A Generic Ancestry.com Family Tree (source: Ancesty.com Home)
Hello 2022
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Think about taking a break from new genealogical research. Respectfully, go back and review what already exists in your family tree(s). A re-evaluation of prior cited sources should be a major focus of the proposed family tree review. The frequency of error in public family trees is truly amazing, and this is particularly true with Ancestry.com public trees. Red flag questions should be considered where family tree profiles are based on other Ancestry.com family tree(s). Ancestry.com family trees are certainly not primary sources and frequently not even reliable secondary sources. At best, consider using data in public Ancestry.com family trees only where solid primary and/or several reliable secondary sources also are discovered. Of course, most veteran family genealogists likely hold a shortlist of very reliable family tree owners whose research can be trusted without much question.
Ancestry.com subscribers know that Ancestry management presents data in other Ancestry family trees as "hints" -- and sometimes the "hints" presented are single-sourced only to other Ancestry.com trees. Many of these trees are NOT backed by primary sources and could be classed as untrue "wishful thinking." Using such weakly sourced Ancestry hints to make profile entries to your family tree is a prescription for error. Published public family tree data provided by the self-proclaimed "Beginner Genealogists" is nothing less than an error-filled genealogical circular firing squad. To copy these trees will make your tree far less accurate.
So here's a challenge to veteran family genealogists. In the course of your research, search out and investigate cases where Ancestry "hints" are single-sourced only to other Ancestry-based family trees and/or simultaneously backed by shaky secondary sources. Report these genealogy dangers to Ancestry.com management. The growing problem of misinformation caused and fostered by Ancestry.com marketing management should be arrested.
Ancestry.com's marketing philosophy actively encourages beginner subscribers to use the family trees they host as valid information sources. Many trees are unreliable and are very weakly sourced! It's not unusual to find beginner family trees abandoned by their owners after doing some very weak and marginal family research. Such family trees are frequently found in the public Internet cloud where other beginner genealogists frequently include this error in their new family trees. Be aware of this problem.
A respected Syracuse University professor Dr. Rockfeller in his computing class a half-century past made this statement: "...never put anything in an electronic communication that you wouldn't yell to your mother across a crowded room." Bottom line -- stop uploading disingenuous writings that are unsupported by primary sourced facts. Stop copying or uploading "wishful assumptions" to the public Internet cloud. If a family tree profile is a work-in-progress, state that fact with a clearly stated warning posted within this new tree profile. Bad public domain information propagates through the Internet cloud and into many beginner family trees. Furthermore, all family trees should be considered works-in-progress, especially when these trees are unsupported by valid primary sources or single-sourced to other Ancestry.com family trees.
