Q and A blurb

A weblog about my family search and genealogical journey. My ancestors and relatives, findings and wild goose chases, dead ends and brick walls, climbing trees and seeking dead people, sources and resources, and more...

WONDERFUL WIKITREER

WONDERFUL WIKITREER
BADGE

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Does your tree make sense?

Keep in mind that not every bit of information you find on your relative or ancestor is going to be true. Some people copy others without checking their facts and some people will copy you too. For this reason alone, due diligence is a must have in any tree. If you are not a thousand percent certain that a relationship is right say so.
If your fifth great grandfather was born in 1776 and his mother was born in 1770 you may have gotten some bad intel. And if his father died two years before he was born, he may not be the father, Luke.
If his father was born in another state and never moved or if he was in a different county his whole life, he may not be the father. And if he is not the father, was his wife really the mother. Circumstantial evidence is not admissible in court and should not be writ in stone on your tree either.
Just because five of your cousins on Ancestry listed Ben as the father of Luke or Luke as the father of Rey does not mean it is so. Do your detective work and confirm beyond a reasonable doubt that the tree is accurate or at least note any facts that are not confirmed. Keep in mind that others will not do the leg work and will copy you and your sixth great grandson may want to do the family tree for his grandchildren and may not be able to find the proof as easily as you can now.
Be the late night family detective your future generations need and leave no stones unturned. Think I have covered all the bases on this subject but let me finish with one more example.
Everyone on ancestry had assumed that my elder John Nichols was the son of Isaac and Rhoda Bond Nichols because they were in the same county he was born in, but it turned out with a lot of homework that Isaac and Rhoda had a son the same year that John was born and also, they did not have any sons named John at all.
Also DNA evidence proved that John and Isaac were two different bloodlines as they had different Y DNA haplogroups and so could not be related at all. John was actually a member of another line of Nichols who lived in Bedford County and was related to John Nichols who moved to Bedford from Maryland. He and John had the same Y DNA and so were related as sons inherit their Y DNA from their fathers so therefore Isaac was not related to John but John was.
Turns out that John's son, Arch had a son named John, of course his brother John did too, but not in the same time frame or location. But that is another story. While one researcher had taken an educated guess and gotten the bloodline wrong, others had copied their info and gotten their lines wrong too. And after having spent months and months researching Isaac's family, DNA proved that Isaac was NOT the father, as Maury would say.
On a side note, Isaac is actually related to me through a relatives marriage to my Hatcher line, so the research I ended up doing was not in vain at all, and I found some pretty cool relatives of Rhoda Bond in the process.
Rhoda had a relative who was scalped in a battle with Native Americans during Black Hawk's War, and was one of the bodies found the next day by Abraham Lincoln's unit. His name was James Bond, and I found him while researching Rhoda's tree. Just having a James Bond in the tree makes it worth the work.
Back to topic. Do your homework. Don't copy. And if you can use DNA to confirm where possible. 
By the way, if you read my earlier posts about Isaac and Rhoda's families and them being ancestors, I was wrong about them. #update.
Keep climbing trees and breaking through walls. The fruit is worth the labor.
Peace.

No comments:

