Gene Notes

Some random and some not-so-random thoughts on family history.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Too Busy Clicking & Claiming?

For months, I've been working on the Percival family of New England. As my regular readers will have ascertained, I do search not only collateral lines, but also female lines. One such line that I have been keeping an eye on is that of Phebe Percival who married Abner Hall in Connecticut.

I've found some good information from the Barbour Collection of East Haddam, Connecticut Vital records. These are transcriptions from the vital records. So why, when I search on Ancestry in all their family tree files, can I not find any of the children of this couple, who are easily located in Connecticut Vital records or on Family Search. Instead, I find only one child, Fidelia, supposedly born in 1773, whom I can't document at all.

Which brings me to people who click and claim: don't they ever check to see whether a family tree is sourced or not? I'm sure they don't. There are other people who have "submitted" this tree to Ancestry, and none of them have any documentation whatsoever. Are they too busy clicking & claiming to check this family out, or are they just too concerned with their numbers to verify anything?

Maybe during October - family history month - we should adopt a click & Claimer & teach them how to research.

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

3 comments:

  1. Nice post Anne! Love the idea of teaching a "click & Claimer" how to research. Probably a hopeless cause!

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  2. Nice idea but I suspect most "click & claimers" believe what they are doing is research.

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  3. I would bet a lot of these online families are the direct result of that little leaf. OOO, little green leaf, connect me please. No thoughts required.

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