What is the polite way to correct another's "posted" research?

Question

Specifically, the death informant had the maiden name of the mother wrong (and of course it is now on the death certificate), which happens far more often than we wish to know..... And, now after tireless research has produced this whole, huge, database for the wrong surname for the Grtgm... I know...it just almost stops one's breath, but how, now, to suggest correcting it?

Answer 1

Write to the person. Tell him/her what you have the maiden name as and what your sources are, why you suspect the death informant got it wrong. If you have the lady in question living in the same county as a child on two census entries in a row, then marrying the boy three farms over, it would help make your case.

I would take a light-hearted tone; "Great grandmother Jones started out life as a Smith, had a brief fling as a Miller, then settled down with Joshua Jones for a long and happy life after Mr. Miller was eaten by a bear. I fear her son James Jones gave the coroner "Miller" as her maiden name because she was one when she married his father, Joshua. Our dead acestors do all sorts of things to throw us off the track, don't they?"

Answer 2

Not often but I have run across similar things before. Most often when a stepmom raised young children and the death certificate informant only knew grandma. I offer the info and they can do as they like with it. One good way of presentation is that *I* may have erred, can you help me please ...

Me, I only use ancestry/rootsweb FREE online tree and folks 'steal' my research commonly without attribution. Not much can be done about that since public records are just that, public. It's not like I personally own one or more family bibles that would have secret private documents. In all fairness, by far more often it's to everyone's benefit because so many people email me and we share details back & forth - delightful, really.

While on that bible subject I know of a good-sized piece of work, published and all, that was long long ago attributed to a family bible which can no longer be found but which cannot have been a valid resource, so much is in error! The author died many decades back, nobody can find the granddaughter ... I did say piece of work ...

Answer 3

Hey Oh Oh,

Get your facts documented, and just nicely, without emotion, in a plesant manner say, 'I believe there is an error at in your research, respectfully submitted, here are vital records that show the correct information. Please note this affects the entire branch.'

That sounds like a note sent to the author of a very prominent family in America. On being shown the record, he replied positively, but then suggested that the remaining family branch 'would fit nicely over here', without rigorous research. So, some people just don't get it. If it is wrong, it is all wrong, everything older that is. But chance has it that the error in my case was proven to be minor by DNA, and that the family was still related via a different cousin back to the same 1632 immigrant to the USA.

People make mistakes - it happens all the time. A big person will admit the error, and then proceed to fix it.

Answer 4

There are a lot of wonderful suggestions. I only want to add one thing. The sooner you correct the others posted research the better. Online genealogy can be quite frustrating sometimes because many people out there are only name collectors and when they find something, they simply add it to their tree and move on without checking the information themselves. In a case like this, bad information perpetuates more bad information. I've seen it happen time and time again. That is why no matter how many places the same information appears on the web, it is a good idea to check it out yourself. Just because it appears 28 places doesn't make it true.

The above suggestions are great ways to gently try to correct the erroneous information. Blessings

Answer 5

I had the same problem with my grandfather. I had to sent the Clerk of the Court all the info as listed on the death certificate and then give them the corrected info. They have stapled the corrected info to the death certificate. Legally it can not be changed but they will add your info to the incorrect legal document.
Email the person and tactfully advise them that their info is incorrect and that the correct info is...... If you have documentation to back you up send that to them too. It could be that the document they had was hard to read so they guessed and well we all know what happens then!!!!!!!

Answer 6

Very good question. Bad research is the scourge of our research. It's a big part of the reason that I refuse to ever post any of my work and have all of it copyrighted. It keeps my good research from being tainted and reposted with my name on it by someone I don't even know.

But the answer is really to drop a note to the person asking a question to the effect of, "I came across your research on ____ and found it quite interesting. I went through it and got confused at the birth of _____. The parents you list are a little different than what I have. Could you help me find the source of the information so that we can make sure we have the correct lineage on this poor lad? I really appreciate your help."

Now you've made it a documentation problem and not a bad research problem.

If you find bad research on Ancestry.com you can also post a sticky note on it with the correct info. I also took issue with them in the past on people who stole my work, changed records (including the spelling of my own mother's name), omitted entire generations...and passed it off as her work. The info in there was very much my own (she had no clue who my mother was and couldn't remember who sent her the tree...another reason for not sharing with strangers) so I wrote a letter to Ancestry.com with a bill for $30,000. They laughed...at first...then I sent them the copyright information on the research and the proof that it was mine. I also reminded them that they were charging people to access this information so they were making profit off of it in violation of copyright laws. If they weren't going to reimburse me or remove the bad tree then I would gladly remove $30000 worth of their proprietary information and repost it for free. Suddenly the whole tree was gone and I got a nice letter of apology from their attorney. As a professional, published researcher they don't have a right to steal my work nor allow anyone else to steal it and plagiarize it...let alone change it.

If it's in a magazine you can write a letter to the editor disputing its accuracy. Bad published information should never stand undisputed

Otherwise, just make sure you don't rely on anyone's research without checking every last link of it. No matter how good it looks, the truth is in the details. Good luck!