When I made my first tree on Ancestry in 2013 I didn't use the best research techniques. I hadn't yet taken a genealogy course so didn't have any idea what a reasonably exhaustive search meant. I began adding people willy nilly to my tree without any regard to whether the facts fit. The only thing I looked for was the same name. I had no idea that there was anything wrong with my tree.
Then one day I realized that I had one set of parents with 40 children. I knew that many of the families back then were pretty prolific, Did they really name 4 of their children John? Was it a nickname? Did the older one die, and the younger given the same name? Nope - I had added the same John 4 times. I had also done the exact same thing with his 9 siblings.
I then began looking at my tree with a closer attention to detail. I had children born after their parents died. I had children married to their parents & grandparents. I had multiple marriages for the same person. I had the same child with both their birth name and nickname, and sometimes multiple nicknames. Things were a real mess.
The only excuse I might be able to use is that I was recovering from surgery when I made that tree. I had purchased an all access membership to assist with my 6 week recovery time thinking that I would be too obsessed to want to leave my resting position for the entire 6 weeks. It was the first time I had paid for access for genealogy research. No one had warned me this would be my gateway. I really was like a kid in a candy store - racing from one shaky green leaf to the next. I had thought Ancestry wouldn't give me hints that didn't actually fit. It was a rude awakening when I discovered those 40 children for one couple many weeks after my successful recovery and return to work.
I tried to fix the errors, but in the end it became too much and I started over after deleting my tree. Although I still ended up with some errors there were a lot less once I began carefully considering details before adding a new person.
It was several years later that I was working on my father-in-law's maternal side of the family tree when the shaky green leaf presented Clarissa Buchner married to George W Rittenour. Clarissa & George are my husband's 4th great grandparents via his father' maternal line. My father-in-law's paternal line is Buchner, and LUCKILY I listened to my instincts that the name Clarissa Buchner was familiar to me.
A quick search of my tree in a second search tab, and voila I found that Clarissa's parents were my husband's 4th great grandparents via his father's paternal line, and Clarissa with husband George was already in my tree.
This was the first time that I discovered a relative already in the tree was connected via a different family line. Since then I have found several on my mother's maternal line.
The lucky discovery is outlined below:
My husband's:
4th great grandparents via his father' paternal line
&
5th great grandparents via his father's maternal line
are:
Jacob Buchner
BIRTH 31 MAY 1763 • Hardwick Twp., Sussex, New Jersey, USA
DEATH 11 AUG 1841 • Woodhouse, Norfolk County, Ontario
and
Catherine Shelar (Shuler) (Schuler)
BIRTH 20 SEP 1767 • Sussex County, New Jersey
DEATH 8 FEB 1855 • Woodhouse, Norfolk County, Ontario
His two lines descend through siblings (bold, underline & italics below)
3rd great grandparents
Jacob Clasnor Buchner
BIRTH 20 APR 1803 • Woodhouse Twp, Norfolk County , Ontario, Canada
DEATH 29 JUN 1886 • Houghton Twp, Norfolk County , Ontario, Canada
&
Amy Catherine Matthews
BIRTH ABT 1801 • Woodhouse, Ontario
DEATH 10 MAR 1880 • Cultus, Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada
4th great grandparents
Clarissa Buchner
BIRTH 1815 • Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada
DEATH 1898 • Wheeler Twp, Michigan, USA
&
George W Rittenour
BIRTH 1801 • Ohio, USA
DEATH 6 OCT 1874 • Ontario, Canada
My husband's 4th great grandmother via his father's maternal line, and his 4th great aunt via his father's paternal line!
Clarissa (nee Buchner) Rittenour
Lakefield Cemetery, Saginaw County, Michigan, United States of America
In our BRAMBLE BUSH FAMILY TREE on Ancestry I use a DNA symbol as the profile photo of the confirmed through a descendant match.
This line resulted in the creation of a new symbol (combining the two DNA strands normally used to track each line into one photo).
 |
| Father's paternal and maternal line |
When two lines become one the potential relatives reduce greatly, but DNA matching becomes a bit more complicated!
This is why I search -
Cause ...
You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!
***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***
Links:
Amy Johnson Crow, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge
https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/
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My blogs are ©Deborah Buchner, 2014 forward.
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Please & Thank you!
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