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.)

Headstones and Distant Burials (Tuesday's Tip)

George Hudson is William's son

The fact that a person's name appears on a headstone does not necessarily mean that he or she is actually buried there. Many headstones include the name of a family member buried in another town or another country. Sometimes the inscription makes that clear, but in many cases it does not.

There is a headstone for my great-great-grandfather, William HUDSON (1806-1882) in the churchyard at Crambe, North Yorkshire, England. I had no idea that he was actually buried in Linthorpe Cemetery at Middlesbrough - until I found a funeral card among family documents.

Depending on the geographical location, records that may specify the place of burial could include a death certificate, will, inquest file, newspaper notice, memorial card, or a church, cemetery or local government burial register. (Indexes to many headstones and burial registers are now on Findmypast.)

Records created by undertakers and funeral directors are another source of information about the place of burial. In Australia, many genealogical groups have indexed such records for their local area. Some are listed in Specialist Indexes in Australia: a Genealogist's Guide.

The records of Gregson and Weight (funeral directors in Queensland, Australia) refer to burials or funeral services that took place as far away as New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Fiji, Sweden, Greece, Hungary, Austria and the Netherlands.

Have you found other sources of information about distant places of burial?
~~~

Update on my family's DNA Testing

Last month I wrote about my plans to use DNA testing as a genealogy tool. Kerry Farmer subsequently reminded me of two important points that I forgot to mention (see Postscript no.1 on 'DNA Testing for My Family History').

My uncle's autosomal DNA ('Family Finder') test results have arrived! He already has six matches in the '2nd-4th cousin' predicted range and ten in '3rd-5th cousin'. I am hoping for closer matches in the future when more genealogists with known English and Scottish ancestry do tests through FamilyTreeDNA. I am also hoping that some of my second-cousins will agree be tested.

The best match so far is 'shared cM 49.22, longest block 32.05'... but I have not yet learned how to interpret all this. I was not expecting the test results until mid-January, so I got caught short and hadn't done my homework!

I have already started contacting people who match my uncle's autosomal DNA. I soon realised that I need to send them a list of all names (except living people), not just a pedigree chart - because the name they might recognise won't necessarily be my direct ancestor. As Gedmatch points out, "siblings (and descendants of siblings) of one family often turn up as 'spouses' (with no recorded ancestors) in another family." There is a diagram that illustrates this clearly.

If you have advice to share with DNA newbies like myself, please add a comment below. It will be very welcome.

'Accentuate the Positive' 2012 Geneameme

Glenelg jetty at sunset

With the 'Accentuate the Positive' 2012 Geneameme, Jill (Geniaus) encourages us to focus on our recent genealogical achievements, not the things that are still on our To-Do list. If you want to join in, Jill's blog has the full list of 20 questions. Some were not relevant to me, so my list is shorter.

• An elusive ancestor I found was Mary PEACOCK (nee HUGILL, born c.1813 Hull, Yorkshire, England) whom I finally found in the 1881 British census... incorrectly listed as UPRIGHT, her son-in-law's surname!


• An important vital record I found was the 1841 death certificate of my gr-gr-gr-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Harley WEBSTER nee PORTER (widow of William WEBSTER, a dyer). She died at 5 Lawson Street, Great Dover Road (St Mary Newington, Surrey, England). The informant was Cecelia RUSHWORTH of Lambeth.


• A geneasurprise I received was finding out (via FamilySearch) that Charles Peacock BOWSER (born in Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, England) died in Ontario, Canada. His mother Rebecca was a sister of my great-grandmother, Mary HUDSON nee PEACOCK.


• My 2012 blog post that I was particularly proud of was... hmmm... either B is for Birth Place (a long list of sources that may mention an exact place of birth) or Year 1: Genealogy Benefits and Team Achievements (about the Genealogists for Families project).


• My 2012 blog post that received a large number of hits was J is for Jurors and Justice Department (part of the Family History through the Alphabet series).


• A social media tool I enjoyed using for genealogy was Twitter.


• A genealogy conference/seminar/webinar from which I learnt something new... My top three for 2012 were the webinar Plan Your Way to Research Success by Marian Pierre-Louis; the Society of Australian Genealogists' 'Lost in England' seminar in Sydney; and the Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry in Adelaide.


• I am proud of the presentation I gave to Coffs Harbour Family History Society (Nov 2012). It was the first time I'd done an all-day seminar on my own; and I was pleased to find that many of the sources and research strategies I described were new to my audience.


