From a while back…still stand by this advice.
An online tree indicates that an aunt of mine was married in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, in 1869. The only source that tree has for this date are two other online trees. There is no additional information to indicate how the information was obtained–no minister or justice of the peace name is listed, no church, address, etc. A search of extant Hamilton County marriage records did not locate the marriage.
The only way I know that my aunt married is because her husband’s full name is listed when she inherits from her brother’s estate in the 1870s. That estate record is my evidence for the marriage and I’m using the date they are mentioned in the court record as a “married by” date.
Update: It’s possible that original tree compiler meant to indicate that the aunt might have been married in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio. The 1869 date may have come from the fact that the brother whose estate this aunt inherited from died in 1869 and that she was probably married before that. It’s possible those qualifiers of “might” and “before” were stripped. They matter.
One response
Absolutely correct. I NEVER take information from a tree and only use it for a clue until I find sources to verify.
I have a cousin that has our 2x great-grandfather in Tennessee. The name and estimate birth day are correct But he’s not our ancestor. I proved that by tracing this person and he never left Tennessee while Our ancestor was proven in Texas. I tried to explain to my cousin that he had the wrong person.
It was easy for him to make that mistake because they were both name Elisha Augburn Robertson. I surmise they were cousins and were named for an ancestor but haven’t found any proof so far.