Genealogy Forum UK

I found someone who looked as if they came from a direct line from the family of my Great Grand Uncles wife. I sent them a mail with some basic background info and they were pleased and interested. I invited them to look at my public tree on Ancestry.

Since then they have been slowly copying info, then today I have one of those "oh no what you doing" moments, when i was notified they added records to the aforementioned wife, adding maternal grandparents who are definitely not the grandparents, so happens its the only match that comes up, so it has to be the right records? right? WRONG!!

I found that match 6 months ago and they definitely are not the right people, why do people just put any old records as fact without checking.

Anyway rant over!

I understand what you're saying AndrewA it irritates me to see the trees on Ancestry that are filled with wrong information. I made the same mistake when i first started but a lovely patient lady , who shall be nameless, forget patient, anyway she helped me in the world of Genealogy and guided me through. What's the answer how do we prevent people from entering information that has not been proven correct?

Rob wrote:I understand what you're saying AndrewA it irritates me to see the trees on Ancestry that are filled with wrong information. I made the same mistake when i first started but a lovely patient lady , who shall be nameless, forget patient, anyway she helped me in the world of Genealogy and guided me through. What's the answer how do we prevent people from entering information that has not been proven correct?

chop the fingers off

This is supposed to be a serious discussion !! Sorry AndrewA .

Unfortunately it almost seems that there are more of the clueless variety than the sort (of which I hope I am one), who double check every piece of data we come across.
I know that sometimes we have to make a leap of faith, but I always, always note that that is the case, and I never put it on a public tree, or give this info to someone I don't know well enough (An example that comes to mind is an ancestor of John Brittain Fellows b.1811 - we think his mother was Ann Bridgen - it's certainly the only "Ann" that is to be found in the right place at the right time, but because it's from a parish record there's no way to know for certain. Being reasonably happy that we've found the correct person, and assuming the spelling may be down to misunderstood dialects on the part of the vicar and illiteracy on the part of Ann, doesn't make it beyond reasonable doubt).

I have come across wrong entries before on Ancestry, and have even gone to the trouble of contacting the tree owner, and quite diplomatically explaining why I think they've made a mistake, complete with all the facts. Having done this several years ago, and their tree remains unchanged (despite the fact that they answered my mail, and seemed to agree with my findings), I've stopped trying to help in this way - maybe I've offended them, despite my best efforts not to. So now I just roll my eyes, shake my head, and look at the next possible tree that I may (or may not) have a connection to!

Thats what i do too Snoopy.I don't contact the tree owners anymore.