How much certainty to a relationship finder?

Question

How much weight would you give to a relationship finder such as Magna Carta Sureties #12 Saher [[Quincy-226]] and me [[Salvatore-85]]. I truly would love to hear your opinions!

Answer 1

Everything depends on the certainty of the genealogy to the gateway ancestor. Perhaps even some on the far side of that. In your case, no blood connections or indirect connections are found for Quincy-226. All that means is that there may be missing paths in WT (or there aren't any to be found).

Answer 2

It's just an automated way to quickly look through all the relationships that are entered into the WikiTee data base, so the certainty is totally dependent on the accuracy of all those relationships.  When I ran your IDs going back 30 generations, it says that Saier is your 25th great grandfather.  I personally wouldn't have very high confidence in something that distant unless I had somehow verified all those generations myself.

Answer 3

Very little!  Unless your line is through a known/proven gateway ancestor (see here:  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Gateway_Ancestors ), there's a very good chance that there is incorrect information with wrong parents attached somewhere up the line.

If you have an interest in trying to prove one of your lines back to a Magna Carta Surety Baron, the Magna Carta Project is always looking for new members:   https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Magna_Carta_Team_Base_Camp

Darlene - Co-Leader, European Aristocrats Project

Comments

This answer assumes that if your line doesn't pass through a proven gateway ancestor then there's every chance that your line is wrong. It overlooks that many of us can prove our descendancy from a Magna Carta Surety Baron without passing through a gateway ancestor.

Because our ancestors never left England!

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I have to agree with Darlene's very good answer and with the others as well that indicated that the Magna Carta lines returned by RF from you (collectively speaking) to one of the surety barons is almost guarenteed to contain errors and be unproved.  This is particularly true if the gateway ancestor is not one of the 240 Gateway Ancestors documented by genealogist Douglas Richardson.  (MCA, RA) That doesn't mean you should abandon your hopes of a MC connection because these "potential" trails occassionally do pan out.  The challenge however is to "prove" each parent-child relationship between you and your potential Magna Carta ancestor.  And believe me, that can be very challenging since the standards of proof are high and sources can be hard to find.  But if your trail includes a project recognized Gateway Ancestor you are very fortunate because half the work has probably already been done and documented by the MC Project.  

If your relationship finder trail includes a MC surety baron as an ancestor you may want to invest the time in exploring that illustrious connection.  Just be prepared to do some in-depth research to "prove" those potential connections

As Darlene mentioned the Magna Carta Project does have member openings. We currently have two membership levels depending on your particular interest and amount of time you have to invest.  Contact me for details or check out the project page

Magna Carta Project Portal

David Douglass

Magna Carta Project

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David Cooper, I wasn't 'assuming' anything with her question.  I looked at her profile and saw she was an American  . . .   

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Unfortunately, the Magna Carta Project recently got rid of the "Questionable Gateway Ancestor" sub-project, so you might not get much help from the project if you want to explore a potential lineage that doesn't pass through one of the recognized gateway ancestors.

Answer 4

If you want a number, maybe 50% chance of being correct is a good working assumption.

If a specific connection is interesting to you, go through each connection and check them all. This can be a fun experience because you'll learn something about each of those people.

Also, maybe while doing this do the world a favour and add sources and correct mistakes? :)

Answer 5

https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:Relationship&action=calculate&person1_name=Quincy-226&person2_name=Salvatore-85&gen=30

If this line worked, it would also work for William Farrar of Virginia.

Looks like it was dismantled in these previous threads

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/239415/who-is-jane-holland-34-molyneux

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/239283/who-is-margaret-hetton-1

However, all may not be lost.  Richardson's 2011 books only show ancestry for Farrar through his mother, Cicely Kelk.  But the 2013 books have a line through the Lacys, not to any Magna Carta sureties, but to Hamelin and the Countess of Surrey, both Charlemagne descendants (RA Vol IV under Pennington)

https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:Relationship&action=calculate&person1_name=Lacy-344&person2_name=Warenne-12

Which leaves us with the question of whether Margaret (Lacy) and William Farrar had a daughter Agnes who married a Scarborough.

Comments

Find A Grace knows where Agnes is buried

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/50635289/agnes-scarborough

Some sites call her husband Isaac.  Geni knows the answer - William Isaac Scarborough.

Marriage

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N2MC-CX4