Ancestry.com has certainly revolutionized genealogical
research since the days when I started and to see a census you had to send off
to the National Archives for microfilm, and when it arrived in the mail you
went to the library to read it. You now have access to millions of records for
a few hundred dollars per year, and can post your research online where others
can pay to steal it. Not a bad business model, but all that stealing or
copying, as the perpetrators would call it, makes a mockery of serious
research.
I’m going to take as an example a couple who lived in Hornby
for a short time in the 1850s before moving west. Harriet E. (Smith) Peters
appeared in the 1855 Hornby census. I have been corresponding with Harriet’s 2nd
great-granddaughter who has a family Bible with the inscription: "Barnabas
C. Peters was married to Miss Harriet E. Smith at Hornby Forks, NY by G.A.
Hendrick May 9th, 1850.” They lived in 1850 Orange which was then in Steuben
County. We know a great deal about Harriet and her family after 1850 through
mainly censuses but we also have her obituary when she died in 1907 Idaho.
What we don’t know is who her parents were. That hasn’t
stopped at least eleven (a lot of these were duplicate) postings listing John
and Clarissa (Finch) Smith as her parents without any proof whatsoever and
furthermore ignoring evidence that indicates John and Clarissa were NOT her
parents. Probably only one of those listed John and Clarissa as Harriet’s
parents, the others stole, er.. copied the original tree to theirs without even
doing any research.
I decided to contact five of the “John and Clarissa were the
parents of Henrietta” submitters and ask them how they came to that conclusion
in the face of contradictory evidence. I asked:
What
proof have you that Harriet E. Smith, husband of Barnabas C. Peters, was the
daughter of John and Clarissa (Finch) Smith? I have found nothing to suggest
this is true but several facts which refute it. For example, in the 1840
census, there is only one female listed in John’s household who was Harriet’s’s
age however you list three daughters born during that time frame. From 1880 on,
Henrietta always listed the birthplace of her mother as Vermont but Clarissa
consistently listed hers as New York.
Two folks just ignored me. I received the following three
replies:
1. Obviously, I have a lot of misinformation
thank you for contacting me to let me know. I'll check it out sometimes I get
behind in making corrections please forgive me if this has caused you any problems.
2. I am not an expert at all in this stuff. I
have been trying to go through my stuff and straightend [sic] it out. I will go
over her and see what is going on and fix it as I can. I am busy with other
aspects of my life and am not on very often.
3. Best way to resolve without question is for
me to delete her profile.
Ref: Harriet Eliza Smith (1833 - 1909), wife of my 7th cousin, 7x removed.
When I'm matching records using Ancestry Documents, and other peoples tree, to populate a branch of a tree, it goes reasonably quickly. But then it takes a long time to go back through and engage brain, and apply reason to identify bogus information and amend the tree to reflect.
This portion of my tree is far removed from any main branch, thus I'll just delete the profile for her and her husband, which will prune all children, siblings, and ancestors from the tree. (Done today)
Thank you for apprising me of the error.
Ref: Harriet Eliza Smith (1833 - 1909), wife of my 7th cousin, 7x removed.
When I'm matching records using Ancestry Documents, and other peoples tree, to populate a branch of a tree, it goes reasonably quickly. But then it takes a long time to go back through and engage brain, and apply reason to identify bogus information and amend the tree to reflect.
This portion of my tree is far removed from any main branch, thus I'll just delete the profile for her and her husband, which will prune all children, siblings, and ancestors from the tree. (Done today)
Thank you for apprising me of the error.
That pretty much confirms my suspicions. People steal the
faulty, undocumented research of others and post it as their own, thus
perpetuating errors ad infinitum. When called out on their plagiarism, they
declare they just don’t have the time to research their family history
correctly, think its just fine to copy and post the garbage research of others
and intend (maybe) to correct it sometime. Number three decided to spite me by
deleting that branch of his “tree”. I wish he’d deleted the whole thing. His
was so bad he had John Smith listed with three concurrent wives and large families.
If anyone does have proof or at least a preponderance of
evidence which suggests who Harriet’s parents were I would really like to hear
from you.
