http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com

Thanks, Maven. Here's another site to avoid at all costs:

Jamie Allen's Family Tree & Ancient Genealogical Allegations
http://fabpedigree.com/

"Fab Pedigree" for short. Probably should be "Fake Pedigree".

Unfortunately, some profiles in the medieval tree not only cite it; they rely on it.

That gets into the whole question of sourcing. Should sources be carefully screened and only those with a reasonable likelihood of being valid be posted under "Sources"? Or should just anything that mentions the profile(s) at all be put up willy-nilly with no attempt to validate?

I think you already know I favor the first approach - and have had clashes with people who favor the second.

Or "Fabulous" in the sense of "Fable-ous": "who cares if it's true, as long as it makes a good story?"

It's called "annotate" in the "cite the fact" section of the "source."

If I have the patience I'd rather add the source - particularly if its a popular one, like the 2 mentioned - and explain why / where erroneous, field by field.

Of course life is too short to do that really, and hence this project - and others perhaps on finding and evaluating source info.

LDS / IGI / pedigree files being another & very large topic, because the microfilmed data in their vaults can be incredibly good or amazingly bad ....

Guilty of citing that site at least once :(
Great to find this project :)

Sharyn - the site is not that bad as a compiler but you have to "chase the citations." There are better compilers out there, this one tries to be too comprehensive, I think, so quality suffers.

I use dreck as a first stop sometimes for tree "straightening." But for sourcing - chase the citations ...

Any citation explaining the reason that the profile was added to Geni is better than none, because it gives other users the opportunity to talk back to it and improve /correct it if need be in a dialogue with the managers. Worst of all are whole lines added using dubious sources that cite nothing.

drek? I only add a line now from StirNet, and use The Peerage as a backup, of comparison, don't always get to fill the citations then, as, concentration is required to keep my eye on the right spot. StirNet is harder to follow, and easier to "slip" off the right I, a, II, C lines etc.

I am then double checking, all be it slowly, on MyHeretage records, Ancestry thru the software once loaded with the info I put up, and findmypast records.

I think, I feel confident now on most that I post :)

Ta Shaz

I can't read the Stirnet glimpse at all - my eyes aren't good enough. Shaz from what I've seen of your profiles they've been spot on. You're doing very well for Geni.

Sharon I totally agree. We've been playing "and where do you come from?"
with profiles for years now. What I've found is starting with any reference at all is a good starting point, and we can build from there. It's exciting to see the quality improvement.

StirNet Co$t$ for non-eyeblurring access.

I try to concentrate on sources that concentrate on the area I'm working on at the time - like the Miles Files for Northampton/Accomack Counties and the lower Delmarva generally, or Newman's "Anne Arundel Gentry" for that county in Maryland. Both extensively use and cite (and QUOTE) as many primary documents as they can find (the Miles Files is still a work in progress and has had a couple of spectacular faceplants), which makes them FAR more valuable than any constructed barebones trees.

For the other side of the Atlantic, it's astonishing how much information can be dug out of land records (the Victoria County Histories, etc., Webbed at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/), biographies of Members of Parliament http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/ , and other unexpected sources (I got tons of information on medieval Mallorys out of P.C. Field's "The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Malory").

Y-DNA research also provides a useful cross-check in some cases (is so-and-so really related to the Suchandsuch family, and if so how closely?) And one thing it totally blew up long ago is the absurdly childish notion that "all" people with the same last name "must" belong to the same family. Almost always, there are two, three, or more families that cannot possibly be related within the timeframe of adoption of surnames - many of them not later than the Bronze Age, or even the Neolithic.

Not everyone wants to hear or believe this, of course....

I have seen the "division" of last names in 3 of my ancesters families, each son takes a different spelling, to delineate his line for the future.

Anger/Aungier/Aunger/Auger
Duthy/Duthie
Greaves/Graves

From the same father, but then, all of that name, down the track, may be from other sources.

Sharyn - my surname does not derive from the Hoghtons or Houghtons according to DNA studies.

For America it appears that with the exception of an English arriver to Michigan in the 1800s & his line, we do all descend from one fellow. His origin story is fanciful.

My expectation is we will match with un related surnames from the north of England (Lancashire). Other surnames also have a North England origin (Cumbria) and it fits the migration pattern.

It sounds like a "place name" to me, and Isabel sounds Cornish to me, that's because of my fav lady Isabel d'Aungers :)

My middle name is for the character Isabel Archer in Henry James' novel, "Portrait of a Lady.". Who was a very American Gilded Age heiress.

"Olde English pre 7th Century "hoh" meaning ridge or spur of land, with "tun", a fenced enclosure or settlement, hence "settlement on the spur of a hill".

Yes, locational for coming from that house on a hill.

A "tun" of surname coincidence ...

I agree with the sentiments about this site. I have found that, even when errors are pointed out with documentary evidence, nothing gets changed.

Well, occasionally something does. Until somebody comes along and reinstates the error!

Martin Wood how are you keeping?

Currently Geni shows this gentleman as our common ancestor (17th great grandfather)

Thomas Fitzwilliam, of Mablethorpe, Esq.

And sourced from "Pedigrees of the county families of Yorkshire (1874) Vol. 2 Pg.n258"

http://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000014686740056

Does the relationship seem sensible to you?

Family Motto's:
de Blaquiere "adhere to truth" something I am accused of doing too well :)
My husbands Proctor "Ever Faithfull" very true for him <3
de Savary "Honour with no wealth" dammit, got that one now too LOL

I want to be related to a family thats moto is "Long life and happiness".