Interesting thread but these things can go both ways. I have had three examples and each one different.  One was about a McIntosh ancestor from Argyll, where myself and several others, world wide, had thought we had found every sibling of my 3X GGrandfather, and we had all checked every record we could find. A lady from Hamilton, I think it was, contacted us and told us of another brother.  We were all quick to point out that this "other" brother, did not exist. However the lady from Hamilton was correct and was able to produce a death certificate none of us would ever have found, and this proved that we were all wrong.  I also found a family tree on line regarding the same family relating to my 4XGreat grandfather. On this occasion the tree shown on line went back two further generations. Unfortunately all attempts to trace the author, have to date faile, and whilst her claim is possibly correct, I cannot substantiate it but at least it gave me possibilities.  The third is a total mystery and concerns my Waiwright ancestry from London and Glasgow. All evidence suggests bigamy but when I contacted ancestors of the London branch they refuted my information that, in all likliehood we were related, they refused to accept the information even though I had proved that their ancestor was born in Glasgow in 1855.  All part of the fun of genealogy.  Will post the last story in a separate email in the hope I can finally resolve the mystery of my Wainwrights.   ----- Original Message ---- From: Ian Rodney <ian@rodneyim.freeserve.co.uk> To: lanark@rootsweb.com; cperkes@videotron.ca Sent: Thu, January 14, 2010 1:48:36 PM Subject: Re: [Lanark] Re stealing my family tree Hi Carolyn I have had a similar problem. The lady in question contacted me via Ancestry regarding my grandfather's brother. She claimed to be his granddaughter. I have a comprehensive set of BMD records for the branch of the family and when I probed for more information from her the E mail contact died.