Planning to change parents of Ricketts-371

Question

Thomas Ricketts - Ricketts-371 - has the wrong parents, an error which has been propogated around the internet for some time. The correct parents are:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ricketts-2194

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bennett-28613

I am descended from Thomas's grandfather, John Ricketts who was also born in Berkeley in around 1591. It is almost certain that no one in that family ever went to the West Indies; that was a separate Ricketts family with no genetic match to this one - they have both tested Y-DNA.

I have numerous (around 20) Y-DNA matches with descendants of Thomas Ricketts, so that aspect is not in any doubt.

A contemporary record of his indenture is available on his Ancestry profile:

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/4793792/person/402212270816/facts?_phtarg=nOj15153

The father and grandfather who are currently assigned don't appear to be connected by any records other than a dubious family tree.

I intend to replace the exisiting the parents with the correct ones - please take the opportunity to comment if you wish.

Answer 1

The ‘correct’ parents are unsourced and family trees are not considered a proper source for pre-1700 profiles.

I would suggest that it is important to find sources to confirm your assertion before making the change. In the meantime you can add your ideas to a Research Notes header so they won’t be lost.

Comments

I'm not suggesting using a family tree as a source; quite the opposite as I'm suggesting removing parents whose only source is a family tree and replacing them with:

• the father who appears on the record of his baptism
• the mother who appears on his father's marriage record

The parents as stated almost certainly never existed, or if they did they are not connected to him. His 'father', William Henry Ricketts/Ricard was supposedly a commisioned officer in Cromwell's army, an unlikely father of an indentured servant.

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In addition, I think you should add the DNA evidence as sources.

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I think that could be problematic as it would breach living person rules.

If you track the Block Tree on FTDNA, I am R-FT213211 and the descendants of Thomas are R-CTS10195, with an average of 5.5 equivalents/private variants going back to the MRCA, ie Thomas's grandfather.

Answer 2

I have now made the changes to his parents and will tidy up the profile as soon as time allows. A lot of extremely good work has been done on his profile in the past, giving great insights into his time in America and his descendants - this will obviously stay.

I'll highlight references to the previously assigned parents and keep them separately.