpetuated through the internet will become unstoppable.

[nica]

It could be a similar 'phenomenon' as friend gathering on facebook. Apparently some people have thousands of friends and know less than a handful??????????
Surely the point of finding your ancestors is that they are your ancestors???

[Muriel]

Well, kind of Nica. The problem is that I get side-tracked by an interesting branch & end up tracing people who are only tangentially connected! But I know what you mean.

I'm in the process of re-doing my tree - I started it many years ago & the sources some of my information isn't properly recorded. While doing so I discovered some 6/7 trees on Ancestry showing my ggg grandfather, all of them showing parents for him. They've clearly all copied from each other & not one of them is sourced. I've done a lot of research on him & I can find no infomation about his parents. I'm fairly sure of his father's name from an old rent book I have dating back to the early 1700s but I have no idea who his mother was. There's no indication from the naming pattern of his children & grandchildren that his mother's name was Margaret, which is what these other people say. I'm not going to contact any of them because I don't want them to have access to my information! How mean

Muriel

[nica]

I can understand how you feel!! My 'branch' of the family acquired a ggrandfather that was incorrect simply because the people researching didn't know my side of the family!! and I get miffed when people take MY information and spread it around, especially when they don't tell me what their connection to me is!
With the Facebook comparison I meant that people may populate their trees with any information they get so it mounts up, the same as some folk on Facebook accept all and sundry as 'friends' with the most tenuous connection. But on paper, what a lot of friends/ancestors they have!
I am intrigued with my tree cos there are a lot of mysteries, some created by my mum either being given information that made it look better or else she made it up to sound better. One of my mysteries is my ggrandfather,(on my father's side) I can't find out much about him. I know he was a seaman, he said his father was called William and was also a seaman but the baptism records aren't on line! also he met my grandmother (who was left a widow at the age of 21 with two little boys) in Scarborough but he hailed from Islington..........I would love to know how they met, what he was doing in Scarborough etc etc. Nobody around to tell me though
x

[BarbR]

I was recently contacted by a first cousin who told me she had started a family tree by subscribing to Ancestry in December. Already she is back 1,000 years - in two months! I have never subscribed to Ancestry, but it must be a wonderful site if you can do that!

I have a private tree on Tribal Pages. People can see the surnames I am researching and then in contact me for more info. I worked hard to get my tree as far as it is and I'm not prepared to just give it away for nothing. I welcome serious researchers who are interested in REAL ancestors, but the fictional tree my cousin has on Ancestry is not for me

Barb