Before we get to the WHY?!!? part of the post (after the jump) I thought I'd share some of the creative ways people have come up with to mark their trees.
On family trees we all know that the photo area is not limited to pictures of people. We might have photos of gravestones and scans of any paperwork regarding our ancestors: vital records, newspaper articles, wills, pension records... The list is endless. Looking through other trees to see if someone else has found that record we're missing or a photo of the great-grandparent we've never seen before there is sometimes a photo that seems a bit random. Here are a few I've found that are unusual but useful.
Items in bold are quoted directly from the person who originally submitted the image.
My apologies if the formatting is jumbled because of all the photos. It looks great in Firefox on a Mac. No idea what it will look like to everyone else.
My apologies if the formatting is jumbled because of all the photos. It looks great in Firefox on a Mac. No idea what it will look like to everyone else.
Name of photo: Confusing or Questionable Data
Description: STOP: Significant Unresolved Questions! The documentation for this individual reflect significant unresolved questions that challenge the validity (accuracy) of some of the information contained within. Further research is deemed necessary for some items.
It should come as no surprise that I would like this automatically added to every profile on a clickophile's tree.
The number of tree images is endless. Most of the time they're used to designate the direct line of the home person.
Whether our ancestors immigrated to North America or Australia we always want to find the first.
Photo Title: End of the line
Used to mark the spouse of a relative or anyone on your tree whose line you don't intend to research further. I may need to use this, or something similar, considering how many messages I get saying, "I have more on [name] if you're interested." Sometimes the messages are long and detailed and I feel bad that the person wasted their time. Maybe adding something like this could save their time and mine.
This could be used as
an "end of the line" photo
or for a brick wall.
Or for those who prefer a literal take:
While I like some of these I hope that they are uploaded to a tree only once with multiple profiles attached. Uploading the photo to each appropriate profile adds to the space your (free) tree takes up. In fact it's a good idea with all your photos. Have a group photo from a past reunion? Don't upload the photo 50 times, attach everyone to the same photo. Please have some consideration for the entire Ancestry.com community. Next time there's a site slow down think about how much space that one flag photo that you uploaded 100 times is taking. Some people may think, "No one would do that!" Well, I looked through countless media galleries preparing this post and can say, "Yes people do that." All the photos had the same title and usually no description at all.
I can also tell you that if you find a lot of flags or COAs, especially the latter, on a tree there's a much higher probability that it is a fantasy tree (Roman emperors, Adam & Eve, etc.) and most likely has no reliable sources. I did find some potential posts in those but after the jump you'll find no flags or family crests. Most are posted with no comment because my only comment would be WHY?!!?
