Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search
 

Spider Jerusalem

(21,786 posts)
15. Not with their user-submitted trees they don't
Thu Sep 20, 2012, 09:28 AM
Sep 2012

and it happens ALL THE TIME. People just copy stuff from online sources or 19th century books with flat-out wrong data and don't check to verify; I've run across quite a few instances of this, the most common source of bad info is coincidence of names, it seems, mistaking a father who had the same name as a son for the son, confusing two people who lived in the same area and had the same name for each other, etc. An example: one of my ancestors was a Samuel Handy, who emigrated to Maryland in 1665. He married a Jane Sewell in 1679; in the mid-1800's one of his descendants did a genealogy of the Handy family, and had this Samuel Handy's wife as Jane Sewall, daughter of Henry Sewall who was secretary of the Maryland colony...the only problem with that being that Jane Sewall was married to a George Brent, and having children with him, at the same time as Samuel Handy and his wife Jane Sewell were having children, so it can't possibly be the same woman. And yet that erroneous info keeps being copied into family trees by people who aren't aware it's wrong.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

Does this happen often? Unfortunately, it appears that the answer is "Yes." AnotherMcIntosh Sep 2012 #1
The Decorah Norwegian Heritage Genealogiest deemed "Interent Genealogy is kickysnana Sep 2012 #2
This message was self-deleted by its author seaglass Sep 2012 #3
I let myself be led completely off track on one of my maternal branches polly7 Sep 2012 #4
something similar happened to me grasswire Sep 2012 #7
Can't always rely on books retrogal Sep 2012 #10
This happened to me with one of my maternal lines. AverageJoe90 Nov 2013 #21
When researching it is usually the researchers responsibility to use the generation rules to check jwirr Sep 2012 #5
They have a function that allows you to submit corrections to census indexing errors. kestrel91316 Sep 2012 #6
Yes CountAllVotes Sep 2012 #8
Oh no!! retrogal Sep 2012 #9
Frankly it irritates me CountAllVotes Sep 2012 #11
I understand... retrogal Sep 2012 #12
same here CountAllVotes Sep 2012 #13
I love Ancestry to a point, but damn those trees GobBluth Sep 2012 #14
I have decided to do this: only accept public records as truth grasswire Sep 2012 #16
Yes, this. /|\ PAMod Sep 2012 #19
even that can be annoying... grasswire Sep 2012 #20
Not with their user-submitted trees they don't Spider Jerusalem Sep 2012 #15
No and the user submitted trees are usually terrible kdmorris Sep 2012 #17
Hey, I'm dead! PatSeg Sep 2012 #18
Like some of the others... pipi_k Nov 2013 #22
I use the trees at ancestry as a first source... icymist Dec 2013 #23
Too many "errors" CountAllVotes Dec 2013 #24
I would use the user submitted trees as clues, not sources. OnionPatch Mar 2014 #25
Up to each editor of a tree and viewers to inform of any mistakes. I've come applegrove Mar 2014 #26
I sometimes write a message to one who has entered an egregious mistake - No Vested Interest Mar 2014 #27
I did that pipi_k Mar 2014 #28
Latest Discussions»Culture Forums»Ancestry/Genealogy»Question: If bad info is ...»Reply #15