How to Know You ACTUALLY Found the RIGHT Ancestor
Вставка
- Опубліковано 9 тра 2024
- One of the biggest questions in genealogy is wondering if you've found your ancestor or just someone with the same name. This video explains how to be sure you have the right person.
➡️ Find more ancestors with these 5 habits: • 5 Easy Habits to Disco...
#genealogy #familyhistory #ancestry
✅ Discover 5 Online Search Strategies Every Genealogist Should Know: www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/search...
🔍 Go further in your genealogy with Generations Connection www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/connec...
📙 Amy's book "31 Days to Better Genealogy" is available on Amazon:
amzn.to/3c2Nono
(Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)
As a retired (well, mostly retired), one of the My Heritage site problems is OTHERS. If I find a person that is, in fact correct. And IF, I do my normal checks, i.e. Name dob, dod, and cities, then I accept, I get a drop down of up to 12 people that I know nothing about. So, when I accept a person, I accept the drop downs unless I subject each to the same filters I list above and that is hard to do because you may not know them or their info. So, I accept, then get a discrepancy report showing a litany of people. The main problem? It is the individuals that post their genealogy and either by wrong procedures, or placements, show someone's son as being his father as well. Be careful, people.
Try this. A fellow on Ancestry has me in his tree because his great aunt was born 29th Feb 1912 in a city in the Usa. My mother was born in that city 29th Feb 1912. Both women were given name Mary and both had same last name. But my mother married someone with last name Fraga, his relative married someone called Viera. Here is problem he says its same person who married twice. I know my mother didnt marry twice.
That's one of my biggest grievances with Ancestry. I hate how they have to duplicate the person if they have dual roles.
People naming their children after themselves has been a headache for me.
Genealogy is like putting together a puzzle with an unknown number of pieces and no picture, but it is fun. I try to build on work others have done, but do try to verify their results as well. A lot of people will add someone who is a likely match without doing complete research as you describe in your video. A likely match is a starting point, not the end.
This is even harder as an African American. Names & DOB change. Census records are either sparse or non existent. 😑
The "leaf" on Ancestry needs to be thoroughly researched, as it may not be a true link.
All it takes is one person to claim that the husband of so and so had two different sir names and was the same person without any proof whatsoever. They just want it to be that way so they can claim they are related to the Lord mayor of London in 1600s!! It drives me insane because it screws up everybody’s research! Researching this far back takes great care and patience because a. Record keeping wasn’t that great, b. Nearly Every first born son had the same names as the father so unless they were wealthy, really tricky to sort out.
One set of my 2nd great grandfathers wereJames Jones and Elizabeth Smith. There were at least three other couples with the same names in the same area. We are experienced enough family genealogists to know to look for all the things you have mentioned but with these two, oh lordy! 😢
The danish change their last names. They are naned for their father adding sen or dotter. And way back women didn't have any thing in their name it all belongeg to their husbands.
Here is a situarion I was in and how I proved my theory correct. All of the trees I have seen on Ancestry and elsewhere, have David Prothero’s wife Mary listed as Mary Williams, because on the 1851 and 1861 UK Censuses have David’s mother-in-law is listed as Elizabeth Williams. I was not convinced Mary’s maiden surname was Williams because the only marriage record, I could find was David Prothero, Turner marrying a Mary Lewis June 11, 1826 in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales (FMP). Right time, occupation, and place as the oldest two children (David and John) were born in Abergavenny. For a while, I’ve been thinking how to prove this theory, then I found the 1862 Death Registration, I thought might be our Elizabeth Williams, so I purchased it from the GRO, which stated the “widow of David Williams, Agricultural Labourer”. My thought before looking at this record, was that maybe Elizabeth re-married. It is looking more like it. Then I searched for a marriage record between David Williams and Elizabeth [left surname blank]. On FMP, I found a marriage record that stated “David Williams, Widower and Elizabeth Lewis, Widow” married on Aug. 14, 1834. I am getting closer to proving my theory, I thought some people may not think this was enough proof, so then I thought David and Mary had children born after civil registration, which started in 1837. I looked at the 1851 Wales Census and found the youngest child, Henry and purchased his birth registration from the GRO and his birth registration stated his mother was “Mary Prothero formerly Lewis”.
In memory of Pardon Tillinghast Clarke.
As an "amateur genealogist" for my family, I have some perplexing dilemmas. They revolve around documentation. The issue applies more to myself, rather then my wife.
Amy great video!! People who are starting out, this is one of the most important things to learn. It floors me when people say the name matches it must be so.....😂
As an amateur genealogist who's been working on my family tree for a couple of decades, this was such a satisfying story, with all the evidence falling into place! When I first got into online genealogy, I started pulling in all the family trees i could find, without really checking the source information, and quickly found my tree had all sorts of errors -- names of people that I knew personally that were misspelled in other people's trees, dates that didn't line up, so many problems! I eventually dumped the whole thing and started over, being MUCH pickier about what I add to my tree. I really enjoy watching your videos -- I learn a lot from you!
Wow. This is a great video, Amy. It's helpful and a game-changer when trails go cold. Thanks for posting it! Stay well.
It's for the reasons noted that a lot of the information that comes up as hints on Ancestry end up in the Undecided pile with the 'I don't know how to verify this information' notation. I don't use information on other people's trees without verifying their research before adding it to my trees anymore. I made huge messes at the beginning of my journey and am still working to fix some of them!
So many people have added kids to my great grandfather Samuel Black. He has an uncommon middle name. I know every place that he’s been to (Indiana and Nebraska). I know that he was married twice, divorced once (my great grandmother was his 2nd marriage. His first wife had been his cousin and none of their 3 children survived past toddlerhood/infancy). I’ve seen people add children born elsewhere and not in Nebraska (where his first 3 children and my grandma and her 3 sisters were born. Also none in Indiana). I’ve made notes on him and have contacted those that kept adding children to him to recheck the sources.
People on Ancestry have taken over my great great grandmother’s identity and used her married name as her maiden name. They then marry her off to someone else, and have her death listed in Texas. I have the family records and know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she was born, raised, married, and died in Tennessee. The death certificate even shows her death at the home of my great grandfather in Nashville. Because of this, I am unable to do research further back in her line. It’s very frustrating.