Verifiable Claim of Relationship?
Hello,
An email from Family Search I got this morning says, "You're related to Josiah Bartlett!", who's a signer of the Declaration of Independence. But the email doesn't give any details or documentation of this claim. Is it a verifiable claim?
I did see that Family Search now shows me as related to someone named Abigail Bartlett (1637-1689). But how she Might be related to the Josiah Bartlett in question (1729-1795) is a complete mystery about which FS is offering no clues. So if FS knows, why isn't it telling?
Family Search previously announced with an exclamation point that Ben Franklin is my cousin, while on closer examination I saw that the family tree that FS provided showed me rather as a cousin of Ben's wife's first husband. When I pointed out that discrepancy to FS in this space I then noticed some time later that FS had subsequently designated me as a cousin of Ben's wife Deborah Read rather than as a cousin of her ex-husband. However, then I also noticed that in Deborah Read's family tree as provided by FS a particular person's year of birth was shown as later than the year of birth shown for that person's child. And that's how my "Ben Franklin experience" led to my perception that Family Search can make exclamatory proclamations that may in fact turn out to be fuzzy when examined closely.
So the fact that as of today FS does not seem to be making any claims about Exactly How I'm related to Josiah Bartlett does seem rather prudent of FS. But I'm puzzled about how FS can nevertheless apparently confidently make the claim that I Am Related to Josiah B., including an exclamation point. !
And then there was the email I got from FS some time ago announcing that the actor Sean Astin is my cousin. (I don't recall whether that announcement included an exclamation point.) But that's a whole other story.
Thank you.
Answers
-
There's a very real sense in which FamilySearch isn't doing anything. Its software is detecting connections in the FS FamilyTree between you and various "famous" people, and then sending you what are, in effect, marketing messages.
The connections are as strong and verifiable as anything in FamilyTree. In other words, some of them are good and solid, while others are as much use as a chocolate teapot as we used to say. I know that I checked the line between me and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and it seemed to depend on someone who lived in the American Colonies and England at the same time. Yeah, sure.
Verification is down to us, not FS.
Another factor that has to come into play, is that the marketing messages are created using the lineages in FamilyTree at one point in time, but by the time you or I check, the lineages can easily alter. I confess that I have no insight into the timing of these things.
Finally, I believe that it's perfectly likely that any relationship between me and a common ancestor of me and the other person, can be done in several ways. There have been several threads recently complaining that an identified relationship (not of a Famous Person) has been defined as one chain when a more appropriate chain would be something different. My quiet thought there is that it might just be a matter of opinion which chain should be used. That might explain some of your oddities - both chains of relationship might be true, it's just pot luck which you see.
So, I rapidly came to the conclusion that the Famous Relatives business was, with the best will in the world, built on shifting sands. Mildly amusing to wonder if indeed I was related to HM Queen, Marilyn Monroe and Katherine Hepburn, but not something I need spend any time over. (Of course, I probably am related to all those if I go back far enough, but proving it is a different matter).
3 -
I generally just ignore these e-mails but since you brought up a question about them, I went and found this one in the trash and took a look.
This is what was in the e-mail I got:
It does have a See Relationship button.
Clicking it brings me to this page which does not have any way to actually see that relationship but that is because I was not currently signed into FamilySearch:
Note that while this looks like a modified version of the About tab on a person's profile page in Family Tree, it is not. It is actually the Ancestors version which has the following URL: https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LV9J-8HC/oliver-wolcott-jr.-1761-1845?cid=EM-00049362
These Ancestors versions are pages derived from Family Tree profiles that can be viewed by anyone. You do not need a FamilySearch account. Not all profiles have these pages but last I heard you can generate one for anyone you want to have one by typing in your browser bar: https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/{ID} where {ID} is the Family Tree ID for the person. I have not tried this recently. Also, in the past, these Ancestor pages were only updated every few weeks or so. This means that if someone made a edit in Family Tree, that change would not show up on the Ancestor page for weeks. And, of course, the e-mail you got will never up date.
You can get to the home page for these Ancestor pages by going to https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/
When I sign in, the page changes to:
And I can then click the View Relationship button to see:
So I am related to him by a clear path. Is this a verifiable claim? Yes. I have verified the first seven generations of the leg I am on. The hope is that the rest of the line has been verified properly by other users of FamilySearch and is correct. If I have my doubts about that, then it is up to me to finish verifying the line to my satisfaction.
4