Genealogy Chat

I have had to cancel my Ancestry membership because I couldn't afford to renew it this year. They still send me their Hints, but of course I can't go into them. On the most recent one, I have just noticed that they are showing my grandmother as my step-grandmother which is incorrect. I suppose in the great scheme of things it doesn't matter too much but I wondered if anyone knows how I can correct it? She is shown on my tree as married to my grandfather and there were no other marriages.

Ancestry's hints do go awry. They'll give you a marriage before the person has even be born! In response to complaints on FB, Ancestry says its caused by the algorithms used. I often get ER hints from the same year of birth. Same name, different person. We all know they'd have to been at least 18, possibly 21, years old. The programme can't apply the same common sense.

If you still have the email, copy & paste the hint. May be current subscribers can have a look to see what's going on.

Thank you Detective. There are several of them relating to her - this is one of them:


Hill, Jessie (1884-)
step grandmother

England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915
Birth, Marriage & Death, including Parish
Review hint
Name Walter David J Hill
Marriage 07/1900 Falmouth Cornwall
Review

She appears on quite a few other people's trees - she was born Jessie Jewell 1884. It does concern me that these errors get copied again and again and become deeply entrenched.

This is how they show the marriage index

Walter David J Hill
Registration Year: 1900
Registration Quarter: Jul-Aug-Sep
Registration district: Falmouth
Parishes for this Registration District: View Ecclesiastical Parishes associated with this Registration District
Inferred County: Cornwall
Volume: 5c
Page: 229
Records on Page:
Name
Walter David J Hill
Jessie Louisa Jewell
Edwin Thomas Johns
Mary Jane Prout

There's only one public, unsourced, tree owned by hazamyflo.
Walter David J Hill
1883–
BIRTH 1883 • Ponsanooth, Cornwall
DEATH Unknown
.....

Marriage
1900 • Falmouth, Cornwall
Jessie Louisa Jewell
(1884–)
.....
A private tree has
Walter David J Hill
Born: 1880 in St Gluvias Cornwall, PENRYN, England
(Partridge family tree)

I can't spot any other trees with Jessie Jewell

Thank you for your interest. This is from the Hints they have sent me:

Ancestry Member Trees
This hint compiles information from 10 other Public Ancestry Member Trees.
Name Jessie Hill
Birth abt 1884 - Penrhyn, Cormwall
Death Review

There is also:

http://www.jewell.asn.au/family-history/ancestor.htm

which doesn't come down as far as Jessie but is the same family.

I see 14 trees on Ancestry with Jessie.

However, four belong to the same person and are just updates of each other. The basic search says they (and one belonging to someone else) are public trees, but when you try to look at them it says they are private.

Some trees have her middle name as Louise rather than Louisa, and her YOB varies between 1883 and 1884.

A couple of trees show her marriage to Walter twice, which might give the impression to the Ancestry system that she (and he) had married twice, possibly giving rise to the "step" suggestion ?

Or could the fact that she had half (or step)-siblings have something to do with it ?
Her mother appears to have married two or three times.

Some trees say her father was David Septimus Quelch, others that he was William Reynolds Jewell, and one that he was William Pearce !

Thank you Argyll Gran.

She always called herself Jessie Louisa, but I can't remember without digging out her birth certificate which it actually was.

William Reynolds Jewell was her grandfather. Her mother, Priscilla, had Jessie and two other illegitimate children before marrying David Septimus Quelch who was the father of none of them. The younger two were left to be brought up by two of her sisters and Jessie was brought up by her grandparents. The "siblings" she was brought up with were actually her aunts and uncles. Their ages confuse the issue.

I have only very recently found out that William Pearce was Jessie's father, he was previously completely unknown. Priscilla sued him for child maintenance and there is a newspaper report. I think the other tree that gives him as her father is that of a descendant of one of Priscilla and "Septy" Quelch's children (Jessie's half-brother) who I shared the information with.

If Ancestry takes the information from other trees, I can well see how the confusion has arisen!

Christine ............

Ancestry "hints" are taken by computer from other trees or from other records found on the site (eg census). They don't do any research themselves, nor are the hints checked by humans!

And people copy information from other trees without doing any checks of their own

That's why I ignore them!

Thank you all. At least I can now see how it has happened. I shall have to put up with the error!