Removing Family from my Tree that is Not correct

Started by Lori Jean McClellan on Wednesday, January 4, 2017
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1/4/2017 at 12:28 PM

How do I remove people from my family tree that are obviously (at least to me) not my relatives?
My family is from England and came here in the late 1880's. All of a sudden there are people with the same last name showing up that were here in colonial America. Nice, but not right.
M

Private User
1/4/2017 at 12:36 PM

You can disconnect them (or have a curator do it for you) if you really feel they don't belong. But there's always the chance that they're distant cousins who got over here first. (Pretty much everybody from the British Isles is "kissing cousins" with everybody else dating back to circa the reign of Edward III, give or take a reign or two. There just weren't enough people to have entirely separate family lines.)

Private User
1/4/2017 at 12:58 PM

If you have not already done so, you might send a message to whoever attached them, asking why that person thinks they belong. It is possible they had info you do not have - but it is also possible they mistakenly interpreted Geni's suggested match as Geni telling them it actually was a match - or just saw similar names.
And/or you might start a Public Discussion from one of the Profiles you feel was incorrectly attached, asking why, explaining why you doubt it truly belongs.

I would not suggest leaving them there just because "there's always the chance that they're distant cousins who got over here first" if no reasons can be found / nobody proposes any sensible justifications for believing it.

If you are a Basic User, you probably cannot cut the connection yourself -- so easiest way is to post a message in: https://www.geni.com/discussions/156925 - include a link to where the connection goes wrong, as well as an explanation of what should be changed / removed and why. And if you have already messaged the Manager and/or Person who attached them and/or you created a Public Discussion from one of the Profiles, mention that and any results or lack thereof (and timeframe - I asked three minutes ago and haven't heard anything is not properly pursuasive; but you should not be expected to wait months, and if you post there, a Curator will probably also check to see if they can find any justification for the attachment before breaking the connection).

Private User
1/4/2017 at 1:05 PM

Something else that gives some new (and not always new!) people trouble is that they don't realize that the purpose of this site is to build one unified world tree, not (or not so much) to maintain separate individual trees. If somebody found a link between your ancestors and the main tree....

You can always ask to have it checked and either verified or disconnected, per Lois' suggestion.

Private User
1/4/2017 at 5:07 PM

An Item for Guinness World Record?
b. 1670 d. 1704
John McDonnell, Sr.

his mother

b. 1553 d. 1702
Penelope FitzMaurice

Private User
1/1/2020 at 1:18 AM

Sir John McDonnell b.1670 d.1704.
His mother Penelope Penelope (O'Brien) McDonnell born 1645, no death date.

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