In case you use FamilySearch or Ancestry a lot, here's a heads up. I check member trees when I'm trying to see if others have more information than I have on someone in my family. Every once in a while, my search pays off with a new name, and off I go to confirm the information with reliable sources. But generally I find that what people post doesn't include the source used (or the source is someone else's tree) and sometimes I find flat out errors. Today's search for more information on Francis J. Bushu, my great-grandfather, led me to trees that were, quite simply, wrong. Recently, I had the same experience with Wolf.
I'm not talking about errors that place someone in the wrong town or provide an incorrect date, although those are not minor mistakes. In both the Bushu and Wolf instances, NAMES were wrong, as were RELATIONSHIPS. Martin Wolf married Mary Ann Diemer, NOT Mary Ann Scantt (even though that's what's on Frank Wolf's death record). And several Bushu trees have inaccuracies about who married whom, who parented whom, and so on.
I don't want to call out anyone. I'm assuming the errors are in collateral lines, where people may feel accuracy -- for their purposes -- isn't a high priority. But I do want to make sure that the errors don't get compounded by their inclusions in YOUR tree. I am happy to direct you to the sources I use for my research so you can confirm for yourself the accuracy of your data. Just ask.
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