In
my last
post I discussed putting family trees online and commented on the search I usually
do online for my great-grandfather, Asa McDaniel (1827-1901). In particular I
mentioned the searches on Ancestry. I have also used the new Family Tree on FamilySearch to see what
information other researchers have on my family members. I did the same search
for Asa as for other online family trees.
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Summary of
search parameters for Asa McDaniel (1827-1901) used on FamilySearch Genealogies
Some
of the same problems surface on the contributed files as they have on Ancestry,
possibly because the same people are the ones uploading the information to both
websites. For Asa McDaniel, a search yielded three entries, one in the
Ancestral file and two in the Pedigree Resource File. All had basically the
same information for Asa and his family. The Ancestral File information listed
a number of contributors of the information but no way to contact any of them
and nor any list of sources. The Pedigree Resource files are similar although
one has no ancestors past Asa’s presumed father, William McDaniel.
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Copies of Ancestral
and Pedigree summaries for Asa Harvey McDaniel on FamilySearch.org Genealogies
showing children, ancestors, additional information and sources
In
both files, the parentage of Asa is in doubt, with the same mistake in death
date and place for his father, William. The information was combined from a
number of contributors however I see no way to contact any of them. In the old
FamilySearch Genealogies file there were actually email addresses for some of
the contributors although when I checked them they were out-of-date so I could
not ask anyone about their information. A similar problem to that I encountered
on Ancestry exists on the FamilySearch data, that is, confusing two different
men named William McDaniel. And the file still has that strange bit about him
dying in Ohio in 1857 but appearing on the 1860 census in Virginia! But at
least a description of some documents is summarized which could be checked.
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Pedigree
Resource file for William McDaniel, father of Asa McDaniel
There
are a number of notes for both Asa and William appended to the files. I did
note again that the story and much of the information is directly from my
aunt’s family write-up and, once more, without attribution or comments as to
its accuracy.
Online
family trees are interesting and can be valuable in finding new information.
But they can also be full of errors and, unfortunately, most do not list the
sources of information. Those that do, such as FamilySearch, can still be
incomplete and not have the contact information for the people who posted the
data.
The
question becomes, do I just take the tidbits I can find on family trees such as
those at FamilySearch and the look for the material to support the information.
Or do I try to offer corrections to those files. I think if I tried the latter,
I would spend all my time attempting to correct information on published trees
at the expense of doing my own research and looking for real documents.
