Help with Anthony Coombs / Antoine Comeau

+5 votes
361 views
I am a direct descendant of this person and his profile was orphaned so I adopted it yesterday.  It was a cut and paste of (http://www.combs-families.org/combs/ms/coombs/03.htm#34 ) this website for the most part.  I am editing the profile now.  There are some good comments and notes on the profile about Anthony Coombs' parentage.

I read the research "Anthony Coombs and his link to the Comeau Family" at http://comeaunet.org/en/anthony-coombs-relation-comeau-family/ and it makes a convincing argument that Anthony Coombs was born as Antoine Comeau.  A descendant of Anthony Coombs and a descendant of Pierre Comeau participated in the Geno2 project at National Geographic and the tests came back with the same paternal branch.

Would you reach a similar conclusion?

Do I disconnect him from his father and change his LNAB?  Or disconnect him from his father and add Comeau to this profile as an other last name?

Any advice is appreciated.

After searching around, there is already a profile for Antione Comeau (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Comeau-280).  Do we merge?
WikiTree profile: Anthony Coombs
in Genealogy Help by Caryl Ruckert G2G6 Pilot (205k points)
edited by Caryl Ruckert

What does Richard Alexander Combs say?  He did the Y DNA test and may be able to give you some insight. 

Thanks Lance.  I will send him a message. Well maybe not..he hasn't been active in over a year.
By the way, I suggest you leave the profiles as they are rather than risking making a change that has to be revisited later...just leave a public comment.  That's why I haven't removed any descendants myself.  I'd rather let a professional genealogist handle that...
I appreciate your perspective but what was his biography does not meet wikitree standards in my opinion.  It was a cut and paste of the research from "Coombs Families of New England".  The footnotes were copied as a "block" and it is extremely difficult to associate the facts with the citation.  So I am going to clean it up and properly source that facts that are there.  I would never remove any meaningful research or notes of course.  But no offense, this profile was/is a mess.  I hope to fix that. :)
One comment kind of bothers me a bit.  "rather let a professional genealogist handle".  I thought that we were all empowered as members to edit and contribute to our families profiles as long as we follow the "honor code"?  I am not a "professional genealogist" at all but I am a thorough researcher. I am an engineer so I naturally question everything and have a good analytical mind.  I am happy to collaborate with any "professional" genealogist that might want to help.  Which is why I made this post.  So are you saying that we should just let it sit there?  Until someone that feels they have the "creds" to work on it?  That just seems antithetical to wikitree to me.   Just my opinion not meaning to offend.

3 Answers

+7 votes
Caryl,

It looks as though my husband hasn't been active in over a year because I do the genealogy for both of us.  You both should contact Whitney Coombs, another WikiTree member, who is writing a genealogy about the family.  My husband's dna has shown that he is, in fact, not a descendant of Pierre Comeau.  In my opinion, the comeaunet website is not well-sourced.  Whitney's profile is at Coombs-1038.

Thanks!
by V Combs G2G6 (8.7k points)
Thanks for the reply!  I will contact Whitney Coombs.  I would like to know what specifically in your opinion wasn't well sourced.  Was the DNA test that was done by them not valid?  I would like to get a consensus one way or the other on this.  I just want it to be factual and correct.
My husband's dna was done by both Ancestry and Family Tree.  On Family Tree he belongs to both the Combs Project and the Comeau Project.  It doesn't appear that he matches any other participants in either of those projects.  However, on Ancestry, he belongs to a large circle of descendants of Joshua Combs, 1764-1853 (profile Combs-1545 on WikiTree).  I have been unable to find any well-sourced material earlier than Reuben Coombs 1723-1770 (WikiTree profile Coombs-537), so I personally don't think that Reuben is a descendant of Anthony Coombs and Mercy Hodgkins (Coombs-538).  Again, Whitney Coombs would be a better authority on this than me.
I appreciate your comments.  I am not convinced about his parentage at all.  I have reached out to Whitney and I look forward to his input.

I am thinking that i will write and source a "Disputed Origins" section and lay out the arguments for Comeau vs. Coombs but leave him unattached from any parents.  Thanks again for your time and attention to his.  :)
So sorry...I didn't mean to offend you...I was referring to my own level of expertise!

Sounds like you have a good handle on how to fix this profile which is, no doubt about it, a mess, and I say go for it! And thanks for your time and patience!
I am so sorry that I got so defensive.  I felt bad after I read it.  Thanks for all you have done to help me.  I am just cleaning it up now and will leave it unconnected as I think that is correct until we can get a consensus on the parents. :)

smiley no problem!

It is cleaned up now.  I am going to follow the excellent advice from SJ and wait a few weeks before moving forward with any changes to his parents. :)
+7 votes
I would not hesitate to make "major changes" to any profile so long as:

1. I have the documentation to back it up. In my mind, that means enough to win in a civil court proceeding.

2. I collaborated. In other words, I posted that I see a problem, I have documentation to fix the problem and before I do the changes, I'm announcing it here. After 2-4 weeks, if no one squaks, I make the changes.

In the meantime, I improve the bio and source away.

In my opinion, disconnecting parents is not a major change it they are unsourced. Actually, that should be the default; no source = disconnect when there is a dissenting source .
by SJ Baty G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)
edited by SJ Baty
Thanks SJ.  Excellent advice.  I appreciate it!
+4 votes
Revisiting this thread.  I did contact Whitney Coombs as suggested and after a month I have not received a reply from him.  However, his comments on the profile state that Anthony Coombs was born in Port Royal about 1661 and he references the census record from Port Royal that lists "Anthony Coombs" as being Antoine Comeau living in the household of Pierre Comeau in 1661.

I am going to move forward and propose the merge with https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Comeau-280.  I have communicated with the PMs on this profile and received a positive response.

I want to keep everyone informed. :)

Caryl
by Caryl Ruckert G2G6 Pilot (205k points)

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