Howdy! I did one of those fancy new-age DNA kits years ago and since then, I've been maintaining a family tree online. I originally built it on MyHeritage.com but they have a hard limit on how many relatives can fit into a free tree, so I migrated to Ancestry.com upon reaching that limit. My tree is private, since "mother's maiden name"s are the answer to security questions and the tree would impinge upon such security, not just for myself, but for many of my living relatives. Not willing to pay for a bulk account, I simply share the log-in info with immediate relatives who have an interest in our genealogy. Theoretically, I mean, as none do. Though it's just for my own amusement, I enjoy filling the tree out, perhaps a little too much, as someone who grew up unable to flesh out more than a generation back, and that, with much confusion, as I had few I inquire with, then.
Unless you pay for an expert to expand upon and correct connections, there are bound to be mistakes. As an adult with a Facebook, I've been able to reach out to living relatives, however scattered, and with their knowledge, ease about three generations back, with some exceptions. From there, by comparing overlaps in other users' trees, as well as through Googling, I've identified longer roots. The first major blockade was that of a man who lived in the 1500s. I could find no record of whom he married, nor of his parents. Until finally, after months of focusing on other areas of the tree, with much Googling, I found evidence of a woman married to a man of that name in that place of that time. Her own tree was listed, stretching back, at an angle, to the 300s. That's not a typo. Nobility kept, or invented, detailed records as a means of proving their right to rule.
Even private trees offer public information regarding the dead. Also, there are automated tips, so when a similar tree fills in a gap, if yours shares those connections, some sites will suggest what links others made. Ancestry.com, and its competitors, are actively buying up documents from around the world, relating to birth, marriage, and death records, as well as military, etc. Anything relevant to folks building their own family trees. And they're shoving them behind a pay wall.
If that wall weren't so high, I could see paying for it. This is a hobby, after all. But hundreds of dollars per year to access records that should be publicly accessible in the first place? No. This past week, I reached out to customer support because for years, users have been requesting a better means of sorting relatives, in list form, than alphabetical. Think location, or in my case, birth date, death date. Apparently these tools exist now, but only if the user has a paid membership, and is willing to blow $10/month. Guess who isn't? Meanwhile it takes an hour to fully expand my tree because their site is so slow. But I greatly digress.
More to the point, the trouble is, when filling the ~1500s gap in my tree, I was guessing. And when I did so, filling in the slot, many others used my guess to fill in their gap. Upon further review, it was wrong. Her husband is a different guy. I'm leaving her in the tree, because all Western nobility are related and upon pushing other branches farther back, I'm bound to re-connect with her side, at which point I can remove her. Too much work has already been done.
Thing is, I'm not the only user making educated guesses, and every time one of us trusts another, we risk inserting a mistake, and running with all related connections. This, atop how nobility certainly fudged their own records when beneficial, and going far enough back, their records are the records. Who else was keeping track in Western Europe? Tax collectors, maybe?
It turns out I have a local history museum with a paid Ancestry.com account and they've suggested I swing by and use it, to see what I can copy over to my own tree. And one of these days, I intend to do just that. Though, given the slowness of Ancestry.com, I'm hoping to migrate elsewhere. That they finally implemented the long requesting search tools and shoved them behind a paywall, after doing the same with what every relevant document, is what is colloquially known as "a dick move" in my humble opinion. They sell DNA kits, then sell the results to every bidder. That their paid memberships are outlandishly expensive makes matters worse. Frankly, I hope they go under, just not before I've migrated my tree. Maybe Wikitree.com loads faster?
But, anywho, it's a good idea to double check tips offered by genealogy sites. The person filling out that other tree probably also isn't an expert. Most of us aren't. Thanks for stopping by! I drop a new blog post every Monday. Toodles!
Newsletter:
Howdy! This will be short and sweet. I'm on vacation. I managed to edit my paranormal women's fiction novel, Soul Walker, a bit before leaving but that's about it for productivity. I return later this week and will get back to work then. Thanks for stopping by! I drop a newsletter every Monday! Toodles!
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