They are the bane of many established genealogists — those “hints” that come when you’re using an online family tree, nudging you to possibly add some data to the diagrams outlining generations of your family history.
This is because many people accept information and add it to their trees without assessing its accuracy or source. The information is most often correct data that has bubbled up from records put online, but that does not mean it belongs on your tree, or is any way linked to your family, even if the names are the same.
The site where this happens most often is at Ancestry.com. Its system of offering record hints entices a lot of people to click on a leaf and add to their tree. But remember these are automatically generated, not necessarily targeted to your family, just to a same-named person. That is why sometimes, when you look at a tree online, you will see children born in Georgia and then one in Massachusetts and another in England. Totally absurd.
Most people who add incorrect information don’t know enough about genealogy, Ancestry.com, or other sites, to know how to remove the incorrect data. If you know your lineage and have traced it yourself, these hints can often save you some time, as you know their validity and can add them to your tree without any qualms. The moral of this tale is this: Be careful in accepting those hints. Take the information in them with a grain of salt unless you have been able to verify anything you might question.
Names of Politicians
In earlier eras, children were named for political leaders. Southerners often used the names of presidents from the South: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Andrew Jackson, but not the Adamses from Massachusetts. Grover Cleveland was popular as the first Democrat elected president after the Civil War in 1884 and some men today still bear his name, as families passed it on down. Some were named for governors and even county sheriffs.
New York City Vital Records
Go to a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/ to find a vast amount of New York City vital records free online.
Contact Kenneth H. Thomas Jr., P.O. Box 901, Decatur, Ga., 30031 or kenthomasongenealogy.com.
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