18 January 2013

This Time It's Personal II

Before we get started there was a great post over at Clue Wagon earlier this month: In Which I Assign You A New Year's Resolution. If you enjoy my blog you'll definitely like Kerry's post!

On to today's post...
Once again someone has poached my family and mangled their details to fit them into their tree. Almost two months ago I left comments letting the tree owner know about their mistake. They haven't fixed it so here we go.
Everything in italics is taken from one of my trees. Note that the name on the profile is not one of them.
More after the jump.

 Petra Anzaldua
 B: 27 Apr 1918
 D: 13 Dec 1985

 FATHER: Jesus Contreras (1887-1930)
 MOTHER: Eugenia Gonzales (1888-1976)

 SPOUSE and CHILDREN
 Julian Contreras (1870-????) m. 1891
 ✿ Altigraca Contreres, B: 1887 in Texas
 ✿ Eutimio Contreras, B: 1893 in Texas (the tree continues through this son)
 ✿ Aotimeo Tim Contreras, B: 1893 in Texas
 ✿ Sipriano Contreras, B: 1894 in Mexico
 ✿ Pedro Contreras, B: 1895 in Texas
 ✿ Jose Contreras, B: 1897 in Mexico
 ✿ Benito Contreres, B: 1898 in Texas

 SPOUSE and CHILDREN
 Juan Dimas (1916-1998) m. 1945
 ✿ Jesus Dimas (1942-1942) Born and died in Texas

 UNKNOWN SPOUSE and LIVING Child

 US CENSUS RECORDS attached to this profile:
 ✿ 1900 Contreres family in Beeville, TX: Julian, Apr 1870; Petra, Sep 1873;
     Altigracia, Aug 1887; Aotimeo, Jan 1893; Pedro, Apr 1895; Benito, Mar 1898
 ✿ 1910 Contreras family in San Bernardino, CA: Juan, 40; Petra, 35;
     Sipriano, 16; Jose, 13
 ✿ 1920 Contreras family in Victoria, TX: Julian, 50; Petra, 49;
     Benito, 21; Lupe, 14, Petra, 7
 ✿ 1930 Contreras family in Refugio, TX: Petra, 58, widow;
     Ronmea, 26 (divorced); Lupe, 24; 7 grandchildren
 ✿ 1940 Refugio, TX: Petra Contreras, 67, widow;
     living with daughter Petra (28) and her family

 Also attached:
 ✿ Marriage license list from the newspaper, includes Juan Dimas and Petra Contreras.
 ✿ Photo of Petra Dimas hugging her niece after her niece was baptized. 
     It's one of the few photos my mother has of her Tia Petra.


ⓑⓐⓡⓚⓘⓝⓖ  ⓤⓟ  ⓣⓗⓔ  ⓦⓡⓞⓝⓖ  ⓣⓡⓔⓔ

My Petra is a Contreras by birth. Their Petra is a Contreras by marriage.
My Petra was born in 1918. Their Petra started having children in 1887.
So of course they're the same person! Anyone making progress on that sarcasm font?
At least they could not attach the rest of Juan and Petra Dimas' children. They are all living. Also, they did not attach any of the census records I have for Petra Contreras. Whew! They did, however, poach yet another Petra Contreras. Note the 1910 Census above. Here's the correct 1910 Census:

 ✿ 1910 Contreras family in Refugio, TX: Julian, 41; Petra, 39;
     Alta G, 22; Timoteo, 17; Benito, 12; Ramona, 7; Guadalupe, 5

So Sipriano and Jose do not belong in this family.
The youngest daughters Ramona, Guadalupe and Petra have been left off Petra's profile. Any one of them could be the "living" child. It's most likely the younger Petra since she was born around 1913 and Ancestry.com's privacy protection covers anyone born in the last 100 years.
A few things to remember:
1) Not every person with the same name is the same person. No matter how unusual you think your ancestor's name is, it's not.
2) When researching the women on your tree think about whether you are looking for their maiden name or their married name.
3) Every computer program has glitches. Double check that all the children from the census has been added.
4) Read and digest the information before mindlessly attaching hints whether they are records or other trees. Genealogy requires a little common sense. If you don't have any you might want to try a different hobby.
Those of you who have had items from your tree attached to the (obviously) wrong person will understand that I just want to scream:



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RELATED POST: This Time It's Personal

3 comments:

  1. Banging head on desk right along with you. When I find these errors and they are attached to persons related to me, I post a politely worded comment with the correct information, citing a source - but I do include the word "wrong" somewhere in the title of the comment. Maybe 10% of the time, I get a thank-you and corrections are actually made. At least the rest of the time, the comment is there for anyone who bothers to read it. I suspect many people post a tree and never, ever look at it again... I have noticed that the shaking leaves make no distinction between maiden and married names, thereby encouraging these awful match-ups.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kay ;-) I should probably calm down before posting a comment to people who do this. I've only noticed it happening on two occasions but I would probably find more if I checked my Member Connect activity more often. The first has still not corrected their info :-(

      Delete
  2. Eutimio A Contreras January 15, 1893 Refugio,TX and Aotimeo Tim Contreras, B: 1893 in Texas are the same person. His first wife was Lorenzo Garcia and Julian in his 1940 census is son by his first wife. In the 1920 census he is just Tim Contreras

    ReplyDelete