Another perspective on Ancestry hints
I think that in the past almost all of my postings on Ancestry member hints have been negative. Well in the interest of fairness and sharing, I think this posting is perhaps a bit past due. I have to admit that as with most observations, there are many perspectives possible. So here is a personal tidbit offering a counter-point to my earlier Ancestry Member Tree Hint observations.
Like most genealogists, I make mistakes. I think it is safe to say that my mistakes are almost always simple accidents. At least, I can not think of a single situation where I have made an error on purpose. I don’t like admitting that I make errors but in all honesty, I do. Maybe others are more highly thorough and skilled than I and have a differing view. However, I digress.
Back to my story… today I found myself looking at my Senger family tree; and as you may already know almost none of my Senger data has been sourced from Ancestry (almost all of it has been obtained by my reading of West Prussian church records and my maintaining a photographic log of findings). I do, however, keep an FTM version of my family archive on Ancestry both on the chance that I might get a Historical Record clue as well as for redundancy and backup purposes. Although in all honesty, I never seriously thought I might actually find someone else in the Ancestry universe rummaging for information on my family members who lived in what was once West Prussia.
Well, I was wrong. I not only found one person, but, I found two. The second person was researching the Baarenhof Evangelische (Lutheran) Kirche (Church) and had found a second Anna Ziemen. Yes, it turns out there were two Anna Ziemen’s alive and attending the Baarenhof ev. Kirche in the late 1700s. Who’d a thunk! Not only were there two Anna Ziemens, but I had mistakenly used the data from the second Anna Ziemen for my Anna Ziemen (wrong husband, wrong death date). Oops!
Needless to say I have removed my error from my files. And, tomorrow, I intend to plow through the church records once again, page by page. This time I hope to find the correct version of my Anna Ziemen’s death record. Whether I do or not is, as yet, undetermined. But what I know for certain is, if I had not received this Ancestry Hint from another member’s tree, it might have been years before I ever stumbled on my mistake.
I guess it pays to read those hints. They can be helpful. But tread carefully and analyze thoroughly!
Jun 18, 2012 @ 16:38:35
hi!
I read you messages often. I know you have a keen sense when it comes to genealogy. Are you ever for hire? I know little of my mother’s parents – one German, his father came from Austria; one Irish – her mother came over to the states at an early age. I found that information out of the US is harder to find (for me), than in state even though there is no family to talk to.
Linda
Jun 19, 2012 @ 06:35:51
Dear Mark,
I’m glad that you were able to find a hint to improve your genealogy. Of course, it is always wonderful to have a birth certificate or a baptism, but with various spellings of names, it is difficult to determine if you are adding the right information to your genealogy. Many cultures do have naming patterns and generally you have a clue when something doesn’t look right. However, it can become confusing with siblings naming their chilren the same. Sometimes parents get confused with children. Sometimes the children are found under the last name of a stepfather. Sometimes the youngest child of a couple belongs to a daughter or son. Like you, I do appreciate a new hint or lead because it may be a correction to what you have as well as providing other information. These worthwhile hints are a real find to a genealogist.
Jun 19, 2012 @ 06:59:42
Hi Linda… yes I do perform client work. Actually my daughter and I do. If you’d like to schedule time to chat I can let you know if I might be able to assist you in your family searches. …mark
Jun 19, 2012 @ 09:03:00
Hi Mark, good story and good advise. I use those little leaves with much caution but ever since it popped up a census record for my Gr. Grandfather living in CHICAGO of all places; and it turned out to be him for real, I always look at them. Turns out that after his wife died he closed his pharmacy and became a salesman for a drug company and was enumerated at the hotel in Chicago where he was living at the time. After many years of searching in his birth area of Maine and his family residence areas in Massachusetts the record was a breakthrough find.
Jun 25, 2012 @ 14:15:49
Hello, Mark…great posting! If I let unsubstantiated hints on Ancestry bother me I’d misdirect positive energy needed to find and analyze the many helpful clues I’ve actually found! I was taught to look at EVERYTHING out there, gather whatever falls into the “ballpark” and then do the research to substantiate it all! I am now heavily into the substantiation phase; the hint merely gives me a direction to start. I have spent time myself posting corrections and information that I have supported through research in my own family, only to have material questioned/ignored by other researchers. And so it goes…I love the detective work challenge contained in the hints! Sometimes the “far out” stuff is TRUE…again, great post!
Jun 25, 2012 @ 15:03:34
You are welcome JoAnn.