Should two undocumented sons of John Perkins be eliminated?

+5 votes
185 views
In November 2015, Henry Chadwick suggested that two of the children listed for John Perkins do not belong. He gave as a reference Anderson's Great Migration Begins, page 1432. I recommend that we merge the profiles for Abraham Perkins and Henry Perkins into one of other son's profiles. Does anyone object? (I've sent a private message to the profile manager for their two profiles asking if she has any sources for them.)
WikiTree profile: John Perkins
in Genealogy Help by Kay Wilson G2G6 Pilot (218k points)
Hasn't time already done that ;)
If we merge them away, they'll likely come back again. Instead, detach them but link to them in narrative of false father. And put warnings on their page with the "questionable" template with explanations d narrative link back to false father.
Abraham and Henry aren't connected to anyone else but John and his wife. It seems kind of a shame to leave them sitting out there attached to no one. Do you think that if their non-existence is explained fully on the profiles of John Perkins and Judith Gater, that would be sufficient?
I have no problem with leaving "disputed existence" profiles "out there". The "single family tree" we are shooting for is of real, documented people. I see no reason why we should feel bad that there are disconnected profiles when those profiles are of people who did not exist but who we keep in the system so that they are not recreated with yet another GEDCOM upload. Leaving them connected to the Tree perpetuates the myth that they are real. The general bias against disconnected profiles should not trump accuracy. That's my thinking anyway.

1 Answer

+4 votes
I am very familiar with the Hillmorton Parish Registers, as I am the one who set up that parish on Wikitree and added all of the extant early registers.  I just added links to the baptismal registers for all of the children except Abraham and Henry.  I checked every year for them (within reason), and neither their births nor their deaths are contained in the Registers.  These registers are very complete for the years covered, so I believe that if they are not there, they didn't exist.  John arrived in America with 5 children, and all of them have been accounted for without Abraham or Henry.

On John's profile, I separated Abraham and Henry from the proven children.  As they have no other links, I'm not sure that they would be added back except that the "documentation" for them is an online tree, which might just regrow branches. Perhaps leaving them attached, with a note that they probably didn't exist, would be best.
by Vic Watt G2G6 Pilot (358k points)
On your last sentence, Vic, I respectfully disagree. See my comment above.
I really have no problem disconnecting Abraham and Henry, but I certainly would leave references and links to them in the Bio.

Related questions

+5 votes
3 answers
+7 votes
0 answers
+7 votes
2 answers
+4 votes
1 answer
537 views asked Dec 7, 2018 in Genealogy Help by Traci Thiessen G2G6 Pilot (295k points)
+4 votes
2 answers
+6 votes
1 answer
324 views asked Jul 30, 2016 in Genealogy Help by Kay Wilson G2G6 Pilot (218k points)
+5 votes
0 answers
197 views asked Jul 30, 2016 in Genealogy Help by Kay Wilson G2G6 Pilot (218k points)
+8 votes
2 answers
+7 votes
3 answers

WikiTree  ~  About  ~  Help Help  ~  Search Person Search  ~  Surname:

disclaimer - terms - copyright

...