Barking Up the Wrong Tree: Nightmare

22 January 2016

Who Am I?

You've seen this disaster of a profile before in Bottomless Pit 2. That post featured the events on the profile. This one has the list of alternate names. Over 6000 of them. Six THOUSAND!
This profile has given me nightmares. What if there's a profile somewhere on all of our trees that, because of a computer glitch, has every name and every event attached to it?
There are also a couple dozen "alternate name" facts with no name on them at all. See the horror after the jump.

Warning: Sarcasm Ahead >>

13 June 2014

Bottomless Pit

Thanks to Claire for the link to this profile! I wanted to thank her right at the top because you may never get to the bottom of this post. Seriously. I think this tree owner has added every event from their entire tree to this one profile.
Some of the more amusing notes are on events that have no date. If you want to skip to those you may want to start at the end of the post and scroll up.
If you see events not in chronological order they are not typos on my part. I think Ancestry's computer just threw up its metaphorical hands in despair. With almost 2000 marriage events who can blame it?
These are the records/sources attached to the profile:

1870 U.S. Federal Census
James Sanford, born abt 1836 in Michigan; living in Lansing, Mower, Minnesota
Civil War Service Records
James Sanford, 11th Wisconsin Infantry, Company B
U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index
William Anderson, arrived in Maryland in 1659
U.S. Civil War Soldiers
James Sanford, 11th Wisconsin Infantry, Company B
U.S. Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files
James M. Sanford, 11th Wisconsin Infantry, Company B; widow Annie C. Sanford
U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles
James M. Sanford, enlistment date 12 Sep 1861, 11th Wisconsin Infantry, Company B
Ancestry Family Trees
Profiles included in this "source" are for Luna Elizabeth Sanford, Benjamin Albee, Luanna Rutledge, Charles Thurston Capwell, Henry Talladay, Charles Byron Andrews, John Milroy, James Austin Criswell, James Burns, Betty Ann POTTS, and George David Shannon

The entire profile is after the jump.

Warning: Sarcasm Ahead >>

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.