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The pitfalls of Genealogy

Lyn have found that with dad too, when I've mentioned names/places connected with his rels, he often recalls something about them, keeps his mind active too
Sue
 
Hello,

Very interesting reading other people's stories. On anc.... I have one private and one small public tree (which I put up to try to get someone to message me, I don't have a paid membership). I have got clues off other people's trees but I always check things myself first before adding anything.

I did make one pretty bad mistake and I even thought a marriage certificate I ordered was wrong but through a stroke of luck managed to sort it out.

On my mother's side I have no one to ask which is a shame because I discovered that my nan had 2 brothers that were never mentioned. And there doesn't seem to be a death record for my great nan.
 
Hello MWS & welcome,

You are certainly right to re-check everything "tree-wise" before taking as gospel truth to build on,
If you would like to post some details of your Nan & her 2 Brothers,,, this site has some friendly ( & very good)
experienced Family History researchers who will try to assist your searching,
Put up nan,s name Dob, marriage & a bit of Bro's info & see what happens, ,,John
 
I find with Ancestry that if you let your tree become accessible you will find that others contact you with information and/or liaison between the 2 of you. As soon as I put a new person onto my tree then I get the shaking leaf telling me there is more information to be had. You then find someone else, you put that on the tree, and it so on. I have found much more information this way. It is worth paying the fee to join as spread it over 1 year and you get your money's worth, because not only do you find info it puts you in touch with other members who have perhaps your members of family in their tree.
 
Maybe there is something that I am missing here, but why do these trees have to be on the web at all. Surely they are a personal family thing that should be private.
My wife did her tree and included the info that I had but most was her family and it was put on a line chart that when unrolled was quite long...all referenced to separate pages of further info. We made copies for a couple of relatives and put it on a wall for a while. It's been rolled up in some drawer somewhere for years now.
Yes, it could be larger due to an instance of past naughtiness...at opposit ends of a train track. A whole new branch of half rellies perhaps...hmmm..cut off. Even now too embarrasing seemingly. I wonder if they knew?
I am not interested personally but think it is an interest for many. I know enough about my family.
Now train spotting is different...much more involved physically. Requireing the bike ride to the spotting location...could be a decent distance and the wait and hopefully the sighting of a saught after engine. Remember to take your pencil and again hopefully, a goods train will not be in the way on the up track at the moment.
 
Hello and thank you for the welcome John. I might just do that.

Carolina, I've had people contact me on ancestry (though about trees I've done for other people) and I try to help. I've done quite well so far without a paid membership but it's something that I'll probably do in the future.

Rupert, as I said my main tree is private and my immediate family have little interest probably because I bore them a bit by going on about it. It's on the web because it's easy to look at and edit. And it doesn't have to be all sitting on your backside, I went to a village in Gloucestershire to see where my great great grandparents lived.
 
My family tree was open for all to see ona large, worldwide genealogy site until my great grandfather, who I knew died in Coventry, was suddenly adopted on someone's tree living in America somewhere. That irritated me so much (no replies to my polite messages!) that I made my tree private and that's how it will stay.

It's easy to get carried away and will admit storming off down genealogical blind alley occasionally in my excitement- I think the key is being able to spot your mistakes through careful follow-up research and to realise that it's just as possible your ancestor might have fallen through cracks or had their records destroyed, leaving a line cold. I think sometimes people expect to always be able to find the records they want, no matter what which, as we know, is not always the reality.
 
I found when researching my ancestry on the irish census of 1901 and 1911, I found a few differences between the two especially when compared with family search. There are also some differences between some of the censuses of the UK which I found while researching my wife's ancestry.
 
Carrumba, I have to admit you are correct that it does 'bug you' when someone uses one of your family members and puts it in their tree. I have some kind person who has lifted photos from mine and put into theirs and it is a completely different family.. So there are pros and cons.
 
I agree Carolina, I have had some great info from other people on Ancestry, most recently, relatives of my nans sister, who dad did not know about, as well as the Australian links I was lucky enough to be invited to share.
I think it has to be a personal choice, especially if there are issues within your family that you don't want known.
For me, I love hearing about other peoples searches and results, so keep posting.
Sue
 
I try and use the winter months for computer research and then go out in the warmer weather to go see for myself.

Both methods give me a well rounded year, and in their own way produce information for further research.

I've never yet felt that i had finished even after nearly twenty years, still got plenty of questions.
 
I have to agree with a lot of the comments about others taking information and adding it to their tree.
However, in my case it did save me lots of time searching for information.
I do find it irritating that even when they copy stuff they still get the dates wrong.
So although I never put part of my tree on one main site it is there in other peoples tree but with the dates of my particular part wrong.
A part of my tree I have been searching for some years on and of is a SMITH family. Why could'nt it have been any other name rather than smith.

