Your confession is noted. :) I jest, but of course it's important to update our genealogical information when we know there is an error. For years I believed that I had an ancestor named Daniel McDaniel who was arrested in Scotland in the 1740s around the time of The Battle of Culloden. He had the choice to be put to death or shipped to the colonies as an indentured servant. He chose the later, ended up marrying his "master's" daughter and many generations later I am here. And there are many online trees (some with sources) that perpetuate this information. Then, a few years ago, I came across a document that a woman had added to FamilyTree and it outlined this story and then proceeded to list all the facts that make this story not true. Truth 1) I have an ancestor named Daniel McDaniel; Truth 2) There was a Daniel McDaniel whose life mostly matched the story; and Truth 3) The two are not the same. The story is good, but it's not my story.
Good job parsing your two Harts and making it easier for other researchers to do the same!
That seems to happen more often than you might think.
I was researching a family a few years ago and could not figure out why things were not adding up. It turned out that two men named "Amasa Nichols" lived in Wisconsin. Their birthdates weren't that close (1844 and 1857), but they still required untangling!
Thanks for the shoutout! Yes, same-name individuals are tricky to begin with, not to mention if their dates were so similar and they ended up in the same town! Great job sorting the two out 👌🏻 (I’m intrigued by the “easily confused” template you mentioned- can this be found somewhere? What a great idea!)
Your confession is noted. :) I jest, but of course it's important to update our genealogical information when we know there is an error. For years I believed that I had an ancestor named Daniel McDaniel who was arrested in Scotland in the 1740s around the time of The Battle of Culloden. He had the choice to be put to death or shipped to the colonies as an indentured servant. He chose the later, ended up marrying his "master's" daughter and many generations later I am here. And there are many online trees (some with sources) that perpetuate this information. Then, a few years ago, I came across a document that a woman had added to FamilyTree and it outlined this story and then proceeded to list all the facts that make this story not true. Truth 1) I have an ancestor named Daniel McDaniel; Truth 2) There was a Daniel McDaniel whose life mostly matched the story; and Truth 3) The two are not the same. The story is good, but it's not my story.
Good job parsing your two Harts and making it easier for other researchers to do the same!
That seems to happen more often than you might think.
I was researching a family a few years ago and could not figure out why things were not adding up. It turned out that two men named "Amasa Nichols" lived in Wisconsin. Their birthdates weren't that close (1844 and 1857), but they still required untangling!
Thanks for the shoutout! Yes, same-name individuals are tricky to begin with, not to mention if their dates were so similar and they ended up in the same town! Great job sorting the two out 👌🏻 (I’m intrigued by the “easily confused” template you mentioned- can this be found somewhere? What a great idea!)
Oh, yeah! I meant to link it:
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Template:Easily_Confused
If you're not super-familiar with using wikimarkup, that page does have some examples for different ways to put it on a profile.
Interesting how one error compounds over time and fascinating to see you discern the two different persons with the same name.