Ancestry

[mallog]

I'm sure we have discussed this before on TS and I'm sure it's not just limited to Ancestry but I'm really concerned about what seems to be wholesale transfers of information from tree to tree. Last night I clicked on a "hint" and got referred to some other family trees. There I found that someone had managed to merge two individuals (differing Christian names)and their families and it appeared that that had been adopted by others too. The result was a complete shambles. They had obviously not checked BMDs apart from the fact that their person went to the US and they had them in the Argyll census too (my person) and dying there a few years later. I despair if this is happening all over the place.

[ninatoo]

I know what you mean! I recently found a tree which listed my great grandfather as having died in Pennsylvannia USA (correct date mind you) when he actually died in Glasgow. The tree then had incorrect parents for him, but then merged back into the correct names for the preceding generation! I was at a loss as to where the person may have gotten this information so I emailed. It seems the person had been doing some research for her son in law without many details....he had told her his grand parents names were A and B, and she fitted that in somehow with a tree for my family on Ancestry (not my tree, but a cousin's, and we have worked together a lot so I know hers is correct!)

When I contacted the lady she was all ums and ahs and as she said, she didn't know what to tell me (!!!) then deleted the names in common with my tree, with only my word that it was incorrect (now I am not wrong, but she ought to have checked!) That was only one error I have found there. Sometimes I contact people and they just don't reply, or fix things up....so yes, misinformation is going to be spread around ad nauseum!

I suppose it will always be up to the individual to be conscientious in finding sources before putting names on a tree...and some of it might be honest mistakes (I have done that myself) but that woman floored me when she just immediately deleted those names just on my say-so!

Nina

[speleobat2]

Hi all,

I think that you have two groups of people working on family history--people who really want the history of their family and people who want one of those very nice poster size family tree prints to hang on the wall. If you really are interested in the history of your family, you will take the time to be accurate and prove up your entries with documents. If you just want a conversation piece decorating your wall, you aren't going to spend a lot of time and money looking for proof.

I ran into this situation a couple of weeks ago myself. My 3x great grandparents are William Milne and Mary Gordon. They were married in Peterhead and had all of their children there before moving to Aberdeen around 1830. I have enough extracts and census records to be confident of this. Then I found a new tree on Ancestry which had my family members, but William Milne and Mary Gordon of Peterhead had suddenly become William Milne and Jane Gordon of Lumphanan who just happen to have loads of easily traceable records where as my William and Mary don't. End result is that this person tree probably looks very impressive. Mine has many blank twigs on it, but it is accurate!

Carol

[mallog]

Nina
Yes I've made mistakes too but this is different isn't it ? Obviously other trees can give you pointers and I have taken info from trusted sources but I try to keep unchecked ancestors to my own off-line trees

[Ann In the UK]

I agree. I posted on here about this a while back after someone copied great swathes of my tree to some completely unrelated person in their own. I subsequently made mine completley private, and no longer add significant amounts of detail to it, which is a shame for my family, who are now the only people I invite to view it, but I simply email extra details to them now instead.

I've come to the conclusion that some people are just lazy, and just can't be bothered putting in the footwork; some can't really afford some of the costs involved in verifying their information, so just pick random names that seem right and hope for the best; and some people a combination, of these two, who just don't like brick walls and would rather have a fake tree going back to Adam, than face the fact that they can't get any further.

Regards
Ann

[Grendlsmother]

Totally agree Ann - these "tree-collectors" can be really annoying. I had one who told me my father had lied about his age, (the reason he gave was vanity!) or perhaps my grandmother had lied to him. (Why!) I think they are so concerned about name collecting that they will not grasp that, although we are doing research, we actually know or knew some of our relatives. He had another relative as marrying and having lots of children when in fact he was killed, age 20, in WWI (perhaps he lied about dying). Needless to say, I do not correspond with that person any more - he just refused to believe that I knew the true facts.

GM

[trish1]

I have yet to find any family trees online, related to my family, without error - some obviously worse than others. Why anyone wants to copy someone else's information directly into their own I would never understand - but obviously they do.

I have subscribed to ancestry for a number of years - mainly for their census, bdm and other extracted style records. They are adding more and more records each year and for someone searching in a number of countries it has no equal (that I can find). I often forget to even check the user trees submitted, but whenever I do, they often provide clues that lead to interesting discovery. They have also led me to a number of distant relatives (3rd, 4th, 5th cousins) most of whom have been willing to exchange information & correct any errors.

I have an online tree that contains about 20 people - each one sourced - together with a narrative on one small family group. I am somewhat amazed at the number of folks who have copied the information without any attempt to contact me - utterly weird - but like much of ancestry many seem to think quantity is better than quality.

Trish

Edit - Mallog - I notice you have Dunn/Fife in you family names - I am descended from the same - although the majority in my family spelt the name with a single n. My emigrant was Thomas Dun born 1808, Rossie near Kettle - parents David and Isabella Fleming - any match?

[nica]

Sorry if I sound a bit thick but does that mean that anybody on Ancestry can access your tree??? I am now finally getting down to trying to get further up the tree and I am considering joining Ancestry but the thought that my tree won't be private is a bit worrying.
Advice would be welcome x

[Muriel]

Nica

You can make your Ancestry tree private. If someone is looking for someone you have on your tree the name will come up but they would have to contact you to get the details. It's then up to you whether you let them see your tree or whether you merely let them have the relevant information. My tree is private & I'm very careful before I let anyone else have access to it - some people seem to think that merely because you have a John Smith in your tree & so do they that they should be able to gain access to all your hard-won information. I rarely contact other people - I let them contact me!

On the other hand Ancestry is really useful for census information (provided you can decipher what some of the transcriptions really mean ) &, if you go global then you can pick up useful stuff outside the UK.

Muriel

[nica]

Thank you Muriel. I am a bit wary since I got caught out on GR. I noticed someone had a whole lot of my family listed, including my siblings/ parents and myself so.......I emailed him/her asking what the connection was etc and had no reply. After emailing again with no response I contacted GR who confirmed they had told him he must remove my details from his site. All I can think is that someone I allowed to take information from me had allowed him to view their tree! Sadly, GR have the box 'allow this user to see my tree' already ticked and you have to remember to untick if you are not sure of who the person is!
I think I will give the free trial on Ancestry a go and see how I get on.
thanks again