Can anyone help me, Please ?

Question

I'm trying to resolve the confusion arising from various internet sites giving conflicting birth and death dates for the families of NAGLE and SEXTON, both from Ireland, seems we have mothers giving birth years after their demise, or having multiple children long before they are in their teens. It's a mess, so all the help I can get would be most appreciated.

Comments

There's an old saying - there are two things you should never watch being made, laws and sausages.  Internet family trees would be the third thing.

You're lucky with the bits that are obviously wrong.  Trouble is, the bits that look like they could be right were produced by the same process and are no more reliable.

---

RJ,

I like your proverb, and have appended it to the top of my WikiTree scratch pad to inspire me anew whenever my work, or someone else's, is wonky.

---

With all the suggestions about adding tags (which are good!), no one seems to have mentioned links to specific profiles.  That would be VERY helpful.  Taking a quick look at Nagle; there are 434 Nagle profiles on Wikitree, and only a tiny fraction of those are shown as born Ireland.  And the first few I've looked at didn't even have any connections to other Nagle family members.  Pointing at specific profiles, or a family tree where you're seeing the problems would help those who want to help you.

---

Fred,

I posted two of the Profiles (see post near the bottom of this question.  Tim had emailed me directly. I asked for source info as well which he apparently has in his possession.

Answer 1

Tim,

I'm sorry, but I can't help with the problem.  I can help you get fast attention from the folks who can, though.

Please edit your message and add the word "arborists" (without the quotes) in the tag space.  Those folks are magicians with these kinds of messes!!!

Good luck!

Comments

O.K., thanks Gaile, looks like someone has already put the 'arbourist' bit in for me, which was very kind.

Meanwhile, if anyone can spare a little time, please message me, and I'll try to explain the problems.

---

Tim,

The way I see it, you are the one who re-tagged it.  The only thing is, it should be spelled "arborists" - without the "u".  The tags are used by people to "subscribe" to feeds so that they can see a list of all questions with those tags, plus they get an email when activity occurs on questions with those tags.  That's why it helps to usie tags that you know people with certain types of expertise will be watching.

You can write anything you want in the tag space, but knowing what tags are on the feed list of the projects is the key to getting their attention.  Some of these are:  leaders, team, profiles, improvement, wt_apps, and the names of projects.

---

Correction, Gaile, it had already been changed, I simply altered the spelling because, being English, that's how I spell it. Still, never mind, I would still appreciate a little help.

---

Tim,

Please forgive my brashness for suggesting that which side of the pond you're on doesn't matter here - the way computers work, different spellings (even so much as an extra space) are identified as totally different things!   ... so, you need to use the tag that the people from the project will be subscribing to.  In this case, that is "arborists".  If you tag it "arbourists" it won't be of any help.

Sorry to be so culturally insensitive about this!!!

---

Tim and Gaile,

I was the one to retag with Arborists and added Irish-Roots.  Tim, the way tags work, and in this case in particular, is that we have volunteer Arborists who help clean up profiles and we have volunteers who specialize in Irish Genealogy.  They follow these tags, so by adding the tags, it will jump to the attention of these volunteers because they have elected to follow these topics.  They are filtered out from the many other questions.

I hope you are not too frustrated here.  I would give the topic a couple of days to get the help you are requesting.  Leave it open so it can get to the help you requested and it can help others who run into simular situations.

See also

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Arborists

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Irish_Roots

 

 

 

Answer 2

Tim,

I've seen the issue arise when it is not evident what date format the writer of the source document used. The fact that past generations or current writers have not universally used DD/MM/YYYY may account for the “date” difference. Also, interpreting someone's handwriting will always be subject to just that, --interpretation. Then there are the conflicts between date of baptism being used for D.O.B., as well as date of funeral or burial being given for D.O D..

Comments

George, I'm sure that accounts for some of it, we still see folk who place month before day, and there is also the question of when a new year begins. For most of us it is the 1st of January, but that has not always been so.

However, that hardly explains a lady having 9 children by the age of 22, and none of them multiple births. More like having a litter than a family, or the man who fathers a child 30 years before the parent was born.

I understand that many Irish records were destroyed or damaged in the past, but it seems that some folk resort to wild guesses to compensate.

---

Tim,

Can you post the profiles of some of the people you are having issues with.  You may have to back down the tree to a solidly sourced profile and then sort through the suggested sources and apply them in proper order.  Death, Marriage, Birth.

I hate wild guesses.

---

Ok, so one of the profiles we are looking at is Edmund Perry b. abt 1599.

Do we have any source documentation? I am finding that only Wikitree has Edmund married to Susannah Sexton.  So can we nail this down with any kind of source other than someone's fantasy tree?