Can this be true?

Question

My family made a family tree on Ancestry.com using that One World Tree and it says that one of my distant grandparents from the 1500s or 1600s was born in Jamaica when their family moved there from Great Britain. Could this be true? Are the records fake? Is this an okay thing to say as how my family got here?

Answer 1

The only work you can fully trust is the work you do your self, yes it could be true but unless you can prove the link then take it with a pinch of salt.

Good luck and good hunting

Answer 2

If you know this to be true (or believe it) then of course it's OK to say this. It would even be OK to say an ancestor was part of the slave trade if it were true. Facts are facts, history is history.

But in regards to whether the records are fake...I think you have asked a question before where you also used the word "faked". Normally, faked means intentionally misrepresenting - not authentic. I would tend you use the word accurate or inaccurate. It may in fact be someone's best guess based on some information.

But this is one case where I would question accuracy of the records (normally should be second nature when you are looking at a submitted genealogy with ancestors back that far). The reason is because you say in the 1500s or 1600s THEN say from Great Britain.

Sounds like it could be legitimate - and maybe it is - BUT...

Jamaica was "founded" by Columbus in 1494 and actually used as his personal estate. From about 1500 to 1654 it was Santiago, a Spanish colony. In 1655, the British "conquered" it and it has been British since.

During this time it was quite a trade center and even agricultural (sugar) center. A lot of people did come there, first from Spain, then from England. Even a lot of rich people. So yes, a ancestor from 1500s or 1600s could easily have come to Jamaica.

However, because of the "feelings" between England and Spain back then, if your dates are truely BEFORE say 1660, then it would be very doubtful that a person from Great Britain would have come to the Spanish colony of Santiago.

But after say 1660, sure, a lot of British people DID come to Jamaica.

But if you got this from One World Tree, there should be some contact information. Since you believe this to be your grandparents, the submitter would be happy to hear from you. And THEY could tell you about the accuracy. If you got hold of my "file", it has about 8,000 people in it. But less than 800 of those are what I consider valid. People I have personally researched and validated. The other 7,200 are just cool things I picked up here and there for fun. If you contacted me, I could tell you if you fit into my validated, solid (though small) set of people or more likely fell into my "it's cool, but who really knows" set of 7,200 people.

Answer 3

Information found in family trees on any website must be verified. They are submitted by folks like you and me and mostly not documented or poorly documented. Even if you see the same information repeatedly by many different submitters, that is no guarantee it is correct.
A lot of people copy without verifying. The information should be used as CLUES as to where to get the documentation.

Ancestry.Com has 4 family tree programs.
Ancestry World Tree is the oldest and the largest. One World Tree is trash. They have Public Member Tree and Personal Member Tree.

Ancestry.Com has taken liberties with the information people have submitted to Ancestry World Tree and they themselves have brought the information over to One World Tree with all the different info people have on the same person. However, I have seen at least twice where they have combined 2 people into 1.

There would not be anything impossible, however, for one of your many times great grandparents to be born in Jamaica if the family moved there. It is up to you to verify it, not take it as fact.

Answer 4

Genealogy is about SPECIFICS.
I won't go along with the general statement that "most" of ancestry's files are accurate. I know of a number of researchers that have massive files, that are 99% good, then pick up on ONE specific assumption (so and so was the father of so and so) then goes back from there. From that point, I literally see where 50 more persons have 'copied' that information and never asked if there is any document to back it up.
CAN it be true that there is a record from that time frame? From the wording, it sounds to me that you are possibly talking an early Virginia line, many of whom were involved in the London company and/or shipping. The whole early settlement of Virginia was a matter of "for profit", and some did stop in Jamaica or have land there. But.. you have to define who the person is/was and the exact date(s).
For a good portion of those VA families.. it has been worked to the immigrant, and the frantic rush is to connect them to their correct roots in England.
If this is one of those Virginia lines, the likelihood is that the family originated in England, is thought to have 'stopped' in Jamaica, but the main core of the family winds up in Virginia (maybe the Carolinas, etc). I would not call that as being Jamaican heritage, if this is the case.
IS "YOUR" FILE ACCURATE? I say "your" file, meaning the one you found. It is POSSIBLE that this one connection is "good", because, YES there are records in that time frame. The FILE itself isn't a record. The files are created by researchers, based on what they have found. In other words.. they may have found what they believe to be a "record", but without knowing what that record actually is, no one can say for sure that it is right/wrong.
Your best bet (by having watched many of your questions) is to step back, and look at the individual bricks in your tree - the exact persons. When you build your own 'files', it is up to you to recognize how solid the specific conclusions may or may not be. There are many persons/ families out there, for which there simply is no answer yet. If (for example) the question is about Benjamin Clements in Virginia, the ones who can REALLY answer that are those who have been researching him. They can get down to the nitty gritty of how they know when he died, who his children were, so forth.

Answer 5

Sure. There are records from that time period - Columbus began western European colonization there is 1492! So by the mid 1500's there was a lot of activity and colonization in the Carribbean and various groups move in to try and colonize the area. People who were successful doing this also moved on looking for greener pastures once the US colonization began to open up in the 1600's.

Answer 6

Is there something wrong with being born in Jamaica that upsets you? It is possible that is completely true, it is also possible that it is completely false. I know that genealogy is a very time consuming project that is very easy to screw up. One person gets a date wrong 100 years ago and the rest of us are left wondering. Do some research of your own and see what you can find out. I know that my family can trace back to 1580 in Scotland, and that is with about 100 different family members doing research for the last 100 years or so.

Answer 7

Ancestry.com information is usually very true.

and Sure it is okay to say..but when saying that be sure to say that they moved there from Great Britain so people will know you are English and not Jamaican.

Answer 8

I would definitely cross reference this with Jamaican records and Britain Records. If they are even available.

Answer 9

Yah,There is a strong possibility that this might be true.Even if it is true or not it does not matter....u can't change ur ancestry

Answer 10

yes, whats the big deal? people move around.