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Y, Somme, Picardie, France?

Re: Y, Somme, Picardie, France?

Posted: 30 Jan 2015 9:18PM GMT
Classification: Death
Surnames: Townsend
I am researching my family line on my mothers side, the Townsend ssurname. I have a relative named Henry Townsend that supposedly dies there also. Are you researching the same name?

Re: Y, Somme, Picardie, France?

Posted: 31 Jan 2015 3:23AM GMT
Classification: Query
Hi, Sorry I can't help you with any Townsends, but I'm well acquainted with Y.
Welcome to the weird world of Ancestry's database, which at some point leads everybody to the obscure town of Y in Picardy. As countless posts in this thread will attest, it's a glitch that arose when somebody long ago entered a Y to indicate that a person had died, but they didn't know when, and the Ancestry computer went searching for somewhere in the world called Y. It is a lesson in how small errors propagate through the system and lead to widespread confusion. It would be a great service to us all if whenever anyone encounters Y in their tree, or anything else that doesn't make sense, that they very carefully weed it out. (Also look out for parents who died before their children were born, medieval English records that have been relocated to American states, or any other errors that arise from clicking menus without thinking.) Once these things get into your tree it's a huge job getting them out again.
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