Barking Up the Wrong Tree: So Crazy It Just Might Be True

06 July 2012

So Crazy It Just Might Be True

Just as you shouldn't accept a profile without looking at the records,
you shouldn't dismiss a profile without looking at the records.
At first glance a timeline may seem unlikely
but if there are records to back it up...
(Comments after the jump.)

ELLA MAY GILLESPIE
Birth
14 May 1894 in Franklin, Warren, Ohio
Marriage #1
29 Nov 1909 in Butler, Ohio to Edward Chamberlain
Residence
1910 Middletown, Butler, Ohio
Marriage #2
12 Feb 1914 in Butler, Ohio to Edward Chamberlain
Marriage #3
24 Sep 1917 in Butler, Ohio to Alfred Charles Walker
Residence
1920 Middletown, Butler, Ohio
Marriage #4
23 Jan 1922 in Butler, Ohio to Bradley Robinson
Residence
1930 Middletown, Butler, Ohio

Four marriages for a woman early in the 20th century automatically raises red flags. Can this be true or is this a case of two, or more, women with the same name?
There is a record of each marriage AND, luckily, each of the records includes the names of Ella's parents. All of these links go to pages on FamilySearch.org.

Marriage #1
Marriage #2
Marriage #3
Marriage #4

If the records did not include her parents' names I would be hesitant to accept that all the records were for the same Ella Gillespie.
Despite all the posts on this blog about crazy trees, don't ignore any leads before looking at the records.

NOTE: This is a distant relation of mine. If you find any mistakes or have additional information, especially after 1930, please let me know. Thanks!

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2 comments:

AnonymousSaturday, 07 July, 2012
Nice post! Sometimes things can seem unlikely, but the records show us the truth of the matter.

I was curious: The marriage records for the first two weddings had Jacob Chamberlain as the father, and one had Dena Decker for the mother, and the other had Christina Decker for the mother. I could see Dena being possible as a nickname for Christina. So I'm guessing that she married the same man twice in a row. Have you found record of a divorce/annulment between the two marriage dates?
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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.