Public Member Trees~Curse or Benefit

Family trees are prolific on the internet from Rootsweb to Ancestry to public webpages. But are they a benefit to the average researcher or are they a source of bad, unsourced information that leads you on a wild goose chase?

My experience has been that they are very unreliable. Owners of these trees oftentimes take offense to any suggestion that their information is bad even when sources are provided. 

Here are several examples:   



First, let's discuss the wife of James F. Purvis. The wife of James F. Purvis is NOT KNOWN and if she is known her name IS NOT SARAH GARRARD JAMES. Yet there are hundreds of Public Member Trees on Ancestry propagating this falsehood.

Back in May 2011, I posted on the Purvis genforum a message detailing why James F. Purvis was not the husband of Sarah Garrard.
http://genforum.genealogy.com/cgi-bin/pageload.cgi?garrard::purvis::2047.html

Sarah Garrard did in fact marry James Purvis in Kentucky in 1808.

But, James F. Purvis, b. about 1760 has never set foot in the state of Kentucky. In 1808, he had a house full of children and lived with his wife in Chesterfield, South Carolina.

The James Purvis that married Sarah Garrard was a son of William Purvis and Jane Burk of Virginia. He was born in Virginia, not South Carolina.


This James Purvis was also born 25 years after James F. Purvis was born in South Carolina.

The same goes for James F. Purvis’ son William James Purvis. The owners of these trees insists that William James Purvis was named William Forbes Purvis. I have requested documents from some of these individual with this name on it and haven’t received one yet. That.s because William Forbes Purvis does not exist and never did. 



If one of these individuals would step into the Courthouse in Jackson Mississippi or the Mississippi Archives for just 10 minutes and look at the Land Deeds available showing his name as William James Purvis maybe that would convince them.

There are many other problems on the two listing posted in this article. Wrong parents, specific birth and death date where none exists and others. Gilbert Johnson Purvis was a single man, never married and Effica Howell his wife is REALLY his MOTHER. 

I have just one request – Always VERIFY anything found on one of these trees and document it with a proven source. Ancestry Family Tree is not considered a solid verified source, It’s secondary unreliable information.

If you follow the GPS – Genealogical Proof Standard you can’t go wrong.

• Reasonably exhaustive search
• Complete and accurate citation of sources
• Analysis and correlation of the collected information
• Resolution of conflicting evidence.
• Soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion.