How could that be? Well...it couldn't...

Things that make you go....hmmmm?

We run across situations all the time where someone, who shall be nameless for this example, has exuberantly tried to stretch the facts to fit the puzzle.  Really, this could be any of us!  We want so badly to do the work and just really want it to be right, but hoping just doesn't make it so.  So, we need to be patient with ourselves and step back and look at the data with discernment.

When you want something to match so badly...are you tempted to falsify the documents?  Be careful.  If you don't have the proper sourcing identifying your records, your work won't be taken seriously.

Case in point....

Patron told me that in her line.....there was a Mother and Father who married and had three of the six kids in Scotland in 1686.

Then they moved to Utah in 1710 and had her Great 3x Grandfather...then the rest of the six children (#5 and 6) were then born back in Scotland.  She found a family who arrived in Ellis Island in 1896 with all the same names.

I had a really hard time trying to convince her that she had the wrong data.  How did I know? 

 1) Yes, she did find a family in Findmypast with 6 children all coincidentally named Mary, James, Joseph, John, Michael and David after the Saints.

2) It is a fact that many families named their young after Uncles and Aunts and Great Uncles and Great Aunts.  Sometimes it's even trying to make sure you have all the right names slotted into the correct generations because the similarities are so ominous.

3) Many times, you will find family on passenger lists, but not this family - there was 200 years between 1686 and 1896 - The correct part was that Ellis Island opened in 1892...

4) She was certain that her G3 Grandfather Michael was born in Utah....but in 1710, there were very FEW organized census data.  Most of the data was from something called "compiled census", meaning, if there was a meeting at the town hall, and they took roll call, then those people were on the list.  Utah was not even a state until:  January 4, 1896, however...we DO have census data on the Territory of that area from 1850 forward.

5)  It is very very rare that a family would come all the way from Scotland, have one child and go back on that horrific ocean journey with 4 children (including a baby) to have two more in Scotland.

Conclusion!  Unless you have the documents, delete the data from your tree and work only with documentation that you really trust.  Then hold your head high.  It's better to have correct data and less of it than guess your best guess and be off.