One project that I've been promising to do for a while is updating my Ancestry tree by adding collateral lines. A few months ago, I was contacted by a DNA match but we couldn't find any names in common on our trees. We narrowed down a location. There is a common link to Dorset, so it's my Dorset lines I want to branch out by adding siblings to my direct ancestors.
I remembered that a fellow researcher on my Chubb line had sent me a detailed family tree. That seemed the best place to start. It would be so easy just to plug in the names and dates from the tree he'd given me. Well, at least that's what I thought until I dug out the paperwork.
It's a very comprehensive tree, covering a long sheet of paper with a letter sized sheet taped on. (I'm not sure of the exact paper size because it came from the UK. They measure paper differently over there.) On first glance, the names I recognized agreed with my research but there is a caveat. In the top left hand corner he wrote: The Chubb Family of Evershot in Dorset, a provisional line of descent, being open to possible amendment. The words "provisional" and "possible amendment" gave me pause. It was a reminder to do the genealogy carefully and to check the information I had been given before adding it to my Ancestry tree. I don't want to be one of the Ancestry users who add people willy nilly to my family and consider my work done. Unless I want to perpetuate misinformation, I better slow down and do this right. Looks like my 2023 genealogy plan is going to take longer than I thought.
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