Do any of your Family Lines in FamilySearch Family Tree
Go Back into Medieval and Royal Lines ?
| Thursday, November 10, 2016, The Ancestry Insider Medieval and Royal Lines in FS Family Tree Back in August Sharon Cross told me she had looked into her tree on FamilySearch. One branch extended to Richard I, the Lionheart (L6YS-KBW) through Roger Plowden (LCZ4-JT1). This threw a red flag, as Richard is known to have had no children—well, no legitimate children. Sharon double checked and found only one illegitimate child is attributed to Richard: Philip of Cognac, not Roger Plowden. She went on to say : On FamilySearch I counted over 85 couples listed as some form of his parents’ names (Henry II Plantagenet King of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine Queen of England). There are at least 3 forms of Richard’s name, and one of them has his wife (Princess Berengaria de Nararre) written as Mrs. Richard 1. When you click on her name, her occupation is listed as “concubine”; no sources listed. HA! All of this has me just speechless. |  |
Let me say it for you. Medieval and royal lines are known to be among the worst in Family Tree. I counted 475 copies of Richard. I would expect a similar number for his parents. There are probably a quarter million persons in this category.
If there are 475 copies of each, there are 119 million persons in Family Tree that need to be cleaned up. FamilySearch can’t expect users to do that much.
Now that “Individuals of Unusual Size” no longer preclude merges, FamilySearch can write a program to merge high confidence European matches among pre-1500 persons.
If they could get the number down to a million, users could take it from there.
Back in the old days, FamilySearch knew there would be havoc if they allowed just anyone to submit these family lines into Ancestral File.
They ignored any submissions of persons previous to 1500.
They had a medieval research unit at the Family History Library that took the few accepted sources, carefully curated the lines, and added them to Ancestral File.
With Family Tree, the philosophy is that anyone can add anything to the tree. And they have.
Fortunately, FamilySearch has published the medieval unit’s research in the FamilySearch Genealogies > Community Trees collection.Another well-sourced, pertinent community tree is
While I’m talking about them, FamilySearch used to have a list of the community trees and a link for searching each. I wish they still provided that. Unless you know the identity of a person in one of the trees, it is impossible to find the tree. Here are a few I’ve stumbled across:
Actually, they still have a list in an article in the wiki.
They just need to use it.
Are there any volunteers who would like to fix the links for the trees above?
That would be a start.
If there are 475 copies of each, there are 119 million persons in Family Tree that need to be cleaned up. FamilySearch can’t expect users to do that much.
Now that “Individuals of Unusual Size” no longer preclude merges, FamilySearch can write a program to merge high confidence European matches among pre-1500 persons.
If they could get the number down to a million, users could take it from there.
Back in the old days, FamilySearch knew there would be havoc if they allowed just anyone to submit these family lines into Ancestral File.
They ignored any submissions of persons previous to 1500.
They had a medieval research unit at the Family History Library that took the few accepted sources, carefully curated the lines, and added them to Ancestral File.
With Family Tree, the philosophy is that anyone can add anything to the tree. And they have.
Fortunately, FamilySearch has published the medieval unit’s research in the FamilySearch Genealogies > Community Trees collection.Another well-sourced, pertinent community tree is
- Europe. Royal and Noble Houses. Date range: 400s–1900s by Roberta Dodge.
While I’m talking about them, FamilySearch used to have a list of the community trees and a link for searching each. I wish they still provided that. Unless you know the identity of a person in one of the trees, it is impossible to find the tree. Here are a few I’ve stumbled across:
- Community Trees - Pacific Islands. Cole-Jensen Collection. Date range: 100s–1900s. - https://familysearch.org/search/tree/results#count=20&query=+subcollection_id:MMDJ-MXC
- Community Trees - United States. West Virginia. Jackson County Pioneers. Date range: 1700s–1900s.-
https://familysearch.org/search/tree/results#count=20&query=+subcollection_id:MMDX-4RK - Community Trees - Jewish Families (Knowles Collection). North America.- https://familysearch.org/search/tree/results#count=20&query=+subcollection_id:MMD6-R4C
- Community Trees - Canada. Ontario. York. Toronto. Young Family. Date range: 1800s-1900s. -
https://familysearch.org/search/tree/results#count=20&query=+subcollection_id:MMDX-42K - Community Trees - United States. Oregon. Hood River. Date range: 1800s–1900s. - https://familysearch.org/search/tree/results#count=20&query=+subcollection_id:MMDX-4PK
- Community Trees - United States. Tennessee. Campbell County. Date range: 1700s–1900s. -
https://familysearch.org/search/tree/results#count=20&query=+subcollection_id:MMDX-4P1 - United States. Washington. Lewis County. Date range: 1700s–1900s. -
https://familysearch.org/search/tree/results#count=20&query=+subcollection_id:MMDX-4RC - Community Trees - Latin America. Rose Hinton Collection. Date range: 600s-1900s. - https://familysearch.org/search/tree/results#count=20&query=+subcollection_id:MMD6-B9C
- Community Trees - United States. Idaho. Gooding. Hagerman Valley. Date range: 1800s–1900s. -
https://familysearch.org/search/tree/results#count=20&query=+subcollection_id:MMDX-4G1 - Community Trees - Canada. Quebec and Maritime Provinces. Date range: 1100s-1900s. - https://familysearch.org/search/tree/results#count=20&query=+subcollection_id:MMDX-421
- Community Trees - Norway. Hordaland. Austevoll Clerical District. Date range: 1600s–1900s.-
https://familysearch.org/search/tree/results#count=20&query=+subcollection_id:MMD6-PZC
Actually, they still have a list in an article in the wiki.
They just need to use it.
Are there any volunteers who would like to fix the links for the trees above?
That would be a start.