• I taught a friend how to make the most of a one-day visit to Queensland State Archives.


• A genealogy book that taught me something new was My Ancestor was a Bastard: A Family Historian's Guide to Sources for Illegitimacy in England and Wales (Ruth Paley, 2008).


• A great repository I visited was Queensland State Archives - but I often go there, so 2012 was less exciting than 2011 when I made my first trip to the Borthwick Institute in York, England.


• A new genealogy/history book I enjoyed was The New Findmypast.com.au: Gateway to the World Collection (Rosemary Kopittke, 2012).


• It was exciting to finally meet many members of the 'Genealogists for Families' Kiva team. We held get-togethers for local and interstate members in Brisbane and Adelaide, and I also spent a very pleasant afternoon in Sydney with Julie Goucher before she flew home to the UK.


• A geneadventure I enjoyed was a 'tourist day' after the Australasian Congress, when Sharn White, Helen Smith and I explored the historic town of Hahndorf near Adelaide. Afterwards Sharn and I caught a tram to Glenelg, arriving just in time to see a spectacular sunset. (My biggest genealogy adventure in a long time was in 2011, when I attended Yorksgen - something that I hope to do again in the future.)


• Another positive I would like to share is that more than 16,000 names from three of my indexes to Archives sources will soon be included in the collection at FindMyPast.com.au.

DNA Testing for my Family History

I am using a new tool for genealogy - DNA testing! It can show ethnic origins, confirm relationships (or prove that two people cannot be related), and put family historians in contact with others who share the same ancestry.

My 91-year-old uncle agreed to be tested, so I took advantage of the sale at Family Tree DNA, an established, respected company recommended by genealogists who are experts in this field. Family Tree DNA will match my uncle's test results against their database (the largest of its kind in the world) and let me contact anyone whose results show that they are somehow related to us. The database is growing rapidly as more people are tested, so I log in regularly to check for new matches.

I started by ordering the FamilyFinder test, which uses autosomal DNA inherited from mother, father, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, etc. This has the potential to identify descendants of any ancestral lines within about the last six generations. Those descendants may have vital information, or photographs or letters from my direct ancestors.

Part of a document held by Joe Hudson

I am a great believer in researching all siblings. Some of my most exciting discoveries were a direct result of contacting distant cousins. The image above shows part of a family document held by Joe HUDSON. It confirmed that a baptism I'd found was for the right William HUDSON. (The baptism register for Bossall, North Yorkshire, gave a birth date and named the child's maternal grandparents!) Joe also sent me a copy of a letter written in 1879 by my great-great-grandfather.

The FamilyFinder autosomal DNA test is available to men and women, so I could have been tested myself. However it made more sense to test my uncle (my late father's only surviving sibling) because I am currently more interested in my father's ancestors than my mother's. The autosomal test may help me to confirm and expand the paper trail for various families including BUTLER, CAMPBELL, GIBLETT, HARLEY, NICHOLSON, PORTER and SHEPPARD (on the WEBSTER side) and AGAR, ASHTON, BARBER, BIRKS, CLARK, HUGILL, MATTHEW and PEACOCK (on the HUDSON side).

Our FamilyFinder test results arrived just before Christmas. My budget for genealogy is limited, so I am hoping that interested relatives will contribute a small sum towards the cost of ordering two additional tests. A mitochondrial DNA test could get us back beyond Mary PEACOCK nee HUGILL (born about 1813); and a Y-DNA test might help to confirm the story that our WEBSTER family in Surrey and Middlesex originally came from Aberdeen in Scotland.

If you want to know more about using DNA for genealogy, I recommend the series of four easy-to-read articles by CeCe Moore. The summary in part 4 explains how to decide which DNA test is right for you.

Postscript no.1:  Kerry Farmer has just reminded me of two important points that I forgot (thanks, Kerry!)  'Another good reason for testing your uncle's DNA is that it gets you a generation further back to looking for ancestors in common. And Family Tree DNA will hold DNA samples for 25 years, so your uncle's DNA will still be available for testing should a subsequent test become available in the future.'

Postscript no.2:  I have started contacting people who match with autosomal DNA, and I send them a list of all names (except living people), not just a pedigree chart - because the name they will recognise may not be my direct ancestor. As Gedmatch points out, "siblings (and descendants of siblings) of one family often turn up as 'spouses' (with no recorded ancestors) in another family." There is a diagram that illustrates this clearly.

Postscript no.3:  For good examples of what DNA tests do (and do not) tell you, see Combining Tools - Autosomal Plus Y-DNA, mtDNA and the X Chromosome.
~~~

