[from 20 May 2015]
I use the online trees for the occasional clue. However in reviewing many of these trees while searching for research leads this week, I was reminded that apparently not everyone is aware of the following:
- People do not marry after they die.
- People do not have children after they are dead.
- People are not born before their parents.
- People do not marry before their parents are born.
- The letters “bef” in front of a date matter.
- The letters “aft” in front of a date matter.
- The letters “about” in front of a date matter.
Note: A reader pointed out that men can have children born up to around nine months after they are dead. That’s correct. Nine years afterwards is a bit much though!
Nancy says:
I once found a case where a couple died on their wedding day, then had seven children over the next eleven years. Or cases where people got married (to the same person) four times. (I also found a case where a couple apparently did, actually, get married twice in six months, once in New Hampshire and once in Massachusetts. I haven’t finished digging into that matter).
The mistakes in those online trees can be awful, but there are also people who have done some hard work in digging up information and making sure it’s accurate, and those people I thank.
Barbara Regenstein says:
This made me laugh out loud! If you believe most of the trees online, my 2nd great grandfather apparently married and had 10 children after he died. I know I must have mistakes in my tree, but at least I correct them if someone points them out (or I find one on my own).
Pam Sarno says:
It is absolutely astounding, and makes me wan to scream”people, read your work”. And then I remember that ‘copy and paste’ doesn’t require any thinking.
Elaine Collier Neal says:
Ancestry DNA database has created some serious problems with combining family trees with such errors as above in them. I have an ancestor who managed to have 13 children and lived only nineteen years. I REALLY KNOW THIS IS WRONG, but does ANCESTRY? Are they confusing people? I still use ANCESTRY, but with great care.
Elaine Collier Neal
mjnrootdig says:
Clues. The trees can contain clues. Some trees contain other things 😉
Jade says:
Some more chronologically-wrong things found in trees:
— People to whom military service is attributed long after death
— People to whom military service is attributed before birth
— People with Census enumerations decades after death (often hundreds or more miles from where they ever could have lived)
And really quite a few more.
mjnrootdig says:
Good points. If people fit the information in their tree into a chronology, it would cut down on a significant number of errors.