Is he or isn't he
I'm tracing a family line back to a William Flowers. In the county where I would expect I find him as a child but I can't find evidence that the child is the same person as the adult. So I MAY have found his parents, or not. How do I handle that?
Best Answer
-
I usually title my notes "Caution". For example, this pair:
Two men with similar names, both farmers born in New York in 1815:
Cyrus S. Ingraham
1815 – 2 April 1897
9689-RZ1
Married Abigail, died in Michigan.
Cyrus S. Ingrum
1815 – 12 May 1889
G8SM-Z7D
Married Mary and Malvina, died in Iowa.
The tangle wasn't just these two men but also their families of origin, and their wives, and their children. Sorting them out took many hours. Their names, dates, PID I copy-paste from their page title on the web interface. Copy paste does not work on the mobile app.
1
Answers
-
In my experience too many people find someone that seems to fit based on name, age and location (too often location is ignored!) and assume that they have found the right person. Even with an unusual name, there can often be more than one person that fits. Even if there is only one how can you be sure that you have found the right one? The further back you go, the fewer records are available and it becomes increasingly uncertain whether you have found the right person. DNA links can help but these too have limited use the further back you go. In the end only you can decide whether you think you have the right one and proceed from there.
Personally I take a more cautious view than others accepting that uncertain creates a brick wall that I may or may not be able to break at a later date. In some cases I have and in others the wall remains.
Happy to look at your case if you wish to post more details.
0 -
I'd be happy to share more information, but before I do, can you answer my question. Do you indicate that this MAY be the ancestor, or do you just not include without a good link between one William Flowers and another.
And yes, I just found two little Maria Branches of the same age in the same town.. so.. once again, what do i do with them, one of them is more than likely the ancestor... but?
thank you so much for your kindness and your time.
0 -
Finding more records about the individuals you have found may lead you to more information that will help you decide if they are your people. Best wishes!
1 -
yes, thank you, that's my plan for the next step of this journey, try to find some historical stuff now, not just the census. thanks
0 -
What @Walkinlight1 said.
Now you have 3 Maria Branches, 2 children and 1 adult who could be either of the children or neither of the children.
What I do in this situation is make separate pages for each person and the relatives appearing on records with them. I might leave a Note on each page referencing the other pages. Building the tree around each of these pages is by far the best way to work out if these pages are for the same person or not.
This situation is very common among ethnic Germans and I spend a lot of time on Family Tree detangling mash-ups made by others. Thank you for taking care.
0 -
thank you. Yes, I know what a mess some people have made of these.. Ha, I like your idea.
1 -
thank you this really helps!
0
