Problems with Online Family Trees

Yesterday my cousin asked me to look at three online trees that (he said) included our ancestors.

I found that one tree belongs to a known relative with whom I exchange information. The second is a tree with which I'm familiar. It contains little-known details that have apparently been copied from my website (without acknowledgement - sigh). The third tree is one that I hadn't seen before, so I took a closer look.

It claims that Francis Alexander MILNE (born 1880, died 1955) was a son of William Francis MILNE and Colina Campbell McCALL. Colina is our relative (a descendant of our CAMPBELL ancestors from Tiree, Argyllshire, Scotland). Colina was born in 1889, so she can't have had a son born in 1880 - nine years before she herself was born! (Sigh)

At that point I was tempted to turn off the computer, but in fairness to my cousin, I double-checked my own research.

The death notice for William Francis MILNE who died in 1943 (husband of Colina) says that his children were Ian and Joan. Colina's death notice says the same (Sydney Morning Herald (NSW), 18 Oct 1960). So... no Francis.

I therefore concluded that descendants of Francis Alexander MILNE (1880-1955) are not descendants of our Colina Campbell MILNE nee McCALL. I added a comment to the tree, citing my evidence. I wonder whether anyone will read it.

Last year I posted a similar cautionary tale on my Facebook page:

Ancestry's trees drive me crazy. I added this comment to one: 'Sarah Jane NICHOLSON is my great-great-grandmother. Your tree says her father was Richard NICHOLSON, born c.1781, who married Mary MILLER 27 Feb 1775. That's impossible. He can't have married before he was born. And the Mary MILLER who married Richard NICHOLSON in 1775 cannot be the mother of my Sarah Jane NICHOLSON born c.1830, because by then Mary would probably have been in her 70s.'

Sigh.

Just to be clear... you'll find mistakes like this in many family trees, not just those on Ancestry. In my experience, though, the problem is worse on Ancestry, probably because they make it so easy to copy someone else's data into your own tree without checking that it makes sense.

(This post first appeared on https://genie-leftovers.blogspot.com/2022/01/problems-with-online-family-trees.html.)