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Last Updated February 6, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n Ancestry 50% Off Gift Memberships for Black Friday (Gift to Anyone, Even Yourself!)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n OK, we promise this article is all in good fun. After all, we genealogists are usually fairly easy-going folks, and goodness knows we\u2019re patient \u2014 after all, we\u2019ve waited ten whole years for the 1950 census! <\/span><\/p>\n But, alas, sometimes even the best of us let things get under our skin (even if we know we shouldn\u2019t). While we respect how others chose to conduct their research (or that they do it at all!) \u2013\u00a0 and completely understand that many mistakes are simply due to not knowing the right way to go about things \u2013 we can\u2019t help but occasionally feeling annoyed by these 10 common genealogy pet peeves. <\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps by sharing these, those who find themselves guilty of these inconvenient infractions will consider a change. Alternatively, those who also experience these occasional irksome occurrences will realize they\u2019re not alone in their frustrations!<\/span><\/p>\n Do you know the term \u201cghosting?\u201d It originated in the dating app world as a way to describe one person \u201cdisappearing\u201d after one date or online connection. Ghosting means not returning messages, texts, voicemails, or emails, and basically leaving the one person wondering what they did to make the other sever the lines of communication. This happens all too often in the world of genealogy! <\/span><\/p>\n Make Instant Discoveries in Your Family Tree Now Imagine adding your family tree to a simple website and getting hundreds of new family history discoveries instantly.<\/b><\/p>\n MyHeritage is offering 2 free weeks of access to their extensive collection of 20 billion historical records, as well as their matching technology that instantly connects you with new information about your ancestors<\/b>. Sign up using the link below to find out what you can uncover about your family. Discover New Genealogy Records Instantly<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Basic courtesy dictates that messages sent through online family history platforms, emails, and even old school letters deserve some sort of response, even if it\u2019s, \u201cThanks, but I\u2019m not interested in collaborating,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m sorry, you have the wrong person,\u201d or, \u201cI\u2019m super busy right now, but can I reach back out to you in a few weeks\/months?\u201d It only takes a few minutes to do the right thing!<\/span><\/p>\n Recently I came across an online family tree that included a set of parents whose identity I had been trying to pin down for years. We all know that just because someone has something in their tree doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s true, so we <\/span>never, ever take something at face value without doing our own due diligence<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n In this case, I wanted to see where these names had come from and why this person believed they were the correct parents. Not surprisingly, there was absolutely no documentation attached \u2014 no records, no notes, no images \u2014 just names that now seemed completely random. This might be OK if you\u2019re entering your own parents\u2019 names \u2014 you know their names first-hand and might not yet have gathered documentation of their lives. <\/span><\/p>\n However, when we\u2019re talking about people who lived in the 18th century, we have to know where that information came from. Most family historians can\u2019t help wishing more people would take the time to properly source their tree.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Just because someone has a name, date, or location in their tree doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s accurate (see Frustration No. 2). So why would you add those details to your own tree without verifying them first? Sadly, this happens \u2026 a LOT. So often, in fact, that those details become accepted as facts \u2014 after all, why would ALL these trees contain the same information if it wasn\u2019t true? <\/span><\/p>\n But repeated, inaccurate information isn\u2019t good for anyone (especially those new to research who might not realize they have incorrect information on their hands.) While everyone has a right to build their tree however they like, those trying to create an accurate look at our family\u2019s past would love if more people would verify a fact (with source records) before adding something to their tree.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 20 Billion Genealogy Records Are Free for 2 Weeks Get two full weeks of free access to more than 20 billion genealogy records right now. You\u2019ll also gain access to the MyHeritage discoveries tool that locates information about your ancestors automatically<\/b> when you upload or create a tree. What will you discover about your family\u2019s past?<\/p>\n Claim My Free Record Access Now<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Read: Are you sure they\u2019re your ancestors?<\/p>\n Don\u2019t you love it when someone\u2019s birth date occurs after their mother\u2019s death date or when their mother was 12? Yes, technically the second instance <\/span>could<\/span><\/i> occur, but it\u2019s definitely not the norm. So why do so many people readily accept these nonsensical dates as facts? Maybe because of Frustration No. 3 \u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019d all love to have a photo of our fifth-great-grandfather who died in the 1830s, but it\u2019s simply not possible \u2014 even if 237 other family trees have the very same sepia-toned image of a bearded man as the profile picture attached to his name. <\/span><\/p>\n Although the very first photographs were taken in the late 1820s, it wasn\u2019t until the mid-19th century that photography became popular and reasonably affordable. The first United States photography studio wasn\u2019t even opened until 1841, and then they <\/span>only produced daguerreotypes<\/span> (a polished silver-plated sheet of copper). Therefore, chances are your ancestors who died before the mid-1850s did not leave behind any photographs for their ancestors to enjoy.