How do I change my family tree as currently depicted in FamilySearch?
My mother-in-law, Eleanor Margaret Rives (1923 > 2008), who is the daughter of Robert Franklin Rives (1904 >1956), gave my wife and I a copy of "Reliques of the Rives (Ryves) by James Rives Childs, published in 1929 by J. P. Bell Company. This book has been my reference for the Rives portion of my tree. After I entered a couple of family members in FamilySearch, I was connected to an existing tree. This was great (to a point). The parents of Robert Rives (1803 > 1885) as shown in FamilySearch does not match the data from the Rives's book. FamilySearch shows Samuel Jones Reaves (1777 >1854) and Martha Green Harris (1780 >1850) as his parents. The Rives's book shows William McGuffy Rives (1776 > 1839) and Mary Turner (1771>) as Robert's parents. They had 10 children, the seventh was Robert.
I entered data for William McGuffy Rives into FamilySearch and was connected to his tree. This tree showed William and Mary to have 9 children, Robert was omitted. I added Robert as one of William and Mary's children. I started to add Robert's wife but stopped. I would like to have the data in Rive's book reviewed / verified. In particular, see pg. 157 "Issue of Thomas Henry and Eleanor (Neal) Rives: 559. ii. William McGuffy, b. Dec 24, 1767. See pg. 160 William McGuffy and Mary (Turner) Rives had issue: 573. vii Robert, b. Dec 16, 1803. See pg.187 573. Robert Rives . . . married, 1st (wife) Rebecca Vaughn on February 2 1824. Rebecca Vaughn (b. Feb. 1, 1803, d. March 9,1871, daughter of Susan Vincent Vaughn . . .).
If the data is verified, I would like to change the trees in FamilySearch to shown William McGuffy and the father of Robert Rives. Please advise. Thanks,
Answers
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The FamilySearch Family Tree is fully open-edit. Anyone with a free account can add/change/correct the individuals within the tree. If you have verified information that conflicts with the current connections, you can make any change you feel justified. Just be sure that you've verified the information - that's it is not a case of someone with a similar name in the same time/place.
You can contact, by private message, any contributor who has added to your branch. Just click on the username and send a message.
Basic starter information https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/video-tutorials-how-to-use-familysearch
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You are in the era when you need to search court records for probate, wills or guardian cases. You don't say where William McGuffy Rives and Mary Turner lived.
This is not research for the faint of heart. Most of these court records are not indexed and don't come up in a search, so you have to go to the catalog or images and search the location, type of collection, and date range. I just found a will for a William Rives in North Carolina written 1827 which could be your man, except the wife has the wrong name. I would also work in both FamilySearch and Ancestry because they have court records that FamilySearch does not.
Good luck!
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I'm not an expert, but I figured I would poke around and see what I can find. The book seems widely available on the internet, but I wasn't able to determine how accurate it was, except for a single mention of it receiving revisions at some point to increase the accuracy. Revised or not, its an old-ish book, so there has been plenty of time for new information to come to light.
I found two profiles for Robert Reaves on FamilySearch: The first is presumably the one you found: KX3N-3KQ and the second uses the book as it's only source: GPCB-VX2.
I looked through the sources in KX3N-3KQ, and I couldn't find any source that indicated who his parents were. The changelog indicates that William McGuffy Rives and Mary Turner were once listed as his parents, but were removed in 2021. The only reason given for their removal is the nebulous statement "Wrong Parents", which isn't helpful in the slightest.
So, basically, I've found nothing.
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So I have debated posting this because I don't really like delivering bad news, but the public DAR web site (Daughters of the American Revolution) has their lineages open to the public. Mary Turner's father Stephen (link below) is a proven patriot, and women who descend from him through Mary and William McGuffy Rives also descend from Thomas Henry Rives and either of his 2 wives Mary Edwards or Eleanor Neal. Thomas Henry Rives is a patriot, and the link to his page is below. The problem with Robert Rives is that there were several, apparently, and the book Reliques of the Rives got it wrong in some parts.
There is a William McGuffy Rives with wife Mary Turner in the DAR database, but his line is currently labeled must prove service. His patriotic service was sourced from the book Reliques of the Rives, and it apparently has been proven that the service belongs to another man, or somehow the book is wrong.
I hope this helps.
William McGuffy Rive's page: https://emembership.dar.org/DAR/DAR_Research2014/search_adb/?action=full&p_id=A096534
Stephen Reuben Turner's page: https://emembership.dar.org/DAR/DAR_Research2014/search_adb/?action=full&p_id=A117191
Thomas Henry Rives' page: https://emembership.dar.org/DAR/DAR_Research2014/search_adb/?action=full&p_id=A095091
Edit: I thought I would add that the DAR lineages represent the current view of research. They are constantly updating the database when new evidence comes forward. Reliques of the Rives is not new evidence. It may in the future, however, be corroborated by evidence not yet brought to light.
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