Is there a way to add ancestors to my tree despite missing link generations? [closed]

+3 votes
291 views
closed with the note: answered
in WikiTree Help by Max Harrison G2G Crew (310 points)
closed by Max Harrison

2 Answers

+6 votes
Hey Max,

Welcome to G2G.

There are several things to say in answer to your question. The first is about how WikiTree works. There is no such thing as 'my tree' on WikiTree. There are profiles for people that have existed, and links between them. So yes, you can add profiles for Alice, Ralph and others.

The second is about sourcing. Genealogy is known to attract a lot of people that want to prove they are the descendants of famous people. It has been the fashion to write very nice books with the links between individuals and famous historical figures. You could and can mailorder those. So without knowing the document from 1860 you refer to, I would say: be extremely careful.

The third is about sourcing here at WikiTree. Without sources, primary sources that is, you cannot add profiles for people born before 1700. For 14th century, you will need to contact people with the authority to add those profiles. Only a few have it (I don't). That is because it is extremely hard to find primary sources for those profiles, so you need a lot of knowledge to judge of a source is valid and trustworthy. I would ask you kindly to stop adding unsourced and first see if you can source the recent profiles in your branch. Ask people here to help, connect to the England project and take things slow.

Wikitree has a nice feature to find relationships between anyone. As soon as there is some connection to others in the tree, you can find the relationships. You might find that fun.
by Michel Vorenhout G2G6 Pilot (343k points)
(deleted)
Max, please start by adding sources to all of the profiles you have created thus far (review the Honor Code you signed, it is not just a checkbox). In doing so, you can establish which profiles and links are correct. It does take some time, but it will make up for proven profiles.

You will get a lot of help, if you write down where you have gotten the information from. This is not something done in 1 day, but can take considerable time. I am sure you had some courses in school how to source your thesis, please use that same mechanism here, aiming for best proof.
In case you are not familiar with them, here are a couple of links which might prove useful:

GRO (for records after 1837) https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp

and
FamilySearch.org (free): https://www.familysearch.org/en/

I would also echo Michel's suggestion that you join the England Project.  When you start, you will be assigned a mentor who will provide one-on-one help as you learn to navigate WikiTree, add sources, use markup formatting, and more. :)
(deleted)
+8 votes
If there is a gap of two hundred and fifty-eight years with zero documentation, then there is no evidence supporting the inference that your Newmarch born in 1621 is even remotely related to the Newmarch born in 1363. Also I found your entries for this individual on the FamilySearch tree; the records attached indicate that the name of your "Robert Newmarch" was "March", not "Newmarch" (these are very clearly different surnames as they both appear in the Lincolnshire parish registers in Limber Magna and Cabourne; there is no evidence to suggest that a March suddenly changed his name to Newmarch).
by C Handy G2G6 Pilot (220k points)
(deteted)
Even if you can establish that Robert March and Robert Newmarch are the same individual (NB: this is NOT "incorrect spellings FamilySearch has provided" but completely different names appearing in the original parish registers), there is nothing to suggest that he is a descendant of Sir Ralph Newmarch (strange but true fact, not everyone with the same surname is related). It would require documentary proof of some sort to make that claim (a pedigree in a heralds' visitation, for instance, or wills, charters, even a secondary source like a reference in one of the Victoria County Histories for Lincolnshire).
(deleted)
If you have no documentary evidence to connect your 17th century (New)Marches to Sir Ralph Newmarch who was killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury then you do not in fact have anything which suggests that they are descendants (apart from the coincidence of the same surname, which again doesn't prove anything). Also Sir Ralph Newmarch was of Watten in the East Riding of Yorkshire, not Lincolnshire; so it clearly isn't "the same location". There's also this which only mentions a son Robert, who died in his mother's lifetime: https://soc.genealogy.medieval.narkive.com/Q4WJNZ6M/c-p-addition-elizabeth-newmarch-died-1457-8-wife-of-sir-ralph-newmarch-of-womersley-yorkshire
(deleted)
Which again does not establish the line from Sir Ralph Newmarch d. 1403 and the (New)March in Lincolnshire (indeed the preface to "The Newmarch Pedigree" which you quote from says something about the difficulty in establishing the correct line of descent).

To bring things somewhat closer, I have ancestors of whom I am 100% certain, because I have DNA matches to their descendants. However, because of a lack of records and the possibility of descent from more than one child of said ancestor, I don't know the intervening line of descent, and so I don't carry it back past the last generation I'm absolutely sure of.

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