Barking Up the Wrong Tree: WHY?!?!?! Part 2

16 November 2012

WHY?!?!?! Part 2

For the original WHY?!?!?! post click here.
All but two sources on this profile are entered manually, not attached from Ancestry.com records. The two that do link to Ancestry records are in italics and do look to be correct.
Comments after the jump.

JAMES MATARESE
B: APR 1892 in Fontana, Avellino, Campania, Italy
D: ABT 1965

24 Source Citations
Census; Birth info; Residence info
1850 US Census; abt 1847 New Jersey; East Windsor, Mercer, New Jersey
1870 US Census; abt 1864 Oregon; Silverton, Marion, Oregon
1880 US Census; abt 1864 Oregon; Whitman, Washington
1900 US Census; Dec 1851 New Jersey; Moon, Allegheny, Pennsylvania
1910 US Census; abt 1846 New Jersey; Florence, Burlington, New Jersey
1920 US Census; abt 1875 New Jersey; Florence, Burlington, New Jersey
1930 US Census; ????; Burlington, Burlington, New Jersey
1930 US Census; abt 1896; Brooklyn, Kings, New York
1930 US Census; abt 1892 Italy; Burlington, Burlington, New Jersey
Note: 14 residence events for 1930 the timeline
US Public Records Index, Volume 2; n/a; Burlington, New Jersey
US WWII Draft Card; 5 Apr 1892 Italy; Burlington, New Jersey
US WWII Draft Card; 5 Apr 1892 Italy; Burlington, New Jersey
US WWII Draft Card; no info
US WWII Draft Card; 5 Apr 1892 Fontana, Italy; Burlington, New Jersey
Washington State Census; abt 1874 Oregon; 1883 Whitman, Washington
Washington State Census; abt 1875 Oregon; 1887 Stevens, Washington
8 Ancestry Family Trees

ⓑⓐⓡⓚⓘⓝⓖ ⓤⓟ ⓣⓗⓔ ⓦⓡⓞⓝⓖ ⓣⓡⓔⓔ

It looks like the first 8 source citations are not for James Matarese. They aren't even close. I decided to see if the citations could give me a clue to the confusion.

1850 Citation gives page 81B. The census for that city only goes to page 66.
1870 Citation has a link which goes to a 1900 US Census record for George Mingin, age 11.
1880 Citation has a link which goes to a 1920 US Census record for Nellie Carty, age 8.

After those three I gave up.
If someone is born in 1892 why even bother looking at censuses from 1850 to 1880? If you're going spend time creating sources why not make sure they're correct? Why connect records that have nothing in common with the person you're researching?
We take pride in having a well sourced tree but it's quality, not quantity, that counts. Having 24 sources for one person doesn't mean much when 21 or 22 of those sources are rubbish.

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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.