I started my family tree looking for a 5th great-grandmother. She was the first wife of a man whose grandfather was a German iron worker. He and a community of friends came from Siegen, Germany to Virginia in 1714, escaping religious persecution. The Catholics were doing the persecuting in that part of Germany then. Their church was German Reformed. I think that religious institutions is/was more closely related to John Calvin than Martin Luther?
Anyway, my 5th great grandfather Jesse (1759-1843) had 9 children with his first wife, and 7 children with his second wife. The first wife is mine. I want to know her and claim her. I swear I've been looking for her for at least 30 years.
I suspect her name was Mary, based on the recurrence of the name in her children's family. I've been chasing surnames related to family from that time looking for her. It was an obsession. I've slacked off a bit, accepting the limitations of female records 1700s, but I still get excited when I find a woman born the appropriate time in either Fauquier Co, Virginia, or Rowan County, North Carolina.
My tree is large. In April it had close to 64,000 people in it. Yeah, I know. Because of my large ego, original intent, and frenetic searching techniques I didn't bother documenting "married-in" people were only markers. My documentation efforts were spent on people who I actually descended from, and their families.
Recently ancestry.com instituted a rating system. I was dismayed to find my tree only rated a 7.9 on April 3, 2025. I had 4,104 dupes, 33,939 with only other tree references to back them up, 6,964 entries with no documentation, and 2,626 errors. Sheesh. So embarrassing.
I've since committed to documenting the undocumented, merging dupes, and paying attention to errors. As of the July 11th update I've brought the rating to 8.5. Now I only have 3200 dupes, 25,000 tree only, 4,558 no documentation, and 2,502 errors. Slow going!
It is impossible to get reliable documentation for some, especially women, and children who died young. However, I won't give up until my tree has a 9.1 rating. That seems reasonable for such a large, wide-ranging family tree. Obsessive seems to be my middle name.
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| This is the oldest tree in my town |
That is a gorgeous tree! I have an affinity for trees and I am drawn to this one,
ReplyDeleteIt's a special tree.
DeleteYour efforts are impressive! My tree on Ancestry is rated 7.2. I don't currently have a subscription and would need one to improve my rating. Maybe next fall or winter.
ReplyDeleteI love the old tree in your town. Trees are dear to me.
That tree in the picture is wonderful.
DeleteI think it is amazing that you can trace your family back so many generations! I can't imagine how much work that has taken you. My family tree would look like a Charlie Brown xmas tree. I can only go back to my 4 grandparents who were immigrants. But I am now looking into their Scandinavian origins, hoping I could maybe get Swedish citizenship in case LGBTQ are the next group to deport.
ReplyDeleteAlways good to have a plan!
DeleteMy sister does the work of tracing our ancestors but it is a complicated job. She has gotten a lot of help through the work of the Mormons who have a large database and it isn't just for Mormons. Sounds like you are enjoying this hobby as you have put a lot of time and effort into it.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy it. I find it soothing.
DeleteMy sister did all the genealogy. When she died her youngest daughter claimed all her notebooks and files. Just to have, not to continue. Pam pushed one line back to the 900s in Denmark on my mother's side. She could only get a few generations back on my father's side because apparently there was a name change sometime around the Civil War, assuming a huge family break, and all her efforts after that produced nothing.
ReplyDeleteYour sister didn't have a tree on ancestry.com?
DeleteI didn't realize that Ancestry rates family trees. My dad did our family tree on Ancestry. I wonder how it rates? (I'm not sure he made it public, in which case, maybe it isn't rated at all?)
ReplyDeleteThey just started the rating system in April of this year. The private trees are rated as well.
DeleteWow, your family tree has 64,000 people on it. I've never bothered to investigate my own family tree, I just assume they're the usual mixture of rogues and eccentrics!
ReplyDeleteThat made me laugh!
DeleteYou are certainly dedicated in your research. And that tree is a wonderful real life reminder of what tima and age is.
ReplyDeleteWe are using a different system and I basically handed it all over the man of the house, he is better at it. It seems we are the only people in my and his family interested in it.
Very few people in my family care what I'm doing. They think I'm a crazy old lady. I really don't care what they think.
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