Purely coincidentally with upgrading the family tree, I received a report from one of the online genealogical services which analysed my family tree and identified numerous errors. Most of these errors were simple things like mistyped date events (eg born 1784 instead of 1874). This report identified 173 potential errors. I am using this report to guide a general review of the family tree to tidy it up.
Interestingly, the process of updating the tree has meant further research and, in some cases, locating additional information. This is to be expected. Many of the entries in the tree were made well over a decade ago. Over the ensuing years more information has become available and more people have added to genealogies that I am interested in.
The only real downside is that it takes time and energy. Even where a date looks spurious (the birthdate is after the death date, for example), you can’t just guess what the correct answer is. You have to go looking and try to confirm with evidence what the real answer should be. This can take hours in some cases – especially if you end up going down a fresh rabbit hole of new and additional information.
Inspired by the combo of updated software and this online report I received, I have built (well I copied stuff others have built) a number of new bespoke queries that analyse the family tree to look for obvious errors. For example, checking for children born before their parents, or people marked as ‘living’ when they are well over 100 (possible but unlikely), people connected to multiple families (possible but unlikely), or where surnames are muddled (again, possible but worth checking).
Armed with the online report and my own new reports, I will have months if not years of future quality improvement work ahead of me!
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