Whilst writing this I wander could anyone know if someone who is registered on the 1901 census as a Birmingham corporation worker could be found via
the Birmingham City Council information.:fatigue:
 
I'm quite new to this Genealogy thing. I am finding it time consuming and very hard work. I have only got as far as my husbands grand parents at the moment. I can see what you mean though because i have found several people with the same names , it is so easy to easy to get misled. I would love someone to check my tree and send me some information . I would be even more than delighted if i could receive photo's. I'm sure there is a person out there who holds the key, providing it's the right one of course, I have very little information to go on so my job seems ten times harder. I keep checking, double checking, i buy the certificate then check again. I have applied to the ministry of defence for my father-in-laws war records. i was shocked to find out that it could take up to twelve months before they are released. If anyone does have any info ,please let me know. i will check it over . I am on the ancestry site. (terrence david Downing) Starting name. I have the immediate family on there .Have a look you might recognize somebody .
 
carolina said:
I find with Ancestry that if you let your tree become accessible you will find that others contact you with information and/or liaison between the 2 of you. As soon as I put a new person onto my tree then I get the shaking leaf telling me there is more information to be had. You then find someone else, you put that on the tree, and it so on. I have found much more information this way. It is worth paying the fee to join as spread it over 1 year and you get your money's worth, because not only do you find info it puts you in touch with other members who have perhaps your members of family in their tree.
Click to expand...
It's a difficult one. I've just had a contact from a second cousin I never knew I had whose family had emigrated to Canada in 1920. His Great Grandfather was a brother of my Grandmother when she was still living in Bethnal Green. Now he's a Professor of Sociology at a University in Canada!
So you can get some good results as well as some bad.
 
I agree with you David. I found two second cousins I didn't know I had; we've even concluded that we played in opposing positions in netball teams between or schools. There was some sort of feud between our grandparents!

I have hurtled along a few blind alleys in my time, but experience has taught me to check several sources before adding to my tree.
In general , I have found some people receptive when you point out there incorrect assumptions, but I am always suspicious when people simply correct their tree on my say so, without checking the facts for themselves.

So, my rules are:
1. Check, check, check your own facts
2. Never accept what others tell you as being true.
3. Only reveal as much on the web as you are willing to have 'highjacked' by unscrupulous 'name-collector' types
 
I have my tree and my husbands on Public trees, I can say with complete certainty that all the facts are true, checked in public records offices and by certificates, that have cost a 'bob or two' over the years.
I also don't mind people pinching bits off it if it relates to their own tree, but I do object to people who have the same relatives and put incorrect info and do not change it when contacted.
An example is my husbands grandfather, he always said he was born in USA perhaps spoke with an American accent, put his birthplace USA on 1911 census.
The fact is that he was born in New Canal Street, taken to join his father who had left a couple of months earlier to work in Pennsylvania, like many Brits the father was killed in the Johnstown floods of 1886 and the mother and son returned to Aston.
There are still those who have his birthplace as USA.

If it is just a casual hobby that people do not follow up with exact records I wish people would keep these family trees to themselves and not submit entries to Family trees because these are seen by others and passed on as true.
 
yogimon said:
I'm quite new to this Genealogy thing. I am finding it time consuming and very hard work. I have only got as far as my husbands grand parents at the moment...
Click to expand...

Hello, it can be very frustrating at times but exciting when you make a new discovery. Hopefully there's someone out there with a bit of info for you.

Buying certificates can become expensive, I have limited myself to direct ancestors so far and purchase them through the local register offices, which is much cheaper, and not the ancestry sites which are a rip off.
 
Thanks for that Leslam, need to order a copy of my own birth cert as my daughter has "mislaid" mine - she had to have the original for work, to prove that I was English, quite why the NHS need that info when I work for them too, is beyond me, it's certainly not because they don't employ other ethnic groups!
Sue
 
Sue
It will probably be to ensure that their statistics are right, and that they are employing the correct percentage of each group - after all you have to find something to do for all the bureaucrats of the NHS who don;t know anything about medicine
 
That's very true Mike, they have to justify their pay rises that it looks like the qualified nurses will not get again this year - 4th year with no pay rise for us but there we go, didn't enter the job for the money!
Have just had the copy of my great grandparents marriage cert from the Mormon church group, they only charged £5 for it, so really good value.
Sue
 
One word of warning if you have ancestors in NZ - I recently paid $26 (NZ) (more than £14) for an emailed copy of a death certificate. Mailed version is the same cost and as I don't need it for official purposes, I couldn't see the point in waiting.
 
Just wanted to say that I use a well known site to research my family tree, I do have a private one but also a public in order to connect with others who are researching the same names. I was very lucky recentley to get into contact with my great Aunts branch of the family who emigrated to America in the 1900s. The whole family left and started on the oregon trail and they settled in the West. Contact was broken with the English side of the family and no one knew what had happened to them, and their desentants didn't know where they came from. Thanks to the internet we have been able to exchange lots of information and link up the two families again, this year we exchanged Christmas cards for the first time in well over a hundred years, as the last contact had been when a card had been sent to say that the father had died far from home in the year 1898. I for one am glad I have a family tree online and as long as I am carefull about researching my entries don't care if someone is silly enough to copy things incorrectley I always check out anything I see on another persons tree really well before adding it to mine. It was wonderful recentley to show my late uncle a photo of his aunt and her family sitting on their porch on the praires just before he passed away. I only got hold of it thanks to my American relatives, and I am grateful to all those who have shared information with me thoughout my journey.
 
Brummibell, congrats on your find. Its such a good feeling when you have done work and you get a good result such as yours.
 
Thanks Carolina, I was even lucky enough to get in touch with another branch of the tree who were my G Grandfathers ancestors, they lived in the same villiage for decades and had done lots of research which they were happy to share. Lots from Quaker records and old family letters,and as they did not use the internet I was able to act as a go between for the information between the two and they loved to hear about the American side. I was able to take the family line back to the 1600s thanks to court rolls and wills as well as parish records. Thing is others had tried before and not got very far and they were far more achademic and clever than I so I am really happy with what I have managed to uncover.
 
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