I have a fellow in my tree that I am related to. He is an uncle to me. His son had a peculiar name, Icell. Because of this unique name, it is rather easy to track him through the census and to gather other data on him. Then one day while looking at Ancestry.com I noticed that Icell had a hint. I thought it was odd, I was sure I had gotten them all. So I take a look.
This is the point where I can only be disgusted with what I find and click the ignore button so I never have to see it again. Someone else had Icell in their tree and they also had Iscle as well. That was only the beginning of what I found going through their tree. I would say that the disgust turned to horror, except that I have become more immune to the utter disregard people have for pride and precision of their work.
Apparently this person didn’t know the difference between Icell and Iscle and believed them to be two different people. This makes me wonder if they were ever familiar the English language and the human influence of error that permeates everything we touch.
However, this being a common issue with the lazy genealogist-hobbyist that run amuck over the internet, it was not the most shocking and dreadful thing I found in their tree. They are not a descendant of one of my grandfathers, but are claiming that they are! What a lie they are believing!
So I investigate according to their “evidence” being the attached census records attached to each person of interest. As it turns out, they didn’t even read the census. In fact, the more I looked at their “evidence” the more I discovered they were were just attaching here and there without regard to the truth or even who was in the records. This is the exact reason why I keep everything private. People would be copying my pictures, research, and documentation into their falsehoods like a crack addict on speed. This isn’t a game and their disrespect is appalling.
Have I even bothered to inform them of this? No. Why bother, they will most likely ignore me anyways. The Cunningham they are claiming to be their grandfather is not and when I tell them they are mistaken and will have to detach about 100 years of family history off of their tree because it isn’t right, what do you suppose the reaction would be?