A is for Asylums, Arndell Index and Ashton

I'm sure Alona will forgive me for being late in joining the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge.

A is for...

• Asylums.  If someone in your family tree 'vanished', look in mental asylum records. Causes of depression and other forms of mental illness included childbirth, epilepsy, head injury, alcohol, syphilis, congenital defect, jealousy, bereavement and 'domestic troubles'. Many patients (and their relatives) had been in asylums in other States and/or other countries. My Web site lists thousands of names from my indexes to mental asylum records. Start by reading the article about asylum case books.


• Arndell Index.  Originally on 48,000 cards, this index was compiled mainly from early parish registers for the Hawkesbury region of New South Wales, Australia. It is thought to contain complete indexes (1811-1971) for St. Matthew's, Windsor; St. John's, Wilberforce; St. James's, Pitt Town; St. Peter's, Richmond; and the Presbyterian Church, Ebenezer. The index is held by the Society of Australian Genealogists. (This information is from the book Specialist Indexes in Australia: a Genealogist's Guide, which is described on my Web site.)


• ASHTON.  Catherine ('Kitty') ASHTON of Kirby Misperton, North Yorkshire, England, married Peter MATTHEW or MATHEW of Crambe, North Yorkshire, in 1803. Census records imply that Kitty was born about 1777 at Swinton, Yorkshire. Was she related to James ASHTON and Thomas ASHTON who witnessed marriages at Kirby Misperton 1804-1807? If you are researching ASHTON of Swinton or Kirby Misperton, please contact me.

You may find some useful tips in my other articles in this series.

RIENECKER (Surname Saturday)

RIENECKER was my maternal grandmother's maiden name. Her father, Carl Ludwig RIENECKER, came to Queensland as a boy. I have seen the surname spelled many different ways, and indexed in even more ways. Sometimes it is under K, which in some handwriting looks like R.

The RIENECKER family has been researched to some extent by my distant relatives, but as their findings are largely unsupported by source references, I guess I will have to reinvent the wheel.

I found a Supreme Court naturalisation record for Carl Ludwig RIENECKER, which raised doubts about his alleged date of birth. Last week I had a look at FamilySearch's pilot site. (I was very impressed with the way it allows you to refine and further refine your searches. If only Ancestry searches were as easy!)

In the collection 'Germany Births and Baptisms 1558-1898' I found an entry for the baptism of Carl Ludwig RINECKER (that is the spelling in FamilySearch) at Bohlschau, Westpreussen, Prussia. I hope to have a copy of his original baptism record in a few weeks time!

('Surname Saturday' is a theme used by 'Geneabloggers'.)