Robert Kent, of Winterbourne Dauntsey - Parents Need Sorting

Hello Debbie, I agree, it's a muddle, sadly not unusual on Geni because people can freely merge the trees of non-matching families without even notifying the profile manager/s. The suffix 'of Winterbourne Dauntsey' was added to try and prevent this, but still someone thought he was born and died in Virginia!

I created this profile originally, based on research which is referenced and linked to in the overview I wrote. This Robert Kent was the son of another Robert Kent of Winterbourne Dauntsey. As the suffix suggests, the family lived in Winterbourne Dauntsey, Wiltshire, England, just 20 miles from where I live. His mother was Dorothy.

The source for this is Wiltshire Notes and Queries p.232 (the link to this page https://archive.org/details/wiltshirenotesqu07deviuoft/page/232/mod... is in the overview) where, speaking first of his father, it states: "We now return to Robert Kent, of Winterbourne Dantsey [sic], Wilts, gent, (third son of Thomas Kent, of Newton Tony), who, after being imprisoned for his services to Charles I, died in or about 1658. By his wife, Dorothy, he had three sons and one daughter." This source names all the children, amongst them "Robert Kent, of Winterbourne Dantsey ; living in 1687. By his wife, Elizabeth, he left three sons and three daughters" then it names his children as Robert, John, Richard, Jane, Anne and Dorothy.

It's very difficult to separate trees that have been merged, so it will need a Geni curator to sort out the muddle (as they have done in the past with this family) and perhaps lock the fields so that they can't be altered without approval.

Kind regards

Margaret Helen Buchanan (original profile manager, now one of six)

Thanks for responding, Margaret.

Yes, the problem with bad merges leaving conflicting parents like this is the most common issue I encounter on Geni. I think having a curator lock them down is a good idea, to prevent repeated issues.