The sign on Leith Church indicating when it was erectedResearch these days is much easier and faster than it was when I started. Back then facts were gleaned by scrolling through microfilm straining your eyes hunting for elusive ancestors. Now everything or almost everything is available with the click of a mouse. But is it right?
My recent trawl through the Public Member Trees on Ancestry reminded me of the sketchiness of some of the information provided. I'm still on the hunt for my McPherson connection to take my matrilineal line back another generation before Ann Ross, the wife of Kenneth Matheson. It is the data available for Ann Ross, most specifically the online records about her death, that reminded me how false information can creep in.
Information from Alexander Mathison's letters indicated that his mother, Ann Ross, died sometime around 1854 after the birth of a child who only lived a short time after she died. The letters also confirmed the family was living in Puslinch at that time. I've know the story of Ann's early death for a long time and a few years ago I was tracking down her burial. About 5 years ago, I was encouraged to find a listing for her on FindAGrave. Could this be the breakthrough I was looking for? A further check of the listing showed her supposed burial in the Leith United Church cemetery where her husband, Kenneth Matheson, was memorialized in stone.
How could this be? The information I had pointed to the fact that she had died far away in Puslinch. I contacted the person who had submitted the information to the FindAGrave website to point out the error. I based my reasoning on the moves that I followed Kenneth Matheson and his family through on the censuses after Ann's death. A more recent Google search on the history of the Leith Church Cemetery brought up the information that the graveyard was opened in the 1860s, too late for Ann Ross to be buried there.
Recently I searched for Ann Ross on the FindAGrave site for Leith Church Cemetery. There were no hits. But the information about Ann Ross's burial had been out there for long enough for others to pick it up. The listing of her burial in Leith was captured and used as source evidence on at least one Public Family Tree on Ancestry.
The modern day dissemination of misinformation isn't the only trap waiting for the unwary on the research trail. False data can be seen in the historic records as well. In a previous blog post about Alexander Mathison I commented on how fast and loose he was with his place of birth on the various forms where it was recorded. He had truncated the information about his origins and once even gave his place of birth as near Hamilton, Ontario. I have his birth record from Portree, Isle of Skye, Scotland. I have the Scottish record of his sister Margaret's baptism as well. That baptism took place in Kilmuir which is also on the Isle of Skye. Later census records for Margaret record her place of birth as PEI but, although her younger sister Catherine was born on PEI, I didn't find a record of Margaret's birth there. I have a suspicion Margaret was also fudging the account when it came to her origins and she truly was the child born in Scotland to Ann Ross and Kenneth Matheson rather than a child with the same name born after the Scottish Margaret died and the family settled in PEI.
The uncertainty of the information found on censuses and other records is something to bear in mind as I continue my search on the McPherson line. I'm still on the track of another Margaret, Margaret Clark nee McPherson. From the variety of birthplaces I've found for her on the census, I've a suspicion that she was born in Scotland too.
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