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Ancestry "Historical Person Search"

Ancestry "Historical Person Search"

Posted: 8 Dec 2014 9:45AM GMT
Classification: Query
I understand from Ancestry that this particular search has been discontinued, for reasons that were not really explained. So I have 2 questions:
1. does anyone know why it was discontinued?
2. how does one find the sources for the information shown in this type of search, eg, where did Ancestry get the birth details from in the example attached -- all the Ancestry searches I've done do not show it.
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Re: Ancestry "Historical Person Search"

Posted: 8 Dec 2014 12:24PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 8 Dec 2014 12:41PM GMT
If you mean the "my relationship with famous people" search, it was run through the horrid *One World Tree" compilation. OWT was composed of computer-program-selected excerpts from various old Ancestry trees with the addition of many errors created by the program itself. There appeared to be no rhyme or reason for what was selected and what was not.

There were a huge number of genealogical and other mistakes.

OWT has been removed from the Ancestry.com system.

If you search the Rootsweb WorldConnect trees you may find who you are looking for in some tree or other. Most of those trees are full of errors too. There are also other large tree-hosting sites full of mistakes and sourceless assertions, such as the huge Family Tree at familysearch.org (you must register, free, to view the tree system). At least one fee-based tree-hosting site claims to search for famous-person connections of the user, within specific categories, such as Presidents. No such site is free of mistakes.

Really, there are no shortcuts to accurate genealogy. If you do careful research you may find a connection with some famous person, or disprove a connection invented within family lore.

Re: Ancestry "Historical Person Search"

Posted: 15 Mar 2015 5:29PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 15 Mar 2015 6:20PM GMT
"or disprove a connection invented within family lore"

Actually, straight-up historical research may handle that for you. In my family, there is a story that my great grandfather was part of a posse that captured Black Bart, the stage robber. I determined that it could not possibly be true, because there is a well documented history of how he was captured (not by a posse - he was tricked into revealing himself while engaged in his "double life" as - supposedly - a wealthy mine owner who lived part time in San Francisco, a pretense he kept up with the proceeds from the stage holdups).

I also determined, however, the likely source of the legend - it is documented that he robbed a stage about five miles from where my great grandparents lived, and was chased by (not caught by) a posse of local men, which certainly could have included my great grandfather. My dad was a little disappointed with the real facts, but interested to know what likely actually happened.

Re: Ancestry "Historical Person Search"

Posted: 15 Mar 2015 5:48PM GMT
Classification: Query
Family Lore that links a particular family to an historical figure can be of long standing. When I married my husband 55 years ago he told me that one of his family lines was descended from Robert Fulton, the steamboat inventor. When I started genealogy research a number of years ago, I quickly disproved that. However, his family does not believe me. That story was long standing as I was sent a family history that appeared to have been written nearly 100 years ago and that story was already there.

In my own family, my grandmother said that we were related to "lloyds of London" and she meant the insurance company. I found that we were related to a Lloyd of London but he was definitely not the insurance type. In fact he had been transported to the American colonies in 1724 as an indentured servant.
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