From roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Fri May 5 08:43:57 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k45Ehvjb008531; Fri, 5 May 2006 08:43:57 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l.rootsweb.com [66.43.16.22]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k45EhtJT026797 for ; Fri, 5 May 2006 08:43:55 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l [127.0.0.1]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id k45CAJFI026832 for ; Fri, 5 May 2006 08:10:19 -0400 Received: (from roots-in@localhost) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.8/Submit) id k45CAJb4026831 for roots-approved@rootsweb.com; Fri, 5 May 2006 08:10:19 -0400 Received: from lists5.rootsweb.com (lists5.rootsweb.com [66.43.27.41]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with SMTP id k45Bn0FI026704 for ; Fri, 5 May 2006 07:49:01 -0400 Received: (from slist@localhost) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) id k45EMQ1r025271 for roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com; Fri, 5 May 2006 08:22:26 -0600 X-Envelope-From: Kith-n-Kin@cox.net Fri May 5 08:22:26 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k45EMQjb025262 for ; Fri, 5 May 2006 08:22:26 -0600 Received: from fed1rmmtao12.cox.net (fed1rmmtao12.cox.net [68.230.241.27]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k45EMMcL013393 for ; Fri, 5 May 2006 08:22:23 -0600 Received: from TOWER ([68.0.155.47]) by fed1rmmtao12.cox.net (InterMail vM.6.01.06.01 201-2131-130-101-20060113) with ESMTP id <20060505142217.BATG27919.fed1rmmtao12.cox.net@TOWER>; Fri, 5 May 2006 10:22:17 -0400 From: "Kith-n-Kin" To: "'Baldwin'" , Subject: RE: [ROOTS-L] Major errors on Ancestry's One Great Tree Date: Fri, 5 May 2006 07:22:12 -0700 Message-ID: <009501c6704f$50949580$6601a8c0@TOWER> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.6626 In-Reply-To: <20060505005516.85377.qmail@web30311.mail.mud.yahoo.com> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2869 Importance: Normal X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by admin.rootsweb.com id k45EMQjb025262 Sender: roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Stephen Let's clarify. (1) "One Great Tree" -- I suppose you mean "one world tree" -- is a combination of trees that have been submitted by folks like you and me. What makes it different is that a search engine at Ancestry has done the "merging", while offering the rest of us an opportunity to make "needed" changes. There is no "official version" -- just many possibilities. To quote Ancestry: "Ancestry World Tree GEDCOM files are voluntarily submitted by Ancestry users like yourself. We take all files "as is" and cannot guarantee the completeness, accuracy, or timeliness of the information contained in this database. We regret we cannot assist you in your personal research or prevent duplication of data. Our goal is to provide these user-contributed files to aid you in finding and/or correcting your family information." (2) Not sure what you mean by "Ancestry imported. . " Did your cousin submit said tree to the "Ancestry World Tree"? That is the source of the individual submissions for the "OneWorldTree". If there are other trees -- which you can find by clicking on an individual and seeing how many trees submitted that name/information -- have you looked at them to see what the "totality" of the mis-information is? (3) Perhaps this is a case of the similarities "causing" the "merge engine" of Ancestry to link these people to "your" people? If so, there are probably "soft links" from one or two people. So, indeed, if you can figure out where the "bad link" is, you should be able to "vote" to have the link removed (by removing that person) and the tree, with possibilities, should change. I would think that the submitters of the other trees would vote with you! Who wants to be linked to a family that isn't theirs? Write to him/her. (4) I suspect that most of the OneWorldTrees, because of the similarities of names and places, coupled with the failure of people to be specific, have many "joins" that are not correct. The other day I was doing a census search for a person in Iowa in 1860. This person had an unusual name. There were still four "possibles" differing only in a few years difference in birth date, and in one case, birth place. Obviously, a tree with "Janus P Smithousky" would be merged with any other tree with similar name/place. It requires a live person to see the discrepancy. That's you. (4) Having said that, remember these trees are just sets of possibilities. Anyone who would take any of these trees, including your cousin's, as "truth" is not doing good scholarship, and deserves whatever errors s/he gets. (5) The only really easy way I know to solve *your* issue is to have your cousin remove her tree. Then the "merged trees" will fall apart, if her tree was the link. Anyway, don't worry about being passionate! If you didn't have genealogy, you might have to get another hobby. . . .like golf, or pinball, or painting your house.... Good luck, Pat (in Tucson)