User talk:Truetoagnetha1

Alternate wife is not the same as second (or third) wife [13 January 2010]

I noticed you added as an alternate wife, Abigail Clark and Grace Mallet for Family:Benjamin Balch and Sarah Gardner (1). This is not the right way to do things. Each marriage is a separate family page. There already were pages for Family:Benjamin Balch and Abigail Unknown (1) and Family:Benjamin Balch and Grace Mallet (1). They are listed on the page for Benjamin, 3 separate Family pages for his 3 marriages. The alternate wife is used when you can't identify exactly who the wife in a marriage is, and there are multiple candidates. For example if Benjamin's 2nd wife could be Abigail Clark or Abigail Doe, they could be alternate wives. But his second marriage has its own Family page, different than the first marriage's Family page, or the third marriage's Family page.

P.S., The second marriage is title Abigail Unknown, because Abigail was the widow of Matthew Clarke, so her maiden name is Unknown.

Also, it is useful to others if you put source citations. I noticed you entered death dates for several Balchs without sources. Unless others can verify your sources, they won't know how credible it is. Thus, they cannot judge how reasonable it is compared to a different value they may have. Since no source is given, usually they just change it to their value. So putting sources helps them realize if their data is wrong, instead of just assuming the other person made a mistake.

I noticed Jonathan Balch's death was changed to somewhere in Texas. Given that he was born in 1670 and the first American settlers in Texas were about 1824, this seems unlikely. This is another reason why all data should have sources, if possible.

Glad to see somebody else interested in the Balches. --Jrich 00:21, 12 January 2010 (EST)

Can I also ask the source for the death date of 30 Apr 1706 that you added to Person:Sarah Balch (6)? I searched the vital records of Beverly and the only entry for this date I found was "Larcum, Abigel, w. Cornelius, d. Benjamin Balch, Apr. 30, 1706, a. abt. 43 y." on p. 2:487. Specifically, there is no entry for Sarah Balch. Of course, if she got married, it would be listed under a different surname, but the coincidence of two sisters dying on the same day is such that, without a verifiable source, it seems likely this is an error? --Jrich 00:43, 12 January 2010 (EST)

I sincerely apologize for my ignorance of the procedure for indicating additional wives. I am new to genealogy and am just interested in finding out as much as I can about my family tree. Thank you for setting me straight. As to Jonathan Balch's place of death, it obviously was not Texas. That information was from a family tree posted on Ancestry.com, but it showed no source. And as for the date of death of Sarah Balch (6), I have no new information. I erroneously entered the date of death of her sister, Abigail Balch, which has as its source: Edmund West, comp., Family Data Collection - Individual Records (database online). Provo, UT, USA.--Truetoagnetha1 18:18, 13 January 2010 (EST)

Sources are needed [13 January 2010]

I was perusing the new Balch data you entered last night. You provided several pieces of data that differ considerably in both detailed and gross aspects from accepted literature. Without sources, this data appears to be a collection of the garbage data that is so common on the Internet. With sources, this data could be very useful to users of Werelate.

For example, Freeborn Balch appears to have been lost at sea about 1658 according to Robert Charles Anderson's Great Migration Begins, and Mary Walton Ferris Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines. Both of these are among the most highly respected sources out there. So your date of 16 Jan 1666 is striking in its value because it implies Freeborn actually returned and made a subsequent appearance after he had been thought to be dead, and in its preciseness because it implies there is a document recording of his death. But since it conflicts with such respected sources, one must judge this to be uncredible. Unfortunately, there is so much shoddy genealogy being propagated by genealogy websites, that without sources, your input will be painted with that same brush whether deserving of it, or not.

I notice that last night you created a new page for Benjamin Balch that is the same person you were working on a few days ago. WeRelate is a unified tree where each person is supposed to be represented exactly once. If you have new data about Benjamin, you should attempt to find the existing page and supplement it, rather than creating a new page. --Jrich 09:56, 13 January 2010 (EST)

I once again apologize for entering a date of death for Freeborn Balch (4). The date I entered was taken from a family tree on Ancestry.com. No source was shown for the date, and I was unaware that he had been lost at sea in 1658. I have just edited his page to remove the death date. In the future, I will also be careful to search for existing pages before starting new ones. I am afraid I have made a mess of things, not by intention, but by ignorance and failure to learn the proper procedures and etiquette. I am very sorry. Thank you again for showing me my mistakes.--Truetoagnetha1 19:03, 13 January 2010 (EST)

Your comments are too apologetic. I am happy to think I might have helped. There is nothing wrong with entering what may turn out to be wrong data. Nobody truly is capable of knowing all the information on somebody. This is one of the benefits of WeRelate. If you are using wrong data because one of the sources you used made a mistake or is outdated, some other researcher should be able to point it out, and by this process, everyone should be steered towards the latest and greatest consensus.

I will add that, generally, ancestry trees and the like, published on the Internet without sources by anybody who has an Internet connection, are not highly regarded. You can usually find one to support any wild speculation about an individual that ever occurred to anybody who ever did genealogy. They can be useful for getting hypotheses to guide your research, but you should strive to find higher quality sources that confirm them, before believing them. It is not enough to know the data, you must also know why the data item is believed to be true. And in a collaborative environment like WeRelate, you must communicate all that. This requires attaching sources to your data. --Jrich 20:31, 13 January 2010 (EST)

When two pages are the same merge them [29 April 2010]

I noticed you removed John Balch (5) from Samuel Balch and Martha Newmarch and left John Balch (6). This is not the best way to handle the situation where two pages were created for one person. The problem is that it leaves the page for John Balch (5) still in the system with no parents. The better way to do this is to merge the two pages, so that you end up with only one page. (Actually you end up with two but one is redirected to the other, so it acts as if there is only one.) --Jrich 23:22, 29 April 2010 (EDT)