inconsistencies in the connections outlines

Question

I found the connections to famous people interesting until I tried to follow the path in the tree to gain the names of ancestors and found that they are inconsistent.  Not just in one instance but in all that I checked.  This is disheartening.  Doesn't anyone check these for accuracy before posting them?

Comments

Can you point to a specific example? This might help clarify what sort of inconsistency you are talking about.

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Please give an example.

This morning I was working on a family. I found 4 census records - same location - same people. Four different spellings of the surname. I chose the spelling ʻetched in stoneʻ on the grave of the father. I used that. The link to his death certificate had one of the earlier spellings, but looking at the original I could see the transcription was in error. That spelling matched the gravestone.

My point is - We do check for accuracy, but we only have records that were prepared by humans and transcribed by humans humans years later.

Answer 1

Your post goes right to the core of WikiTree and our Honor Code. Don't be disheartened, you can improve the profiles by collaborating with the profile managers.

Answer 2

Here is one example of what I'm talking about.  While checking the connection of my husband, Ron Schlotter to Johann Wolfgang Goethe, I was going back starting with him so that I could write down the ancestors shown.  When I got to Elizabeth Holm, the connections graph showed her as a brother to John Holm and their parents as Jacob Holm and Anna Rosenbury.  However, working backwards from Ron, Elizabeth and John Holm's parents were shown as Michael Holm and Rebecca Mack.  I checked going the opposite way and did not find any connection to Elizabeth Holm so I am wondering, who does the connections graphs and where do they get their information?

Comments

The information comes from what people have entered. It can be accurate or inaccurate depending on if someone made the correct connections or made a mistake. The new Connection Checkers game (latest link is   https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1746009/new-connection-checkers-game-german-notables ) asks people to check their connections. 

Doing a quick check of the connection path from Thomas Clark Schlotter Jr (Which I assume is your husbands father) shows that John Holm has a son called Jacob Holm who married Anna Rosenbury. The connection finder between people are not always a direct connection and sometimes go up and down lines or through marriages to find the connection. So the path from Thomas Schlotter to Johann Goethe has three instances where the connection is through marriage. There is also three instances where the connection goes through siblings rather than parent to child.