An Ancestral Juxtaposition

I've reached that point in my endless searching for ancestors that every dangling branch end is a darn brick wall. I often get on Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org and see if any leaves have shaken loose; and like many times before I get excited when I think someone has made a discovery I had yet to find, only to be sadly disappointed when I started comparing the records they did have and see discrepancies that casts doubt on the research. It's so frustrating. 

Let me share with you one of the latest pitfalls I've analyzed and provided the contributor of the tree some feedback. This is why it's so important to put every event detail for every record you think pertains to the ancestor you are looking at into a time and place timeline. This is how you will see when you have facts that put one person in more than one place at the same time. I've seen this pitfall and even done it myself so many times.

I hope she finds this analysis helpful, but I also wanted to share this for my followers to see how easy it is to combine two people and think they are the same. I understand how she did it. Both of these Mattie Smiths lived in the same county at the same time. One with her husband and one with her parents. It would be easy to think these two women were the same, but she missed is described in my analysis below:

Mxxxxxx, I've been looking at your research for Mattie Smith. I was excited when I thought you had discovered who her parents were, but I'm afraid you are combining two women into one. When comparing the records here are the things to ponder. Our Mattie Smith was born February 1883. The Mattie Smith who is the daughter of James Smith was born May 1884. That in itself is a significant discrepancy. That information is further showing two different women because it comes from the 1900 Census where each woman is in a different location at the same time. Our Mattie was then with her husband in 1900 confirming her birth was Feb 1883 and the other Mattie is with her parents in the Indian Census in 1900 confirming her birth as May 1884. Then When I look at the Find-a-Grave memorial you have attached to James Smith I see that attached to him is a daughter by the married name of Mattie Lee. So, unless our Mattie divorced Tom Manning and remarried a man by the name of Lynn Lee and had four children with him and then die in 1938, I don't see that happening. Not only that I know Flora's mother, Mattie, died when she was just a child and then Tom remarried and had other children with the second wife. That information came from Grandma who was aware that Flora's mother died when Flora was a baby and then Flora died when the last baby Geneva was born. I remember them talking about how ironic that was. I don't believe the Mattie Smith you found is our Mattie. I wished she were, but I don't see it unless I'm missing something in the details that you saw and I'm not seeing. I welcome your thoughts on this. I'll keep digging and see if I can find anything, but as of now I haven't. By the way ************ have all done DNA. None of them show Native American, which if the Mattie Smith you found were our Mattie, then Native DNA should have shown up for some of them. I thought you had done DNA, and if there is Native American showing in yours, then I would be looking at the other side of your family. Anyway, let me know what you think. I hope my analysis of the records helps you. Amy

Delivered, 08:31 AM