Changing an established Ancestor
Hi
I have recently uncovered information that throws into serious doubt the details of an ancestor (c1740). To enter these details I would have to completly remove the links and sources of the existing person on the Family Search tree. However, I know that a number of Users have accepted what is already there and continued their research accordingly, so to remove the existing data would, in all likelyhood, cause some Users a bit of grief and confusion.
How should I approach this ?
Best Regards
Ken (UK)
Answers
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@kenajcooper - at the risk of sounding flippant - very carefully.
It's not clear to me whether you have the details of the correct ancestor or only the apparently incorrect one.
If you can't yet provide the correct details, then I suggest that, as you fear, you are going to upset people because you're just being negative and have no positive information as yet. I would suggest that, if this is the case, you add PDF Memories at suitable points explaining why you feel what's in place is wrong, but leave the other details in place. Then you can try to use the messaging facilities to contact your fellow workers.
I know that I have a brick wall (for me) ancestor where I am certain that the details in FS are wrong. My ancestor first appears (as far as I am concerned) in Cheshire in July 1662 when his eldest daughter is baptised. As far as other researchers go, his next appearance, some months later, is when he is married 2 counties away, in Staffordshire. That would mean the earlier baptism is of an illegitimate child but there is no sign that the child is anything other than legitimate. Therefore the marriage cannot be him, I say. Also, if you have persuaded the local clergy that you are married, why raise suspicions by disappearing somewhere to get married?
However, another researcher has seen my logic and decided that the fact that there is no indication of illegitimacy means that the date on the marriage is wrong. In other words, they are altering the evidence to fit their preferred conclusions.
This is what we are up against. (I think that this may be on someone's Ancestry tree rather than FamilySearch but that's almost irrelevant).
Since I have no idea where my ancestor actually comes from, I have decided that discretion is the better part of valour and I have just added notes / memories / whatever explaining why the Staffordshire marriage used by many people can't be right. I haven't disconnected him from his Staffordshire and Shropshire ancestors which are probably wrong.
If I ever do get the correct details, then it becomes a different matter - I have previously amended erroneous ancestry, replacing it with the correct, attaching lots of memory PDFs explaining matters and messaging the latest contributors. Oddly, I've had no significant problems in most cases - I suspect that many contributors simply don't realise what I've done because they're not following the ancestors concerned.
There is no single strategy - other than my idea that you shouldn't take stuff away if you have nothing to replace it with.
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