Public or Private Ancestry Trees

I would have you all know that in a previous life I was Robert the Bruce - of 'Och aye the Noo' and King of Scotland fame. I was meant to be called Robert the Brute but due to a lisp and inability to pronounce my t's (came out as th') went down in history as Robert the Bruce. Keep it under your hat and nowadays I prefer plain Bob.

 

There have been postings about people getting things wrong in Ancestry; here is one of my early experiences which –at the time – proved a big disappointment.

I sought a Thomas Webb born Dawley, Shropshire circa 1845 and found such a person in another Tree with the right provenance in all respects; name; place & date. To cap it all the other Researcher claimed Thomas was the brother of Captain Mathew Webb (born 1848 in Dawley, Shropshire) the first recorded man to swim the English Channel in 1875, and the subject of a famous poem by John Betjeman ‘A Shropshire Lad’.

Googling Captain Webb did indeed reveal he had had a brother named Thomas so it seemed the provenance was spot on. I was almost ready to pronounce (to the family at least) that we could show a relationship back to Captain Mathew Webb (always supposing they knew who he was) when after dotting the ‘t’s and crossing the ‘i’s doubt descended.

I discovered Mathew Webb’s brother Thomas, to be a Doctor like their father before them. But wait a minute; surely my Thomas came from a coal mining family - like HIS father and brothers? This indeed proved to be the case and he and his family later moved to Selston in Nottinghamshire where Thomas found work in another Colliery.

I immediately checked with the other Researcher to ask if he was seeking the Thomas Webb coal miner or Thomas Webb the Doctor (and likely the brother of Mathew). I learned his Thomas was also a Coal Miner and he admitted he had not checked out the occupation of the brother of Mathew Webb. His disappointment was palpable, as was mine for that matter, but he had the good grace to thank me, even though I had dashed his dreams.

Of course we did jointly ponder on whether there was a 'Webb' tie in to the famous Dawley Village son -as indeed there might be – but I chose not to pursue further and put it down to experience.

 

I've checked and it WAS Macbeth that I'm supposedly descended from after all. Such disappointment.

 

Can I suggest that we have an additional icon to click on when we come across something like Tim's wonderful epic.
Instead of the "Creative" option that several of us have taken maybe a big option to say that we like it would be equally if not more appropriate.
Please do not take this as a comment that it is not creative - it is exceptionally brilliant and would equally deserve an Einstein type image if I could find one to include here.

 

Actually, that isn't as improbable as it might seem. Pretty much anyone in the UK (or of Western European descent) who can trace a line reliably to even quite minor nobility will be able to trace a well-documented line to Charlemagne. The usual issues with those lines (from my experience anyway) are the robustness of the documentation around the 1500s/1700s, when the parish records can be quite patchy, rather than the older parts of the tree. Even Charlemagne and his unusual family arrangements (concubines and all, plus his numerous daughters who ended up as unmarried mothers) are quite well documented in contemporary sources.

 

Bourn(e)? Wasn't that the chap with identity problems Tim? If we start dragging in people who start public trees and don't even know who they are we will all have our "currents turned awry". Then it will take more than a bodkin AND a fardel AND a FTA analyzer AND an Avatar to prevent us joining poor Ophelia on a sea of troubles. You might remember that Hamlet also said "I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum " and that's a tree that might give us all "a thousand natural shocks" even if the current didn't already do so.

 

Which Ancestry tree did you find the link in?

 

No but you have now and I expect your Dad went to school with Dylan whatsisname?

 

...and on top of it all you had that Dai Shakespeare usurp his name and character in his Scottish Play

 

So what, my father knew Lloyd George

 

I certainly have genealogical doubts because my lineage through my surname appears to have taken a crucial turn through the simple exchange of one vowel for another only three generations ago. I also didn't mean to imply in my response that adopted people or others with no solid information about their birth parents have no right to search for their roots. It is what makes Lost Cousins ideal for careful research out of the public eye. I am surprised you weren't immediately challenged by someone claiming it was their ancestor Fred Smith who wrote the Danish play not our buddy W.S.

 

My eyes have certainly been opened on that score.... I searched Google Image ( thanks forum folks for the Avatar advice) for possible source of information on my Norfolk roots and there were many US public tree links listing Charlemagne with great pride. Of course many traced their heritage to the "Founding Fathers" as well and then I have to tune out in respect for my children's aboriginal heritage.