Looking at genealogy trees online, I can often see at a glance which trees spend more time focusing on details and which don’t.
Here are some simple questions to ask yourself to see how well you are doing:
- When looking at hints or records you find, do you actually open the record up and examine the information before adding it to your tree?
- Do you add the record because, since it is in your hints, it must be right?
- Do you add another tree with all their records just because Ancestry or any other ancestry company gave you hints or paired your trees with others, so it must be right?
- Do you take the time to really research the record or another tree before adding it to your tree?
- Do you ignore transcription mistakes on records?
- Do you take the time to correct the errors on a record?
If you do a lot of these things, then your tree is probably inaccurate. Let’s even take it one step further and state that, because you are not paying attention to details, your inaccurate tree will mess things up for the rest of the users for that particular tree on Ancestry.
You may be thinking “how can my tree mess things up for others? This is my tree and I own it.”
You may own it, but what is out on Ancestry is public is for all users. Think of it as one giant collaborative tree.
One small mistake gets replicated over and over by so many trees.
Even if your tree is private but you have chosen it to be searchable, your information will be checked against other trees.
Here is a simple example: I will call this the case of the 4th great-grandparents.
Focus on Detail Accuracy:
I have been helping a cousin with their tree for several months, assisting in editing both his tree and DNA. I have done the research, where I have found the actual digital image records showing the proof/source for each of his ancestors we have added to his tree.
Usually, what I like to do is, first add the information to my tree, then add the people to his tree and let him add the sources from my tree. He then does the rest of the work as this is his tree.
If the research is detailed and accurately done, it should match up how his DNA cousins match to his relatives provided his DNA cousins have a tree that is at least four generations deep and is linked directly to them.
Figuring the connection out would normally take a person some time to do if using paper charts, but AncestryDNA makes this easy with a simple software program called Thrulines. Thrulines does not confirm your DNA but helps you to see visually the location of the ancestors you share.
For DNA Thrulines to work correctly:
- Your tree has to be accurate
- Your DNA cousins’ tree has to be accurate
- Any tree that has the relative in either a public or private but searchable tree on Ancestry has to be accurate.
Cousin We Have a Problem:
Can you guess the problem that we are having?
If you think that the Thrulines are not showing, then you are wrong.
We have Thrulines, but the problem is showing up in his 4th great-grandparents. I am not an expert in DNA, but I would think that they should have about the same number of cousins attaching to both 4th great-grandparents if they both have listed the same great-great-great-great grandparents. I know the exact number can vary due to DNA being random. I have seen this in my own DNA sharing with my dad and sister.
This is what I am seeing on my cousin’s tree:
- 1 DNA match to his 4th great-grandfather
- 8 DNA matches to his 4th great-grandmother.
The one match that is to his 4th great-grandfather is his half sibling. They share the same paternal lines. They have the exact same tree.
What was odd when looking at the results for the 4th great-grandmother was that each of the cousins connecting are saying ” Half 3rd great aunt or uncle”.
So, what does this mean to be half 3rd great uncle or aunt?
Off the top of my head, it means that the 4th-great-grandfather is not the father of the siblings of my cousin’s 3rd great-grandmother.
Some Possible Problems:
- My cousin’s tree is wrong
- His cousin’s tree is wrong
- Ancestry has wrong data that people are copying
- Collectively other Ancestry trees are wrong.
Confusing? You bet!
Nancy Dru is on The Case:
First, I go back and look at my cousin’s tree. I found one mistake that is on his 4th-great-grandfather, and it is huge! Without thinking, he added a source he found on Ancestry. He told me this showed up as a hint for his 4th-great-grandfather. To understand why this is a big mistake, you first need some information about this case.
Let’s Meet the Amos Family:
Elizabeth Amos was Baptized in Kettleburgh, Suffolk the 30 March 1803 to Samuel Amos and Elizabeth Beck.
Samuel Amos and Elizabeth Beck were married by Banns on the 3 March 1803.
Elizabeth Beck was also born in Kettleburgh, Suffolk 1783 to Samuel Beck and Elizabeth Page.
Samuel Amyas, a variation of Amos, was Baptized in Lavenham the 25 of April 1779 to Samuel Amos and Mary (blank).
I found a marriage record for Samuel Amies, another variation of Amos, and Mary Leek in the Rushmere parish records. This is consistent to their other children born later in Lavenham and lists the mother’s maiden name as Leeks.
Samuel Amos and Mary Leek were married 29 June 1778.
Samuel and Elizabeth (Beck) Amos move to Rushmere and have Charlotte b. 1807, Samuel b.1809, b.David 1814, Elisha b.1817, Arthur b.1821, Elias b. 1823 and Maria b. 1827.
So, with this information, let’s take a look at what my cousin added to his tree on Ancestry.com
Examining The Record:
Examining the document, the first thing that stands out as wrong is Samuel Amos’ birth year of 1799. If he was born 1799 and married 1803, he would have been 4 years old at the altar!
The second thing I notice is that the record is not from Ancestry and will open in a new window.
When I first clicked on the link, it said the information was not found. I searched for Samuel Amos in their search bar and pulled up the page.
Basically, this tree about Samuel Amos was just a bare bones tree listing people, but with no actual records or sources cited. I looked all around the website.
I decided to contact the tree owner listed for this tree and have yet to receive a response.
Going back to Ancestry, I did a search to see if other trees have added this record. They did! The main thing I notice is that they only have him listed as being born but have not really researched him.
Since there are many trees that have this information on their tree, I wondered if this was what was causing the problem with my cousins Thrulines?
This is what is says on AncestryDNA® ThruLines®:
“ThruLines® shows you how you may be related to your DNA matches. ThruLines are based on information from family trees; they don’t change the information in trees. If there’s inaccurate information in your tree, you may receive inaccurate ThruLines.”
Yes, it definitely could be the cause in the case of the wrong birth year for Samuel Amos. It would mean that by being wrong he is not showing up as the father of the other children and that is why the Thrulines are showing the relationship as 3rd half aunt or uncle and that is why the DNA cousins also do not connect to Samuel Amos b. 1779.
Ancestry informs us that they can’t do anything about inaccurate information, but you can nicely contact the tree/s to see if they will update their tree.
Add or Update Information Record on Ancestry:
One last thing you can do to help fix this problem is to add or update information on the record on Ancestry. I make sure I do this when there is a transcription problem and this is no different.
The image below left shows I made the change. The image located to the right shows you what it says when you click on 1779.
Another Case Solved or Exposed:
By using the simple case of my cousin’s 4th great-grandparents, we learn that someone not focusing on something seemingly as trivial as the detail of a birth year caused havoc with the accuracy of the Thrulines.
Think of the error as computer virus, it keeps replicating all around Ancestry until finally trees start fixing the error in this case a birth year and the biggest impact to my cousin’s Thrulines are for his direct DNA cousins to fix their trees.
Another problem that was exposed was that all the other trees added the same document without checking where the record came from.
When actually looking at the record, it was nothing but a bare bones tree with no records or sources.
Remember just because Ancestry has it on their website doesn’t make it accurate.
Focus on details, you won’t regret it!
