General Chat

Thankyou very much for the replys. I did reply to the person in question as I did not give permission. I cannot see why my husbands family is of interest as an example. As it turns out I should still have a tree on ancestry from when I was a member and intend to rejoin some time. Thanks again. Pat

Hi Elizabeth.
I have made innumerable corrections to info on Ancestry over the years & am aware of how easy it is for the site to default to places in America if it´s not clear which country you are talking about.... Birmingham being a prime example.
However this person is American & most of his family originate from there. He has quite definitely traced this woman back to a family in the UK, which is impossible.
Am about to put him in touch with my cousin so they can sort it out between them. With said cousin´s agreement, needless to say.

Pat - I think I do feel that if I have been given permission to use another person's tree on GR then the information is mine to use and I would add it to any other tree like Ancestry that I have - in fact I'm pretty sure I have done so, though I would always give the source of information as "X's tree on GR" or whatever. And I certainly wouldn't be surprised if information I have given on GR is used in someone's Ancestry tree. It is of course infuriating when they copy it wrong!

And lots of us have trees on more than one site - only this week a query came up - I had information to help and checked on my Ancestry public tree to see where the most information was, where I found a reference to his own private tree on Ancestry and sent a message that he could check the information on my Ancestry tree.

In reply to Pat (23:28) you can only add new ancestors to the tree on Ancestry if you have been given 'Editor' rights.

If you are a 'Guest' you'll have to contact the tree owner again and see if he is willing to (or wants to) add them.

Some people with trees on Ancestry put them there and then after their initial burst of enthusiasm they no longer look at it. I tried to contact a lot of people (about 164) early this year, who have my sister married to a man born in 1723. I discovered many of the people had not visited their trees for over 6 months.

I sincerely hope that they cannot remove the comments I have put on their trees (on the page for my alleged brother in law) as I am hoping it will discourage others from marrying him off to my sister. Of those who did reply to my email, many did not want to admit to any error. I have given up on it.

Huia.

You should contact the person, they will prob be glad you put them right.
It does some times get confusing when adding info.
Be polite, don't be angry with them. It might be a simple error on their part and they may not realise what they have done.

Susan Postlethwite

After I was sent a gedcom, I sent my tree in return and I was surprised to find a email from Ancestery (which I am not a member of now) inviting me to view his site and I found my tree on there. However can someone tell me if I now add more family to my tree will that appear on his site automatically? This happened some time ago and have not added anything since. I do not have a large tree only the basic and he has some wrong info as well. Pat

I've just been adding corrections / information to some trees by Comments on Ancestry re. direct ancestors. One had the wrong parents, one had the wrong John dying...easily done before ages were shown on the index.

Will await to see if I get contacted...or deleted !

Gwyn

Place names - in Ancestry it frequently seems to happen that unless you specify the country it gives the American address by default of a town name. I have written to people on various occasions about this - some have acknowledged it and altered it, some not! Other mistakes - I have written to Ancestry about obvious misreadings in the censues and they do correct it - and there is a place for Comment on the trees where you see errors and disparities, including being able to comment on other people's trees - though I believe they are able to delete your comment if they don't like it!

I have recently had contact with someone in America who has my cousin´s grandmother in his tree as having married & died in America.
I told him she had never left England & we had all the certs etc to prove her relationship to my cousin.
The reply?
There must be 2 women with the same name.
Highly likely, but with the same date of birth, parents & siblings???

I have also found trees both on here and on Ancestry where they have the wrong person. One tree had the wrong father for me. I first thought that it was not worth the bother of contacting them, but I am so surprised at how easily people accept the first thing they find on the net as being correct. Other people then happily follow an incorrect entry; soon you find that there are several trees all with the wrong information.
I did contact these people, in a friendly way, but I did not get very far, they still have the wrong father for me, but I did leave a message on the tree pointing out my reasons, which to their credit, they have left there for other to see.
The most interesting incorrect contact I have had was from someone down under, who claimed that a person in my tree, in the 1950’s when visiting the country, had had an affair with a local woman and was possibly the father a child, and they wanted me to put them in touch. I told them that the person was not and could not be the father of that child. To which I got a very nasty reply, and asking me to say why I thought they could not be the father. I did send a short simple reply that said, “Because I have never been to Australia”. I did not get reply.
My point is that although it does take time and effort to contact people, I think that if it is the wrong information, it is worth trying, in a polite way, to get it corrected, because it is possible that the incorrect information overtakes the truth.

