Over 29 years of research things have not always gone smoothly. I've messed up a time or two, but the real scary situations have been the family genealogies that have been researched with a lot left to be desired.
In four cases that I can recall, I lost about 15 believed-to-be ancestral families. Of course, I have picked up at least that many in the process!
Case #1: The St. John Switch: Early St. John research had carried my line through three generations of Mathias St. Johns. Later research spearheaded by James N. Churchyard led to the realization that Samuel St. John was the brother and not the son of the third Mathias. That knocked Mathias III out of thee direct line. Also removed were the BOUTON, MARVIN & GREGORY families. No new families were added until the ancestry of Mathias I came to light. That story has appeared in a few earlier posts.
Case #2: The Hazens and the Mayflower Connection: The authors of the Hazen genealogy had Elizabeth Dart married to John Hazen. A fellow researcher mentioned that there was supposed to have been a Mayflower connection in the family. That led to the discovery that Elizabeth Dart was a Dart by marriage, not by birth. She was a Turner. Seven families initially bit the dust: DART, HOUGH, CALKINS, SPEAKE, PAYNE, EATON & DOUGLAS. One made a return to the fold, DOUGLAS. Several new families joined the tree: TURNER, KEENEY, OLDHAM, SOWTER, GAYMER, MASON & BREWSTER [Mayflower connection]. As for the Douglas family, a son dropped and a daughter added from the same family.
Case #3: The Wrong John Low: Here was an error on my part. I had the wrong John Lew attached to my tree. A little geography lesson put John Low and his wife Elizabeth in the wrong part of Massachusetts! A quick check determined the correct couple. I had John married to Elizabet Stoddard. My John Low actually married Elizabeth Howland. It was an easy fix. Elizabeth was already family. Her brother Arthur was an ancestor. STODDARD & ROGERS went by the wayside. No new families added.
Case #4:The Lockwood Debacle: The Hazen Lockwood effort on the Lockwood family was a complete disaster. The authors claimed Robert Lockwood to be the progenitor of the family in the US. They all but ignored his brother Edmund. As I turned out, Edmund contributed far more to the Lockwood line than did Robert. Robert, Jonathan, Joseph and Reuben were supposed to make up my first four generations. Remove Robert, Jonathan and Reuben. Actually, Joseph was Edmund's son and fit the lineage. His line continued with James and daughter Anna, who married John St. John. Lost families: NORMAN, FERRIS, AYERS & CRAMP. Added: WEBB & NORTON.
16 families went by the wayside, while 9 new families came into the fold. One got dropped, then added back to the tree. That was a lot of research down the tube! The important thing is that errors were corrected.
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