I've got a problem!!

[Wanda Stevenson]

I went on to Gene's Reunited and found some relatives (yahoo!!) My problem.......... Some of their information is different than mine, like I have a John Stevenson who married a Jean Walker in 1805 and they had 7 children starting in 1805 and ending in 1823. I don't have a death date for either of them but in 1841 census they were still kicking around. Now the other information has Jean dying in 1840 and John remarrying to a Christine Greenshield and having two more children in 1847 and 1847 one of whom was a second John (the first son John was still alive) anyway very confusing, and I need some help in trying to prove or disprove any of their information (or mine for that matter). When I asked where they got the info they just said it was passed down.
So if anyone can help pleasssssssssssssse.
Wanda

[LesleyB]

Hi Wanda
If you have seen the original info and you have the census & etc which is where your info came from then your info is probably more accurate than the other persons. If you have done your own research and you are pretty sure that what you have found all ties up together, then I'm not sure I'd worry about it too much. Not everyone researches to the same level - some folk are happy with received information and don't have any desire to check it all out and some folk are determined disbelievers who need to prove absolutely everything before they will believe it to be the case!

If you have not seen the original documents (OPRs and SR and Census for example) and you feel you would like to prove or disprove any areas, then you need to go back into "research" mode and track the family you are interested in. Work from the last event you can prove and then you will be working from solid ground. We all have areas of our tree that we perhaps did not prove as thoroughly as we should at the time, or perhaps did not note our sources as carefully as we should, perhaps because it was a branch we worked on when we had just started out in our research. These sort of contacts through GR provide a good opportunity to go back and look again at what we have noted.

Best wishes
Lesley

[csa]

Hi Wanda

Yes it can be quite disconcerting,particulary when a few folk on Genes seem to have the same info which is different from your own. Probably they have just accepted the info without question and shared it, and so it goes on.

I recently joined Genes and found two great souces of new information. One tree seemed too good to be true because it seemed to give me the missing link I had been looking for, for so long. It has spurred me on to check out the detail to satisfy my own level of proof and until I manage to do so I will have a question mark over it, secretly hoping it's correct.

I think we all gain different levels of satisfaction from different aspects of our research. Some folk like to build large trees and may or may not have undertaken rigorous checks on it all, adding work done by others. Some folk meticulously build from scratch and would never think of importing other's information. I was very lucky in that I was given quite a bit of well reasearched info for a few branches of my tree and have focussed on fillling in the gaps, with varying degrees of success. Along the way I have discovered some extraordinary stories about individual ancestors which I have gone into in great depth. Personally this has given me the greatest satisfaction and helped me feel more connected to my ancestors and some of my elderly living relatives.

Of course being part of a wide community such as TS brings another dimension. Seeing how much effort folk on the forum are prepared to put in to help others and sometimes being in a position to do something for someone else myself, which seems quite simple and straightforward , which not only helps others build a tree but also helps them connect with their past. This is very rewarding too.

Best wishes

Carolyn