Will you help improve Judy Russell's family tree?

Question

This post is a spin-off from this thread where we are talking about making a theme for 2021: the Year of Accuracy.  

It came up in one of the comments that prominent genealogist Judy Russell (otherwise known as the Legal Genealogist - if you haven't read her blog I'd highly recommend doing so) noted there may be some errors in a couple of her lines here on WikiTree. 

Let's see if we can verify that and either fix them or make sure they are sourced properly and sufficiently!

From what I can gather, one major issue may be this Baker line - https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Baker-5594. There was a comment made that there's a lot of fanciful thinking about this Baker line but that most of it isn't true. 

There's a comment on this profile that the parentage is incorrect - https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Games-28.

Let's see what we can figure out!

Thanks!

She made a comment on this profile - https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Baker-3314.  But it looks like that may have been corrected if someone double checks. 

Comments

The link for Baker 3314 as posted does not exist - as it includes the fullstop.

Correct link for clicking

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Baker-3314

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or maybe this link (or is that a wink?):

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Baker-3314 

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It looks like the PGM project has been working on Baker-3314 pretty actively this year.

Answer 1

Try this, but as Judy is living there are privacy issues

https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2020/10/17/to-honor-them/

Comments

My understanding is that Judy is also a WikiTree member.

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She is,  yes.

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If we take that list (and her sources) on her blog as an initial checklist for checking their accuracy on WikiTree, it's (links to wikitree profiles to be added):

1. Opal (Robertson) Cottrell, born in Texas in 1898. (See Virginia Department of Health, Certificate of Death, state file no. 95-011808, Opal Robertson Cottrell (1995); Division of Vital Records, Richmond.)
2. Susannah C. (Young) Blalock [couldn't find a wikitree profile], born in North Carolina, in 1836. (North Carolina State Board of Health, Death Certif. No. 163, Susan C. Blalock, Mitchell County, 11 Nov 1929; Bureau of Vital Statistics, Raleigh. Her death certificate says she was born in Mitchell County; that county wasn’t created until 1861)
3. Eula (Baird) Livingston Robertson [no wikitree profile?], born in 1869 in Alabama. (See Virginia Dept. of Health, Certificate of Death, state file no. 6367, Eula Robertson (1954). 
4. Nettie (Cottrell) Holley, born 1879; (See Texas State Department of Health, death certificate no. 14160, Mrs. H.D. Holley, 8 Mar 1934; Bureau of Vital Statistics, Austin)
5. Theo (Cottrell) Hodges Dean, born 1886; (See “Matter of Record, Deaths: Theo Hodges,” Odessa (Tex.) American, 4 May 1984, p. 14, col. 2-3; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/ : accessed 17 Oct 2020)
6. Addie Lee (Cottrell) Harris, born 1881. (See Texas Dept. of Health, death certificate no. 38558, Addie Lee Harris, 6 May 1974)
7. Mary (Cottrell) Green, born 1856 (Texas Dept. of Health, death certif. no. 32464, Mary E. Green, 12 July 1946.)
8. Margaret “Arby” (Cottrell) Hollis McCann, born 1863. (Texas Dept. of Health, death certif. no. 20306, Margaret Arvy McCann, 13 Apr 1944.)
9. Martha Wilmoth (Robertson) Crenshaw [can't find], born 1854; (Texas Dept. of Health, death certif. no. 1583, Mrs. Mattie Crenshaw, 26 Jan 1922)
10. Mary Isabella (Robertson) Hendrix, born 1863 (Colorado State Registrar, Death Certif. No. 2203, Mary Isabella Hendrix, 5 Mar 1950; Bureau of Vital Statistics, Denver. )
11. Fannie Boone (Robertson) Harrison, born 1865 (See 1870 U.S. census, Lamar County, TX, population schedule, Paris Post Office, p. 253(B) (stamped), dwelling 307, family 307, “Gustavis” B. Robertson household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 9 Oct 2011); citing National Archive microfilm publication M593, roll 1594. ) 
12. Lillie (Robertson) Wilson, born 1868. (Texas Dept. of Health, death certif. no. 9581, Lily Wilson, 13 Feb 1956.)
13. Lula (Livingston) Lancaster, born 1877; (Tombstone, Lula Lancaster, Frederick City Cemetery, Frederick OK, photographed by [Judy Russell], 2002. ) 
14. Margaret Etta (Livingston) Roberts, born 1880; (Tombstone, Etta Roberts, Frederick City Cemetery, Frederick OK, photographed by Judy Russell, 2002.) 
15. Susie (Livingston) Kidwell, born 1889. (Tombstone, Susie Kidwell, Frederick City Cemetery, Frederick OK, photographed by author, 2002. )

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I also see the Richard Steele is a profile manager on many of these; I've posted a comment inviting him to this post.

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I started working on Opal Eula Robertson Cottrell. Her parents do not yet have profiles on WikiTree, and at least initially, I could only find one mention of her parents (Jasper C Robertson and Eula, possibly Beard) -- in the 1910 census. I can't find them in 1900 or 1880. I think I found their marriage record. 

I gotta get to work, so feel free, anyone, to pick up where I left off.

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I am, and I'm watching this with interest -- and appreciation. The problems that led me to walk away from this a long time ago are not my immediate ancestry (though if anybody can find the parents of my rascal 2nd great grandfather George Cottrell, I will love you forever). It's things like my 5th great grandfather John Jones (Jones-24356) -- born in 1750 -- being given parents and siblings based on a cited source of the 1790 census. Um... not a possible source for those items. Really. Or a however-many great granduncle Josiah Baker (Baker-13241) being born in "Cherokee, Swain County, NC." First off, he was born in Burke County. Second, the family moved in the late 1830s to Cherokee COUNTY, not the town of Cherokee. Just so you'll know what kinds of issues I have with any one-world-tree.

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Looking at Jones-24356, I'd call it an "unsourced" profile. While it does list a 1790 census, we have no idea what fact(s) that source is supporting.  We can derive -- if it's for the same man, which is a big if given the commonality of the name -- that John Jones was living in Rutherford in 1790. But how do we know it's the same man?

This profile does fall under the scope of WikiTree's US Southern Colonists project, so we could get some project attention on it if you'd like.

Can someone take a look at Baker-13241 ? 

I've got to jump on a conference call. 

Answer 2

We also need to look into https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Games-28

Per Judy, we've got her wrong. Eowyn, can you add the Maryland tag; maybe we can get Jack Day and his team on this...