Barking Up the Wrong Tree: A Stranger's Impact

18 May 2012

A Stranger's Impact

The comments for a previous post brought up more interesting facts about names. Today being named after someone means sharing a first or middle name. You can even be named after two people, i.e. first name Floyd for one grandfather and middle name William for the other. But in the past, being named after someone could mean you had their full name with your father's surname: George Washington + surname, Benjamin Franklin + surname, etc..
So you noticed that you have a couple Lorenzo Dows (first and middle name) in your family tree on completely unconnected branches. You start wondering if those branches might be connected in some way. First, do a quick Google search of that name. You may find a popular culture figure from their day. Lorenzo Dow was a popular preacher but you may find a politician or a character from a book.
So before you go on a hunt to find out how the other 10 people in your ancestor's town are related because they have the same distinct first and middle names, do a search. You may find that a pop culture connection is all there is. And definitely don't make assumptions that your tree will connect to that famous person! ;-)
Here are some examples. If you don't recognize the name do a quick Google search to find out who they are.

Just about every American President
Henry Clay
Lorenzo Dow
Francis Marion
Daniel Webster
Waldo Emerson
Elmer Ellsworth
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Franklin
Napoleon Bonaparte

Some people named after an icon ended up with two middle names:

John Jordan Crittenden
Horatio Nelson Trafalgar
William Tecumseh Sherman

Female names:

Helen Keller
Clara Barton
Dottie Dimple
Martha Custis
Dolly Madison
Susan Anthony
Eleanor Roosevelt
Martha Washington

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Blog Reviews

Barking has been "deemed offensive to [Ancestry.com's] brand" and is banned from their Facebook pages. In Ancestry's "Community" comments with links to Barking are censored.
Dear Emma, Hannah, Jemima, Mary Jane, and all of her other personalities agree that I use "the banner of 'education' to actually mock, deride and laugh at [Ancestry's] own customers" and I "can make [my] point concerning tree inaccuracies & cock-ups and their effect on our 'hints' system without being downright unpleasant and sarcastic about it."
Allen says, “your cute little blog is a waste of bandwidth at best”
Ann thinks I'm "...copying and pasting mistakes on trees and calling it a blog" and that my readers are "mean-spirited people...who like to have a laugh at the expense of others."
Sue was really offended by the “...continual stream of sarcasm and constant poking fun...What a nasty taste in my mouth your blog left me with. Unpleasant, sarcastic and jeering at people who you obviously see as your intellectual inferiors. Won't be reading that again.”
And finally from Les, "You truly are a horrible woman, pointing out mistakes is one thing but blatantly laughing and taking the p is completely out of order."

Why?

Researching our family histories we are bound to make mistakes. Hopefully we are quick to correct them. Unfortunately some people refuse to read or think before adding information to their family trees. Some trees have been abandoned so the errors are there for eternity. Here we will laugh, mock and shake our heads at the carelessness, stupidity and/or ignorance of those errors.
All examples are taken from trees published online.
I'll also post tips occasionally, though the messed up trees are a great example of what NOT to do.
If you have an online tree to suggest for a future post please send me a link: buwtree(at)gmail(dot)com

The Fine Print

1. Copyright: Barking Up the Wrong Tree is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License and is owned and administered by Loretta Gillespie.

2. Content: Barking Up the Wrong Tree is responsible for the content of this site, not including visitor comments. Barking Up the Wrong Tree reflects the personal views and opinions of Loretta Gillespie.

3. Credit: Credit is not given to tree owners to protect the clueless. A tree owner who discovers their tree on this site should correct their mistakes so no one else realizes they were once a clickophile.

4. Accuracy and Validity: While there are helpful pointers on Barking Up the Wrong Tree a majority of posts are intended to be humorous. The disastrous trees are copied exactly as they appear on Ancestry.com. These trees are being used to show others what NOT to do.

5. Images: Attempts are made to source images used despite the fact that the trees they are taken from do not include source information.

6. Comments: Barking Up the Wrong Tree will exercise its right to delete comments which are deemed to be spam, offensive, childish or just plain stupid.

7. Liability: The content at Barking Up the Wrong Tree is not to be taken as fact nor absolute. Barking Up the Wrong Tree contains posts that are humorous and posts that are research tips. Barking Up the Wrong Tree is not responsible for anyone who cannot tell the difference between the two. The sites that Barking Up the Wrong Tree links to via hyperlinks are not under its control. Those sites are responsible for the content of those sites. If you do not find the humor on Barking Up the Wrong Tree to your taste then stop reading. If you choose instead to send an email to the owner it may be published on Barking Up the Wrong Tree and mocked publicly.

Thanks to Thomas MacEntee for allowing the use of the GeneaBloggers terms as a template.