User talk:Dughall

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Next step: Review your GEDCOM [7 February 2012]

You're not done yet!

WeRelate is different from most family tree websites. By contributing to WeRelate you are helping to create Pando for genealogy, a free, unified family tree that combines the best information from all contributors.

Now that you have uploaded Grant Morton.ged, your next step is to review what your pages will look like, review any potential warnings, and combine (merge) people in your GEDCOM with matching people already on WeRelate. You need to review your GEDCOM before it can finish importing. We will keep your GEDCOM in the queue for two weeks to give you time to review it.

Note: if your gedcom contains many errors or multiple families, we’d ask that you resolve and correct the errors, delete this gedcom and re-submit it without the errors before merging it with families already on WeRelate. If the gedcom is very large, we’d suggest breaking it up into separate files (or families) and importing them one at a time, which makes the review and correction process easier.

Click here to review your GEDCOM

Once you have finished your review and marked your GEDCOM Ready to import, one of our administrators will review your GEDCOM and finalize the import. This usually happens within 24 hours. You will receive a message here when the pages have been created.

--WeRelate agent 09:22, 7 February 2012 (EST)

Benjamin Butterfield & Sarah Bates [13 February 2012]

There are two Benjamin Butterfields that dyed in 1715, one in March and one in July. One married Elizabeth Fletcher and one married Sarah Bates. I did not remove the marriage, I merely attached it to the correct Benjamin Butterfield.

• Family:Benjamin Butterfield and Elizabeth Fletcher (1) is the son of Joseph
• Family:Benjamin Butterfield and Sarah Bates (1) is the son of Nathaniel

The various dates kind of hinted at this, as Benjamin and Sarah had a daughter Sarah in 1701 less than a month before Benjamin and Elizabeth were married. This is pretty improbable if it had been the same Benjamin. The Torrey's Marriage source that was cited in your note showed Sarah married 2 times after Benjamin Butterfield died and since she married him in 1697 and outlived him, he was never available to marry Elizabeth Fletcher in 1701, hence it was a different Benjamin Butterfield. It is important to pay attention to details.

I am guessing, but what you probably did wrong was to trust various websites too much and copy their information without trying to find primary evidence to confirm it. Primary evidence being based on records created at or near the time of the event preferably by a first hand witness or government official charged with record keeping. Such as wills, deeds, diaries, town records, etc. Since the town clerks in Massachusetts were required to collect births marriages and deaths in varying degrees from the mid-1600's on, there are decent records for most events in Massachusetts, and you can find many of them freely available on the Internet. So it is often very easy in Massachusetts to confirm dates against these records.

For example, the deaths of the two Benjamins were recorded in Chelmsford here, clearly showing there were two different men. The overturn of the cart, which happened while in Woburn is also recorded in the records of Woburn here, showing that it was Benjamin Sr. who was in the cart by comparing it to the Chelmsford records (i.e., not Sr. meaning the father, but Sr. was used by town clerk to mean the older of two people with the same name).

Here is an article covering the whole Butterfield family. It serves as a useful reference because it gives the big picture and helps you sort out the many Benjamin Butterfields. The son of Nathaniel who married Sarah is #8 and is covered near the bottom of p. 36. The son of Joseph who married Elizabeth is #14 and is covered near the middle of p. 38. This article is a secondary source, but the New England Historical and Genealogical Register has a reputation for high standards going back a century and a half. --Jrich 13:25, 10 February 2012 (EST)

aha...

Y'know, I looked at the tree I have building, and I have the correct information, looks like I just connected to the wrong Benjamin...thank you!--Dughall 13:51, 10 February 2012 (EST)

This (kind-of) leads to another question...would it be better to upload my GEDCOM or work down from what's already on the site?

For most of my tree, I have (what I hope are) decent sources, so it would be a matter of linking them in. Thoughts?

Dg--Dughall 14:06, 10 February 2012 (EST)

I am a vocal opponent of GEDCOM uploads. It's hard to do due diligence in checking out the existing data already in WeRelate when it's being displayed in small merge windows with the rest of your GEDCOM waiting on you. The incoming data is rarely in the preferred form or written to the right audience. It creates problems because different parts of the process can occur over a period of days or weeks, leading to duplicates and other inconsistencies due to interactions with the edits of others. In actuality, uploading a GEDCOM is a long, difficult process, rarely done right because it is usually the first thing people want to do, before they know how WeRelate works. The only way I can see to do this right is to build a bunch of very small files specifically for the purpose of uploading to WeRelate, and it just seems easier to me to type the data in directly. --Jrich 16:59, 10 February 2012 (EST)

I took your advice re: GEDCOMS and am uploading each line individually...now to just start cleaning them up...

I came across a pretty extensive genealogy for the Butterfields in "300 Colonial Ancestors" by Elizabeth Rixford (starting in supplement II) - is this considered a sound reference?--Dughall 09:52, 13 February 2012 (EST)

I haven't used that source so I don't know. One thing to look for is if they tell you how they know things. If they just give you a bunch of facts with no references to or quotes from vital records, wills, deeds and other contemporary sources, you can't tell anything. Alternately you can check out the facts themselves. Find the vital records for the towns they lived in and see if the births, marriages, and dates are listed as indicated. Some authors only provide justification for facts that seem odd, but should still pass the second test. The best way to avoid errors is to do the proverbial exhaustive search, but since that is so hard, the next best is to find the contemporary justification for all your facts and most of the time it will be right, and when it is not, at least an excusable error. --Jrich 11:31, 13 February 2012 (EST)

Next step: Review your GEDCOM [10 February 2012]

You're not done yet!

WeRelate is different from most family tree websites. By contributing to WeRelate you are helping to create Pando for genealogy, a free, unified family tree that combines the best information from all contributors.

Now that you have uploaded Butterfield to Raymond.ged, your next step is to review what your pages will look like, review any potential warnings, and combine (merge) people in your GEDCOM with matching people already on WeRelate. You need to review your GEDCOM before it can finish importing. We will keep your GEDCOM in the queue for two weeks to give you time to review it.

Note: if your gedcom contains many errors or multiple families, we’d ask that you resolve and correct the errors, delete this gedcom and re-submit it without the errors before merging it with families already on WeRelate. If the gedcom is very large, we’d suggest breaking it up into separate files (or families) and importing them one at a time, which makes the review and correction process easier.

Click here to review your GEDCOM

Once you have finished your review and marked your GEDCOM Ready to import, one of our administrators will review your GEDCOM and finalize the import. This usually happens within 24 hours. You will receive a message here when the pages have been created.

--WeRelate agent 14:21, 10 February 2012 (EST)

Butterfield to Raymond.ged Imported Successfully [11 February 2012]

The pages from your GEDCOM have been generated successfully. You may now:

• launch the Family Tree Explorer to navigate your tree
• view your network -- If you matched families in your GEDCOM to existing families, find out to which other WeRelate users you are related.
• view related pages not in your tree -- If you matched families in your GEDCOM to existing families, find out which people you are now related to that you can add to your tree (takes awhile to display for large trees).
• view a searchable list of the pages in your tree -- The searchable list will be available about an hour after your tree has been imported.

For questions or problems, leave a message for Dallan or send an email to dallan@WeRelate.org.

--WeRelate agent 22:41, 11 February 2012 (EST)

Hans Coblentz [12 February 2012]

Hi Doug, nice to hear from you. I don't need a copy of Hans Coblentz's info (since he's not one of my ancestors), but I'm sure it would be useful for other researchers if you added perhaps a gedcom of your sister-in-law's information, so others can "fill in the blanks".

Most of my information is here on WeRelate, so whatever you add here would help more people. Afterall, that is what a "wiki" site is all about anyway - collaboration between researchers.

Have a great Sunday and best regards,

Jim:)--Delijim 09:02, 12 February 2012 (EST)

Next step: Review your GEDCOM [13 February 2012]

You're not done yet!

WeRelate is different from most family tree websites. By contributing to WeRelate you are helping to create Pando for genealogy, a free, unified family tree that combines the best information from all contributors.

Now that you have uploaded Coblentz.GED, your next step is to review what your pages will look like, review any potential warnings, and combine (merge) people in your GEDCOM with matching people already on WeRelate. You need to review your GEDCOM before it can finish importing. We will keep your GEDCOM in the queue for two weeks to give you time to review it.

Note: if your gedcom contains many errors or multiple families, we’d ask that you resolve and correct the errors, delete this gedcom and re-submit it without the errors before merging it with families already on WeRelate. If the gedcom is very large, we’d suggest breaking it up into separate files (or families) and importing them one at a time, which makes the review and correction process easier.

Click here to review your GEDCOM

Once you have finished your review and marked your GEDCOM Ready to import, one of our administrators will review your GEDCOM and finalize the import. This usually happens within 24 hours. You will receive a message here when the pages have been created.

--WeRelate agent 09:25, 13 February 2012 (EST)

Coblentz.GED Imported Successfully [13 February 2012]

The pages from your GEDCOM have been generated successfully. You may now:

• launch the Family Tree Explorer to navigate your tree
• view your network -- If you matched families in your GEDCOM to existing families, find out to which other WeRelate users you are related.
• view related pages not in your tree -- If you matched families in your GEDCOM to existing families, find out which people you are now related to that you can add to your tree (takes awhile to display for large trees).
• view a searchable list of the pages in your tree -- The searchable list will be available about an hour after your tree has been imported.

For questions or problems, leave a message for Dallan or send an email to dallan@WeRelate.org.

--WeRelate agent 22:15, 13 February 2012 (EST)

Family tree for Rowell/Gerow [12 September 2016]

Hello,

    My name is Dianne, you mentioned that you have family tree information pertaining to Clarence E Rowell and Elsie M Gerow. They  are my Grandparents and I would appreciate any information you might have on them as I keep hitting road blocks on the Gerow side of the family and would like to double check what I have for the Rowell side of the family. Thank you for any information you may have and can share.--Dsam 00:47, 12 September 2016 (UTC)