I have a few mistakes in my tree.
I made them very early on and it is difficult without help to rectify them.
It is a big tree so I am not about to delete and start again, which was a suggestion.
Ah well, Don't worry Claire, as long as you know you are right, which is how I deal with my tree.
I see the mistakes so I know.
If anyone looks at my tree, I tell them before hand.
Deanna X

You are all correct of course..
Before i put this thread on here i sent them a message briefly saying that this person was my husbands 2x greatgrandfather and also gave a few more facts and asked if they would like to exchange info.
When and if they reply we will be able to take it further, I wasnt nasty or bulldozey,,nothing like that,,,,I just invited them to get in touch,

Its very easy to search through the census and assume that you have found the person you are seeking,,just because their parents have the same names

I once had contact with someone who got quite ratty with me because we had conflicting info about a marriage ..She KNEW she was correct she said 'because,,'Cousin Alan had told her the info,'
'Well..i said,,I DO actually have the certificate for this..' I offered her a copy but she never replied.,,Her loss,

I opened my tree on here to someone who had a link to my husbands side, he pinched my whole tree. He then went further & put info on Family search & the tree on Ancestry. Somehow he has got it all mixed up, I now have my Scottish ancestors as being born in Hunts. When I pointed it out he got shirty with me. It really annoys me to get the wrong info up as no-one else has my tree on Ancestry. No good anyone contacting him about it as I found out too late he was a name collector. His problem to sort it out if anyone contacts him.
Hilary

i noticed recently that a distant relative had hopelessly wrong info on their tree. I contacted them at GR and said I would send them a small gedcom file with the correct info and sources and another e-mail with photographs and copies of newspaper articles. I sent the latter some weeks ago and fully expected a brief thank you and a level of enthusiasm at having a famous ancestor that they obviously did n't know about. Thus far I've heard not a word and until I do they can go on their merry, absurdly incorrect way - I'll be buggered if I'm going to send the gedcom too. Unfortunately, meanwhile all those poor souls that make use of their hot matches and don't do their own research are also being misled.

I´ve found several trees on Ancestry with my ancestors included but can´t ever work out how they are related to the family in question.
If I see one that´s clearly attached to the wrong parents, I contact the tree owner & tell them what I know, quoting evidence from certs, census etc & suggest that they might like to take another look.
Some people respond. Most don´t.
Marion

actually there's three. No need to steam in anywhere, just say that you noticed that your tree has different info and would it be possible to compare sources to see which is the correct info.

I've never had anyone being shirty with me and I've never been shirty with anyone.

After all we all want the right info at the end of the day.

There are 2 schools of thought about this. You can steam in and tell them it's all wrong and risk a shirty reply.
OR
Say nothing , safe in the knowledge that your tree is better researched and more likely to be right.!

Hi Claire :)

why? People make mistakes.

Have you thought about contacting them them and checking their details and perhaps offering the correct info?

I remember someone claiming one of my ancestors as theirs. We very very briefly thought we were related to each other before I realised that my ancestor was married to someone at the same time as their ancestor was married to someone else. it wasn't bigamy just 2 people with the same name. Her grandfather had come all the way over to research their family tree (not cheap) and researched the old fashioned way in the record office (takes time). It was an easy mistake to make. I could only prove it was my ancestor via a will (I was lucky) but it could have gone the other way.

I think of myself as thorough and cautious but even I make mistakes. In fact my gran met her cousins for the first time through an error that both our families made in our family tree. We are just human.

Iv just looked a tree on ANCESTRY that has my husbands 2 x great grandfather as the child of totally different parents,, Correct dob and grandparents but born to someone iv never heard of, I cant even fiind this person as part of the family on the census,
I dont know about you lot but i find it infuriating when someone has got totally the wrong info,
Iv got the birth cert so i know im correct ,,just feel a bit huffy about it,,,lol