Post a Comment

FAMILY HISTORY CHANNEL

TAGS

bloodline 52ancestors pedigree FamilyHistoryFriday DirectAncestor ancestor NICHOLS ancestorlist England MATERNAL genealogy male Virginia challenge family history DNA sources HANCOCK census SundaySource KING Scotland 2ndGG Magna Carta project 19thGG gen5 BARTLETT GEDMATCH gen6 AKERS FamilyTreeTuesday 3rdGG COLLINS KG KNIGHT OF THE GARTER 17thGG 18thGG CensusSunday BOURNE LINVILLE gen4 American Revolution MovieMonday gen20 gen22 12 ancestors in 12 months 16thGG BROWNE FOUNDERS AND PATRIOTS France Marriages POFF SAR WASHINGTON gen19 12in12 23rdGG DAR Ireland JONES NC PA. Rome VitalRecords WILLIAMS WednesdaysWall gen21 13thGG 25thGG 9thGG EDWARDS PATERNAL RICHARDS gen16 gen28 10thGG 22ndGG 26thGG 27thGG Italy Jamestown MACNICOL Maryland Normandy PAYNE RAKES Saint TAYLOR UPDATES VAUGHAN gen3 12thGG 21stGG 5thGG 6thGG 7thGG ALDRIDGE BOOTH BRENT Bedford Blogiversary Crusades Descendants HOLLAND House of TUDOR JOHNSON LAST WILL POETRY READING Roman Emperor SHOUT OUTS STEWART WILSON WRIGHT gen13 gen26 gen29 gen30 gen9 mentions 14thGG 20thGG 31stGG BORU Belgium Civil War DE NORMANDIE Denmark EBOOKS FotoFriday Germany HARRIS HATCHER HILL LAWRENCE Links MAYFLOWER MOORE Massachusetts NICHOLLS O'BRIAN O'BRYAN Quaker SCOTTISH CLANS YOUNG elder female gen12 gen17 gen34 gen8 gifts 10TH CENTURY 11TH CENTURY 2014 24thGG 33rdGG 36thGG 43rdGG 4thGG 51stGG. gen54 ALTIZER ANCESTORS ANCESTRY Aragon Awards BOLEYN BOND Bishop CAREY CHENEY Caesar Connecticut DEATH RECORD DUNCAN Earl Egypt Elisha Nichols FAMILY HISTORY FRIDAY Family Tree Thursday Floyd Co. Franklin GARRETT GENETIC COMMUNITIES GERARD GIBSON GORDON GRANT HERBERT HOWARD House of RURIK John Ezekiel Nichols Kiev LEONARD LIKENS LINCOLN Lt. John Nichols MALLORY MAYBERRY MONTGOMERY MORGAN Montgomery Co. NAPIER NATIONAL SOCIETY OF THE WASHINGTON FAMILY DESCENDANTS NICHOLS SURNAME PROJECT O'BRIEN PEAK PLANTAGENET PRINDLE PTOLEMY Poet Private Reverend Rurik Dynasty Russia SEYMOUR SINCLAIR SMYTHE SPENCER STUMP Site of the Month Spain Sponsors TUDOR UK Ukraine VA. WALLS WHITE Wales Y-DNA bloggers clergy family family detective gen15 gen2 gen36 gen39 gen46 militaryRecord poetry shop tbt throwback thursday 11thGG 12th century 14th century 15thGG 1stGG 2015 28thGG 47thGG 51stGG. 53rdGG 65thGG 67thGG 75thgg ADDAIR ASHTON AUDLEY Alba Alchemist Antonine Dynasty Archibald Nichols Award of Excellence BALDWIN BARLOW BEACH BEAUFORT BECKETT BERENGER BERENGUER BERKELEY BORUMA BRONAUGH BROWN BRUCE BUTLER BYRON Barcelona Barons Battle of Hastings Bavaria Berkeley Hundred Bluetooth CALLAHAN CARRICK CEO CHRISTLEY CIRCLES CLINTON COKAYNE CONSTABLE CONSTANTINUS COOK COOKE CT Cambridge Cardinal Carolingian Dynasty Chancellor Charlemagne Cherokee Colony Count Cumberland Customer DANVERS DE BOHUN DE LA FORCE DE METZ DESPENSER DEVEREUX DICKENS DOUGLAS DraftCard Drexel Hill EMLEN ESTRIDSSON ETHNICITY Edmonston FLYNT FORBES FRAY FamilyHistoreen Franklin County GA. GARAT GARRARD GILBERT GLEN GORGES GORMSSON GRAHAM GREEN GRENVILLE Greece HALDANE HART HAWLEY HIGHLANDERS HIGHLEY HODGES HOLDEN HOLT HUBBARD HUGEONOTS HYDE Hammer House of Barcelona House of CAPET House of NORMANDY Howe Howland IRISH ISLE OF SKYE Iowa JACKSON JAMESTOWN SOCIETY JEFFERSON James Bond John m Nichols Judge Justice KENNEDY King's Cove LESLIE LLOYD LONDON LORING LUDFORD LUNDIN Lineage Lundi Lykins MACARTHUR MAGNA CARTA SOCIETY MARTEL MARTIN MAYBURY MCCLANE MERCHANT MINITREE MOREHOUSE MP. Sheriff MURRAY Macedonia Maddox Memorial Day Memoirs Merovingian Family Military Monday Military Mondsy Minute Man Moesia NEWPORT NEWSPAPERS NJ NOREYS NORRIS Nancy Payne Nichols New Jersey Nobles and Notables North Carolina Norway Novgorod OBITUARIES OGILVY Octavian PARTRIDGE PATRILINEAGE PEMBRIDGE PENNSYLVANIA PERRIN PHILADELPHIA PINION PITZER POW POWELL POWHATAN PRESTON PRINGLE Pharaoh Plymouth Polly Updike Prince Provence Ptolemaic Dynasty Puritan RADCLIFFE REED RICHARDSON RUTTER Robertian Dynasty SAINT-CLAIR SAVAGE SAYE SC SETON SHERMAN SHINALL SHUFFIELD SIBILA SMITH SMYTH SPEARMAN STAMPER STANLEY STEPHENSON STEVENSON STUART SVIATOSLAVICH Scrope. 12thGG Serbia Sheriff Sheriffs Sicily SmallWorldSaturday Stoic Surry County TALBOT THARP THOMAS THOMPSON TILNEY TRAIL Tennessee Thornfield Tilley UA BRIAIN UPDIKE Underground Railroad VA VERNON VLADIMIROVICH WADHAM WENTWORTH WITT WOODWARD WROTHESLEY WV WW2 Wednesday Weblog Welsh What IF? Wittelbach blog books due diligence gen1 gen10 gen11 gen18 gen25 gen27 gen31 gen50 gen54 gen56 gen68 gen7 gen70 gen78 goals heraldry homework immigrant merchandise milestone mystery new england notes philosopher pilgrims quotes review tags ydna