This is not a question about Poland or the Polish; it is a question about Genealogy in general. If that is not appropriate for this forum, then please, by all means delete this message. My Question is simply this: When do you believe or not believe what you find on Ancestry.com? In addition to trying to trace my own Polish Roots, I have been working to trace the heritage and lineage of my wife, Gayle's English ancestors. Very little is known about her Father's family and all of the family members who may know something are long gone. We have some bits and pieces of information with some names and dates. One of those names was of a Mary Ann Cornell. She married a Charles Ryder and when I went into Ancestry.com I found posted in their section called ONE WORLD TREE a whole host of information dating back hundreds of years; work that I assume some other genealogist performed. The information was posted in 2001 and the "contact eMail address" is no longer viable. On the whole, the information looks valid; oh, there are some obvious errors, such as incorrect dates of birth and such, but mainly it looks like an excellent resource. My question is simply, how can a subscriber know that the information someone else can upload to Ancestry is, as far as they know, truthful and a good effort at accuracy has been employed? That someone is not having fun at ancestry.com's expense and loading a "Family Tree" with bogus information. I understand that some information that individuals put on line can be incorrect, that is not what I am talking about. Honest mistakes I would believe will happen, but what about out and out fraud. Does Ancestry have a "policing action" in their organization or do you simply take it on faith that only people of good will enter data into Family Trees? John

John - I am a happy Ancestry.com user... and I believe nothing that is not documented. No documentation? It's supposition. Contact the 'author' or use it as a guide, but it ain't truly so until you can document it. It is not that people will intentionally mislead you, but if their info came from aunt Wladislawa?... she just might not have had her info spot on. Beyond this, I do not want to generalize. However, I know that _I_ use Ancestry.com as my working slate. I'll chalk things in while I work to confirm and expand. I've attached whole wings of someone else's tree, only to remove them when I feel that a full examination of the body of evidence is not convincing. Everyone may not work this way. Someone else could decide that that same evidence was convincing. Others might just decide that, if it's on Ancestry.com, why shoot, that's good enough. You should look for work that is bristling with sources and records! Some of the very best information I have had comes from 'cousins' who have contacted me (or I them) on the 'Net. As that Polish example, I had been pulling out hairs trying to find immigration documentation for my wife's maternal grandfather, Bronislaw/Bruno/Bert Kolowicz. No joy! I posted a query on one of the genealogy fora... and got a response from a researcher on Ancestry.com (distant cuz of wife in this case). Bronislaw was really a 'Kujal~owicz'. Magically :-), it was then possible to find his immigration/naturalization records and even begin the business of tracking the family back into Poland. Nothing like having the right name... of course, Bert was 'Kolowicz' in all the documents I had to that point... Just view everything skeptically and vigorously employ your gray cells. Paul John Ruther wrote: > This is not a question about Poland or the Polish; it is a question about Genealogy in general. If that is not appropriate for this forum, then please, by all means delete this message. > > My Question is simply this: When do you believe or not believe what you find on Ancestry.com? > > In addition to trying to trace my own Polish Roots, I have been working to trace the heritage and lineage of my wife, Gayle's English ancestors. Very little is known about her Father's family and all of the family members who may know something are long gone. > > We have some bits and pieces of information with some names and dates. One of those names was of a Mary Ann Cornell. She married a Charles Ryder and when I went into Ancestry.com I found posted in their section called ONE WORLD TREE a whole host of information dating back hundreds of years; work that I assume some other genealogist performed. The information was posted in 2001 and the "contact eMail address" is no longer viable. > > On the whole, the information looks valid; oh, there are some obvious errors, such as incorrect dates of birth and such, but mainly it looks like an excellent resource. My question is simply, how can a subscriber know that the information someone else can upload to Ancestry is, as far as they know, truthful and a good effort at accuracy has been employed? That someone is not having fun at ancestry.com's expense and loading a "Family Tree" with bogus information. > > I understand that some information that individuals put on line can be incorrect, that is not what I am talking about. Honest mistakes I would believe will happen, but what about out and out fraud. Does Ancestry have a "policing action" in their organization or do you simply take it on faith that only people of good will enter data into Family Trees? > > John > ********************************* > Need to contact the list manager? Write to Marie at Poland-Roots-admin@rootsweb.com > ---------------------------------- > Discussion of Polish food, culture, and customs are welcome on the list as long as the discussion stays pertinent to the topic of this list: researching our Polish roots. > ---------------------------------- > Browse the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=poland-roots > Search the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?aop=1 > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to POLAND-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- Paul Brady PhD Manager Academic & Instructional Computing College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences University of Minnesota 101 Coffey Hall 1420 Eckles Avenue St. Paul, MN 55108 612 625-2780 pbrady@umn.edu