Hi; I use the census records on
Ancestry.com. I have found a lot of family here in the
USA as well as in Wales. People I never expected to find, I found. However, I note there
are lots of errors in
Ancestry.com and you never seem to be able to change them. I've
one family whose name was Lafler and they appear on the 1870 census in the USA as Taylor.
I requested they change it 10 years ago. Never have. If I didn't know the family so
well, I would probably skip over it. Also, the parish names in Wales are so misspelled
that it is nearly hilarious! I have never seen such misspellings before. They certainly
know nothing about the Welsh language or they would know they weren't spelled right.
The public trees are not hilarious. I've found so many errors in them. An Anglesey
family has one child born in Radnor. Or an American family has a child born in New York
State in 1861, the next child in Alabama in 1862 and a third child back in New York State
in 1863, all while there is a War going on. This person is still looking for that child
in Alabama when he was never born there or lived there! Researchers take information from
one tree and put it on theirs, whether its correct or not. And if you question them, they
say, "well, if its on the internet, its true!"
I've found that the best way to find relatives or be contacted by relatives is in two
places: your local Family History Society or Genealogical Society and 2) the Dyfed
digest!. I have been contacted by more people because of this digest! It's worth its
weight in gold!
Annie
________________________________
From: Sandra Davies <sandra1.davies(a)virgin.net>
To: Dyfed <Dyfed(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Wed, April 27, 2011 7:27:36 PM
Subject: [Dyfed] Ancestry Public Member Trees
I hope you will excuse this off topic message, but it might prevent someone
from ending up feeling as angry as I am at the moment.
I've recently searched on the public member trees on Ancestry.co.uk and
found someone has posted a whole portion of my family history research and
claimed ownership of it.? I have willingly shared and exchanged information
with people with common ancestors as me in the past, but I have never been
in touch with this person.? We do have some common ancestry, but most of
what she has posted is of no connection to her at all.? She's obviously had
it passed on to her by someone else I have shared information with, but I
would never have dreamt that this would happen.?
When I wrote asking where she had the information from she could not tell
me, but admitted that it was not her own research and that she connected to
a lot of public information. This person has uploaded information so
detailed and personal that I recognise it as mine. What makes things worse
is that she has added on inaccurate dates and place names, which I think
automatically pop up as suggestions from Ancestry if there is a blank.?
She has, at my request, removed full details of my father who died in 2002
and corrected some of the errors.? She has no living relatives listed, but
even so I am feeling very aggrieved that after all the time and money I have
spent carefully researching my family, someone can come along and post it on
the internet, claim to be the 'owner' and then proceed to corrupt it with
inaccurate information.
This will not stop me sharing information, but it's made me feel a bit
foolish and very cautious about how much detail I give out in future.
Sandra