<\/span><\/p>\n Beginning family historians and people who are only mildly interested in their ancestry are quite often lured into purchasing items featuring their alleged family crests. These impressive, colorful crests (which are actually called \u201ccoats-of-arms\u201d) inspire pride in one\u2019s surname and the legacy attached to the symbols that comprise them. <\/span><\/p>\n The lions, stars, wolves, heraldic flourishes, and military gear emblazoned on these invoke visions of our heroic ancestors of yore claiming victory on the battlefield in our names. A bit of this idea is true; crests were, in fact, designed to reflect particular accomplishments or traits. However, these were most often accomplishments or traits of a particular person \u2014 not for his descendants, and not for everyone bearing the same surname. <\/span><\/p>\n Therefore, there may be dozens of crests that were created for people who had the same surname. <\/span>As we\u2019ve shared before, there\u2019s nothing wrong with displaying the family crest of an ancestor and celebrating his deeds and adventures<\/span>, but beware of any vendor that assigns a single crest to one surname.<\/span><\/p>\n Computer-generated \u201chints\u201d can be incredible boons to our family history research, saving us considerable time and effort in locating relevant records. Hints just need to be verified to be sure they actually belong to our ancestor, then we can add them to our tree. <\/span><\/p>\n As with all technology, hints are continually improving and becoming more accurate \u2014 as we would expect. So when we see <\/span>hints that clearly don\u2019t jibe with the information we\u2019ve entered<\/span> into a person\u2019s profile, it\u2019s frustrating. For example, if all the records you\u2019ve saved show that your grandmother lived her entire life in rural Alabama, it\u2019s highly unlikely that the hint showing a person of the same name in the Cheshire England Workhouse Records is relevant. <\/span><\/p>\n Even more frustrating is seeing that someone blindly saved this record to your grandmother\u2019s profile in their own tree!<\/span><\/p>\n For a variety of reasons, our more distant ancestors had larger families than recent generations. In 1800, women in the United States had an average of seven children. <\/span>As of 2018, though, that average had dropped to 1.7<\/span>. Therefore, when you see a women with nearly 20 children in a family tree \u2014 no matter what the timeframe \u2014 you might want to be even more diligent than usual when double-checking the authenticity of all these kids. <\/span><\/p>\n Start with the dates and names, because you\u2019ll probably see some duplicates, like \u201cMary\u201d born in 1869 and \u201cPolly\u201d born in 1870. Chances are these are the same person, since Polly is a common nickname for Mary, and birth years are often approximated based on ages provided in census and other records. <\/span><\/p>\n Inaccurate transcriptions are often to blame for people thinking two listings in separate documents are separate people, but often the errors are due to not taking the time to double check one\u2019s information.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Here in the South, burned counties are all too common (and all too often inaccurately attributed to General Sherman\u2019s fiery march through the area during the Civil War). <\/span><\/p>\n The term \u201cburned county\u201d is often used to <\/span>describe any instance where precious, one-of-a-kind, historical records were destroyed<\/span>, even if the loss was due to tornados, flooding, theft, or mold rather than fire. And it happened all over the U.S., not just in the southern states. There are alternatives and workarounds when dealing with a burned county, but boy, how we wish we could get our hands on those lost documents!<\/span><\/p>\n Cemeteries are considered sacred spots by most people, and genealogists have a special place in their hearts for gravesites, even those that don\u2019t belong to our own ancestors. When we see cemeteries that aren\u2019t properly managed, have been lost over time to weeds and trees, or have been vandalized by horrible people, we don\u2019t just get sad. We get angry. <\/span><\/p>\n And many of us get to work, restoring and clearing what we can, when we can. It\u2019s the right thing to do, ensuring that the next generation has the opportunity to visit a well-kept cemetery and a gravesite with a legible, intact monument.<\/span><\/p>\n What are your biggest family history pet peeves?<\/strong><\/p>\n By Patricia Hartley. Patricia<\/strong>\u00a0has been researching family history for over 30 years and has an M.A. in Public Relations\/Mass Communications from Kent State University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 10 Things Family Historians Find the Most Annoying Last Updated February 6, 2024 Ancestry 50% Off Gift Memberships for Black Friday (Gift to Anyone, Even Yourself!) OK, we promise this article is all in good fun. After all, we genealogists are usually fairly easy-going folks, and goodness knows we\u2019re patient \u2014 after all, we\u2019ve waited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-guides","tag-db"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions\/180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1. Never getting a reply from someone you\u2019ve reached out to\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
2. Unsourced conclusions and facts\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
3. Repeating unsubstantiated \u201cfacts\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
4. Illogical\u00a0 birthdates<\/span><\/h3>\n
5. Photos of people who died in the early 1800s<\/span><\/h3>\n
6. Family crest scams<\/span><\/h3>\n
7. Hints that have nothing to do with your ancestor<\/span><\/h3>\n
8. Too many or duplicate children in a tree<\/span><\/h3>\n
9. Burned counties<\/span><\/h3>\n
10. Neglected and vandalized resting places<\/span><\/h3>\n