I’ve been feeling niggly about Hints and Tips again lately. Having entered the latest twiglet, great-granddaughter, Ida on my Ancestry tree, I’m now being offered Ida this and that from all over the place, including one in America born in the 19th century. I know the kindly message is merely from an algorithm, but even so it’s a bit of a bind. Chatter on social various social media shows others feel mildly intruded upon by these wildly improbable suggestions, so I’m not alone in my irritation.
I see overtones here of the old days of family history, when the IGI, wonderfully innovative and useful as it was when used with discretion and balance, often saw unwary researchers creating ancestral lines with the most unlikely and unproven relationships. As a tutor, feeling rather like Jack with his beanstalk I toppled more wobbly trees than I care to remember, pointing out that without proof, one can’t claim young Joseph, born Cornwall to Josiah and Josephine Bloggs, normally residing in Glasgow with their 10 other children, just because he seems to have been christened at around the right time.