Welcome to Week 49 of my Genealogy challenge, from the wonderful Amy Johnson Crow, of writing something about your Ancestors for a whole year, #52Ancestors in 52 weeks. This week’s prompt is ‘Oops’.
How many mistakes have you made in your Family History research? If like me you have made your fair share of ‘Genealogy Horrors’, then have a read of the blog that I wrote for Family Tree Magazine on my ‘Top 10 Sins of a Genealogist.’
Have a read here
Let me know if you are a saint or a sinner!
The Chiddicks Family Tree 
I don’t know anything about my family history past my grandparents on my mum’s side
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Maybe you should have a look into it?
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As usual, Paul, you hit the proverbial nail on its head when highlighting the need to verify and verify again and again sources used to tell your family’s story. No record or bibliography or biography or even auto biography should be taken at face value. Some of the best sources are the true family members, who can describe their lives and the lives of their forbearers.. Non-published information may be far more accurate the academic tomes found later to be false.
There are too many self-proclaimed experts who sell false information at the price of the seemingly disadvantaged, like adoptees, who are desperate to find their roots and origins and ancestral histories.
Even family bibles are often very inaccurate. My paternal grandmother’s bible is a perfect example; in it is a date for the marriage of her son (my father) and his wife (my mother). Military muster rolls disprove the information as he was on a ship in the South Pacific much before and after the date in the Bible. To this day I am unable to find a marriage license for these 2 felons nor a marriage certificate which authenticates their marriage, yet I have three birth certificates proclaiming parentage of me and my two siblings..
Also in her Bible Is the name of my mother which is not her birth name-she was very good at hiding what she wanted to and also of lying about ages and places.
The other item in the bible is the name of a child suggesting that the was a 1/2 brother to me and to my siblings-something my paternal uncle ‘confirmed’, except decades later I- through my own research- learned that he was the son of my father’s 2nd wife whom my father adopted 3 years after I and my sister had been abandoned by my father and mother not so dearest. On his birth index his surname was my father’s, BUT in the line marked ‘Father’ his actual father is named. He spent many years with my brother-years I never had but could not understand why I would not accept him as brother or family.
I leave you with this chuckle: There are many caveats to using DNA and always the family tale about the empress in the castle and the felon in the hoosegow. .I never had the adoptee dream of being a princess nor having the troll in the tree outside my window. So imagine my surprise to find that I do have royals in my maternal lineage-Richard III (and other Plantagenets) Marie Thèrése and Marie Antoinette, Queen Victoria, (and others) plus a felon names Jesse James.) as well as Mary Queen of Scots, Copernicus and Napoleon, Petrarch, an astronaut, 2 American presidents, and a Hungarian Countess.
And a partridge in a pear tree.
#DNA_R_Us PS, you are truly a treasure, Paul & I am so pleased to have you as friend.
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Thank you so much, as ever you always give real perspective with your posts. I can only begin to imagine what your journey has been like, I cannot pretend to understand your journey, only those who have walked in your footsteps can truly understand your journey and difficulties, but I am really deeply humbled and honoured to have you as my friend. I enjoy our chats and stories and feel that we have a connection in some way. I love your story at the end, that made me truly smile. As a small child I grew up watching the race to the moon in the 1960’s and sat in awe with the world, watching Neil Armstrong take his first steps. That day my dream was born. It’s important to still have dreams. Take care my friend
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Paul, you are too kind. My astronaut cousin is John Glenn, but Neil Armstrong will forever have a piece of my heart because he journeyed to Algeria and literally fell in love with her people and the Sahara which for him was a lunar scape. All three of us were born in Ohio, but I never actually lived there (except for the first 18 or so months I lived with my Magyar grandparents who protected me from my mother (the youngest of their daughters) and her husband, my father.. You and I are corrected by something rare-respect for one another as the individuals we are. And yes, it is indeed important to have and to maintain one’s dreams and hopes. Be safe and take good care my friend. We need more people like you in this world of angst and divisiveness. .
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Thank you so much, you are a wonderful friend with a big heart and I am very privileged to count you as my friend. Sometimes paths cross for a variety of reasons or coincidences, but I am so blessed to have met you, take care my friend
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No one would ever confuse me with a saint! But I work pretty hard to keep it accurate and real. Online is only the beginning for me. My best stuff comes from related people and archives.
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I am currently writing a new blog called fact or fiction. Is it a fact if a person is named on a birth certificate for example?
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Sounds interesting!
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An “oops!” I made was when I was putting ancestors on my tree at MyHeritage.com. How do I put this…when putting in one of my ancestors children, I misdated some of the children’s births, making them born before the parents were. Ended up having to delete that line and start over again. Considering that John had John who had John, and so on, I lost my place in my notes. Oops!
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Haha we’ve all had one of those! Every one of my top 10, I have done myself at some point!
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I really find it fascinating looking into family trees but I have yet to look back at mine. Definitely something I need to do!
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Definitely Amber! You need to ask questions about your family with your parents and grandparents. I left it too late and my grandparents had sadly passed away by the time I started my tree.
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