Family Trees on Ancestry's Website (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 18:54 (4268 days ago) @ rookancestrybest

Tonite BBC is offering a US episode of WhoDoYouThinkYouAre ?, so dare I say I expect another set of quantum leaps via the US Civil War to the Pilgrim Fathers... altho despite my reservations it can still be an interesting programme.

Tonight's star is Edie Falco, not having the foggiest idea who that is I googled the subject; bearing in mind our recent discussions re Ancestry Family Trees I thought this first "hit" was interesting to say the least ! I'm not certain but despite references to European subjects the poster does appears to be American, or at least resides there, and writes

"At this point, I want to advise all amateur genealogists. If you go on to Ancestry, there is a good possibility that you will find some unsourced tree that goes back multiple generations, possibly centuries. You will think, “Hallelujah, the work has all been done! Look at how many ancestors I can trace.”
Caveat emptor. Ancestry trees are notoriously unreliable. Unless you do the work yourself or can validate the source material of another’s tree, take nothing as truth. It is entirely possible that someone somewhere made a mistake (or twenty), like the one that belonged to Edie Falco’s mother."

By posting this I'm not trying to restate what may be obvious, just thought it interesting given the timing.

Re the programme Edie (a lady actress apparently) travels to Cornwall so I'll definitely be watching with added interest.

http://tracingthetree.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/edie-falco-who-do-you-think-you-are/