Mislinked relatives and headaches

I've had a headache for almost 10 years, and it's due to a mislinked relative. Someone has my great grandmother listed as the daughter of her uncle, and it's causing all sorts of problems in online family trees.

There are two first cousins, both female, with similar names. Martha was born around 1836 to Stephen and Jane. Stephen's brother, Jacob, and his wife, Mary Ann, have a daughter they name Martha Elmina in 1841.

Jacob died in a sawmill accident in 1844, leaving his wife Mary Ann and their two small daughters, Martha Elmina (1841) and Emily Elvira.

Martha Elmina (1841) and Emily are listed with Mary Ann in the 1850 census. Stephen, Jane, and Martha (1836) are listed together in the 1850 census.

By the 1860 census, Martha Elmina (1841) has married William and is listed with him. Martha (1836) is not listed with her parents in the 1860 census, and we have found no marriage or death records for her. After the 1850 census, we find no records for Martha (1836).

Martha Elmina (1841), her husband William, sister Emily, brother-in-law James and mother Mary Ann are all listed by name and relationship in a probate document for Jacob, father of Martha Elmina (1841). Martha Elmina (1841) is listed as Jacob's daughter, not as his niece.

An enterprising family history researcher has listed Martha (1836) and Martha Elmina (1841) as the daughters of Stephen and Jane for about 10 years. And for the last 10 years, I've tried to correct this misinformation, giving chapter and verse complete with documentation. Martha Elmina (1841) should to be linked to her parents, and not to her aunt and uncle.

Another website copied the information. After I contacted them and sent in the documentation proving that Martha Elmina (1841) is Jacob's daughter and not Stephen's, they removed Martha Elmina's (1841) marriage, husband, and children, and called it a day. They left the copy of Martha Elmina's (1841) death certificate with Martha Elmina's (1841) married name, the wrong name for her father (Sam - a misinterpretation of Jacob's middle name, Beachum) and the nickname (Annie) for Martha Elmina's (1841) mother, Mary Ann. Along come more family history researchers who accept her information as valid, and the misinformation is spread further.

Once or twice a year, I go through and contact the new researchers to alert them to the error. Few respond, and even fewer make the correction. Every few years, I send another correction request to the family history researcher who originated the error.

Great-grandmother Elmina, I'm attempting to get your records corrected on those trees. I feel like I'm beating my head against a brick wall and it's giving me a splitting headache. I will continue the crusade to correct your branch of the family tree. Let's just hope I can get it done before I'm just a leaf on the tree myself.

And Cousin Martha Perry, daughter of Stephen and Jane Perry, I hope to find out what happened to you. Did you marry? Did you die young? Did you move to help out another family member? What happened to you? Perhaps a visit to the county courthouse and to the church where your parents are buried might uncover your fate. I'm going to give it a shot.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a few more new researchers to contact before I go back to trying to uproot the family tree.

Happy digging!

Oops! This Willard is a girl!

So, I'm going down the line of my great grandmother's eldest brother, trying to locate some living descendants to contact to share family history information, and I find a family tree that shows that great great uncle John has a great grandson named Willard. Woohoo! Celebrate, add another twig to the family tree by copying the other person's info for Willard and start searching for more information on Willard, right?

Next, I find a marriage license for Willard. And Willard is marrying another guy in the late 1930's. No way! That just didn't happen back then. I go back and double check the names. Willard and Gordon got married. For real. No kidding. There it is in black and white, or rather in pixels in shades of grey.

Now I have to go and figure this one out. Folks in the 1930's weren't very accepting of two males marrying. So, the index I found has misinformation, or either Willard or Gordon is a female, or something else is going on. I have to keep an open mind, not jump to conclusions and stick to facts, verifiable facts.

I do some more digging around on the internet and stumble upon an image of the actual marriage license. Aha! Willard is the bride! So, I go back to modify Willard's record on the family tree to show Willard is a female. I check the actual census images, which I did not do the first time around, and find that on each one, Willard is plainly marked as female. This is my fault, as I didn't verify what the other researcher had for Willard. I just accepted it and moved on. My mistake! And I know better.

Now I have a ton of work to do to go back and verify the details for family members with unusual names, just in case. And while I don't think there's a boy named Sue in my tree, there is a very beautiful girl named Willard. I'm so happy she's there, that I discovered my mistake and I corrected it. Cousin Willard is on the other side now, probably shaking her head at my mistake, ensuing quandary and the head slap I gave myself when I figured it out. I do hope she's happy that I found her and her family. 

From now on, I have to remember: when you add a new person or line from another's family tree, you need to verify the information. I was so excited that I didn't stop and start verifying Willard's information starting with the census and birth records. Had I double checked, I would have found out that Willard is a female, and I wouldn't have wasted valuable research time on my little adventure. 

So, I'll take a good hard look at what the other tree or source has for the person or line I'm researching. Does the information make sense? Is the person's birthdate in keeping with the parents' birthdates and death dates, if I have those? I've seen people in family trees with birthdates before their parents' birthdates, i.e. John is born in 1780 but his father isn't born until 1810? What about the marriage date, if there is one? Did John get married in 1781, a year after he was born? Unless John's royalty, which won't happen in my family, something is just right with those dates. I'll check it out.

What about the birth and death dates of any children? Do they pass the smell check? Was John born when his mother was 5 years old? I could find out that John's mother died and the person shown is the stepmother who raised him, or the birthdate for his mother could be wrong. I've had both things happen in my quest to uproot my family tree.

On several trees that other researchers have for my mother's family, they have my grandfather as his brother's father and my great grandmother married to my grandfather, even though the dates don't make sense. They have the correct dates. The relationships are way off! Someone messed up on the relationships. Others just copied without verifying. The error spreads. I've tried to contact the tree owners, but they either aren't interested, thought my e-mail was spam or aren't checking that e-mail account.

I'm off to do some verifying of information on my family tree and adding source information for any documentation I find. And then, it's more uprooting the family tree. Have a great weekend. May you make a wonderful discovery on your family tree!

Susan