I recently saw a post in a Facebook group showing an Ancestry tree hint for a family. The post’s author said he had clicked on a hint and received a list of nearly 60 children associated to one couple. This list came from an Ancestry member tree.
How does this happen? It is pretty easy on Ancestry to add more than one of the same person when reviewing a hint. If you click too many boxes without knowing what is already on your tree, before you know it there are duplicates and people that don’t belong, adding to the branches.
Most genealogists will tell you not to take Ancestry trees as evidence for your tree. They are collated from hints offered by the program but these hints need to be reviewed closely before adding them and then once added, checked against other evidence to ensure everything is correct. It is hard to imagine getting into a state as bad as the tree in the picture.
These trees can be fixed however. We use a process to check and fix trees that have got themselves into a bushy state. We can trim the duplicates and eradicate the weeds – those people not related to you. Once your tree is trimmed it is much easier to see the branches and get to adding the right leaves.
Trace Genealogy 