Like
many others, I will take time to click on the green leaf that’s attached to an
ancestor or family member in my family tree on Ancestry.com. I am often led to
others’ family trees who have claimed my ancestor/family member as their own.
Sometimes the claim is accurate. Unfortunately, many times my ancestor/family
member is not theirs at all – two different people with the same first and last
names. They failed to verify the connection, their family trees are then consumed
with errors, and those errors are duplicated via those green leaves. Sadly,
this is a growing phenomenon with online family trees, especially on
Ancestry.com. Genealogy research seems to be becoming a name collection game –
people getting a thrill at seeing their family tree expand, copying others'
family trees – errors and all – and not verifying the information. Next thing
you know, you have numerous incorrect family trees out there. Don’t get me wrong, I like the green leaves. I
am just cautious with them.
Unfortunately,
inaccurate family trees may mean that many people are “digesting” and passing
on false information about a family’s history. I say this because I have
personally heard others, who consider themselves as the family historian, say
something like, “I have been researching my family’s history for several years
and have traced back to the 1700s.” Then, after further conversation with that
person, I realize that the researcher has never turned off the computer from
viewing online family trees, along with cursory and non-analytical views of
census records, and has never visited any local, state or federal Archives, genealogy
libraries, family history centers, cemeteries, courthouses, or other places for records or clues of verification that
are not online. The researcher has also not actively explored the many other
digitized records on FamilySearch.org, fold3.com, and other sites that can add
to their reasonably exhaustive search.
Additionally, the researcher has not even taken the time to read books, blogs,
articles, etc., or has not viewed any webinars, videos, or other online
resources on conducting effective genealogy research. Unfortunately,
“researching” seems to have become a name-matching sport for many.
My
blog posts are usually about how I solved a genealogical mystery or made a cool
discovery via genealogy research and/or DNA, to serve as a case study for
researchers to learn from. However, I was compelled to write this post because
of a recent dialogue that I found troubling.
Last week, I had an online “debate” with a young lady who claimed my
great-grandmother's brother, Robert “Bob” Ealy Jr., as her ancestor. Her family
was from Craven County, North Carolina and eventually migrated to New York. No
records were attached to her family tree. My Ealy family is clearly in Leake
County, Mississippi and had been there since c. 1835, when my
great-great-grandfather Robert “Big Bob” Ealy’s enslaver, William W. Eley,
brought him to Mississippi from Nash County, North Carolina. But because the two men had the same name, she
attached my great-granduncle Bob Jr., his parents, and grandparents as her
ancestors too and defended her reasoning.
One
of her reasons was because she has DNA matches with people either with the Ealy
surname or have an Ealy in their tree, as well as my surname, too. My surname
(Collier) came from my Dad's adoptive father, George Collier. My family tree,
that’s attached to my and my Dad’s DNA profiles, shows my Dad’s biological
father, Hulen Kennedy (grandson of Big Bob Ealy). In essence, she concluded
that Uncle Bob Ealy Jr. maintained two families at the same time – one in Leake
County, Mississippi and one over 800 miles away in Craven County, North
Carolina – and died in New York City, while I have documented Uncle Bob Jr., from
his birth around 1855, in Leake County, Mississippi, until his death on Oct.
28, 1939, in Leake County, Mississippi. I had found Uncle Bob’s death
certificate at the Miss. Dept. of Archives and History over 15 years ago. She
seemed to have presumed that my information was inaccurate. Sadly, as of this
blog post, she has not corrected her family tree. My concern is that many, who
are in her Ealy family, may believe that they also descend from Grandpa Big
Bob, and that’s certainly not the case at all. Many have my
great-great-grandparents as their ancestors, and they aren’t.
I’d
be remiss if I didn’t take time to include some tips with this blog
post. Genealogy research is a broad subject, so feel free to offer other tips in the Comments section:
TIP #1: Don’t assume that
someone with the same name as your ancestor is probably yours, too. If the
locations don’t match, seek verification, i.e, direct evidence and/or a collection of circumstantial evidence that proves that he or she is
actually your ancestor. Even if there's a location match, still seek verification. Verify, verify, verify!
TIP #2: A woman, who is
reported as the wife to the head of household, was often not the mother to all
of the children in the household or to the older, grown children in their own
households. Try to locate a record that documents the parents’ names in order
to verify. Analyze the censuses, marriage records, cohabitation records, or other sources to determine if she became
the wife prior to a child’s (or children’s) birth.
Especially apply this tip with former-enslaved
people who are found in the 1870 and 1880 censuses, and who likely “jumped the
broom” into holy matrimony during slavery. For example, Grandpa Robert “Big
Bob” Ealy had a daughter, Mary York (wife of Jordan York), around 1840, prior
to “jumping the broom” with my great-great-grandmother, Jane Parrott, around
1845. According to my family’s oral history, Mary was known as “Aunt Sis” York,
who was Big Bob’s daughter only. The identity of Aunt Sis’s mother is unknown.
But since Grandma Jane is Grandpa Big Bob’s documented wife in the 1870 and
1880 censuses, many family trees incorrectly show Grandma Jane as Aunt Sis’s mother,
even though Grandma Jane was around 10 years older than Aunt Sis.
TIP #3: If someone’s online
family tree on Ancestry.com doesn’t have censuses and other records
attached to an individual to document his/her existence and connection, don’t add that individual to your
family tree as your ancestor, too. Verify,
verify, verify!
TIP #4: Don’t immediately assume that
because you are a DNA match to a person or individuals who have a particular
surname in their online family trees, that it confirms your ancestral connection
to someone with that same surname. It doesn’t. First, people can be related via
other lines. Secondly, not everyone with a particular surname are actually
related. Thirdly, that person’s family tree might be wrong as two left shoes. Do
the research!
TIP #5: A computer program
can’t determine who your ancestors are. Therefore, all of the green leaf hints should
be analyzed. Verify, verify, verify!
TIP #6: Try contacting the
creator of a particular family tree to verify if their ancestor/family member
is indeed your ancestor, especially if it’s not obvious. At times, you might even discover that their displayed ancestor is not their ancestor at all.
In
other words – verify, verify, verify! It deserved repeating….