How can i verify two alike trees?

Question

I have been researching my family tree for several years, and now I've hit about as far as I have been told I can go, but I'm not going to give up. I found a branch on "familysearch.org", and the person a)has the same name as my great great grandfather,
b) was born in the same area, and
c) has a birthdate that makes him old enough to be his father.

The only catch is, the information was collected a couple years before my grandpa was born, so it says they have no children. also*, in my dad's babybook, my grandpa had written "william" as the fathers name, and "sinclair" as the mothers maiden name, both of which do not match the ancestral file. what do you propose I do?
I was also suggested to by some friends that perhaps they had changed their names because of a crime, or for no aparent reason. they could also be uncles/aunts. But I really do hope it's his parents... what do you think?

Thanks for your help, but I have to add, that there are only 6 people left in my family, and I'm 17 and I'm the middle. the others don't know.

Answer 1

Welcome to the club. Back in the 1800's it was quite the fashion to name the first son after his paternal grandfather, the second after his maternal grandfather, and the third after his father. The daughters followed the same pattern. So, if John Smith had six sons, and they all lived to marry and have children, they would all name their first-born son "John". All six Johns would live in the same county, like as not, and marry women named "Martha", "Polly", "Elizabeth" or [Ann|Anne|Anna|Annah|Hanna].

So, you are likely to get people who are possibly related, maybe, and wonder.

What you do is try other sources;
Roots Web World Connect
GenForum Surname and County query boards
Ancestry surname and county boards
Census images, if your library subscribes to them
Rootsweb Mailing list archives for the surname and county
US Gen Web sites for the county

Write to me if you haven't heard of those and I'll send you the links.

Changing names and leaving the country is pretty rare. Finding them under different spellings is common. 5% of the people I look for start using their middle name instead of their first name. Henry J. Smith becomes John H. Smith, or Henry becomes John. The surname Clark becomes Clarke or Clerk or Clerke. Bower becomes Bowers, and so on.

Answer 2

I really doubt this is as far as you can go. I'm not sure exactly who you're looking for here. If these people were from the US then you should be able to find most of what your looking for in the US census records. Have you thoroughly checked them? I have spent hours looking through them and I've been able to find everyone I've searched for. It took me years before I found certain people because of a horribly misspelled name or whatever. Familysearch.org seems to have the 1880 records in their files. Ancestry.com has all the rest if you pay for the service. I've found it's totally worth it for me. I originally decided to pay them for the first billing period and then just cancel the account after I got the information I needed. I wound up using it so often that I just kept the subscription. I don't remember how much they charge but sometimes it can be worth it. MOST IMPORTANTLY, they seem to be having some sort of 3 day FREE access thing going on from Nov. 1st to 3rd. I'm not sure what features are free but you should check it out anyway. It looks like they're only asking for your name and email.

I don't mean to totally bash Familysearch.org but I've found a lot of jumbled crap on there. Many of the records are from "user submitted trees" and the information hasn't always been verified, even by the LDS staff. I wouldn't rely on any of the information that comes up when you use their site to search a name unless there was reliable source info listed below. Most times there is no source listed at all. Other people's family tree info is never reliable unless they can provide their sources. Familysearch.org has only been useful to me when I've searched their library catalog to see if they own a certain book.

For now, all you can do is assume you are 99% wrong. Just write down the info you found on familysearch, put a big question mark next to it and keep looking. Try to find more info about this new guy somewhere else. You may find that someone else is claiming he's their ancestor instead and they may actually have more details and sources. They might be able to help you prove/disprove that he's related to you. The message boards on all the popular genealogy websites are really good for that. They are free.

Answer 3

If you have two people with the same name, similar dates of birth, and similar places of birth, but the names of their parents are different, that's fairly good evidence that the two people are not the same person.

Since I don't know where you are searching or in what time period you are searching, it's difficult to give you any really specific advice, but I would suggest you search other sources such as vital records, church records, probate records, and census records.

The line you found on familysearch.org may well be related to your family line, but you'll need evidence from other sources before you can come to that conclusion.

The Genealogical Proof Standard requires that we conduct a reasonably exhaustive search in reliable sources. See the link below for more information about the Genealogical Proof Standard.

Answer 4

My grandmother was very into geneology but you have to be very careful. Many people out there have similar names and surnames like Sinclair are very common. The best way to find out if that is the same relative as yours is to do extensive research. Ask relatives, grandparents, there are some websites that have birth records online - you could maybe look up your great grandfathers birth record and match the parents names up.