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Why family tree hints go wrong

Guide ยท 4 min readChecked Sources linked at the end

Hints go wrong when they are built from other users' trees: one person's mistake gets copied until it looks like a fact. RootsFree makes hints only from records it searched itself, and grades every fact PROVEN, LIKELY or GUESS.

A fact with a source image attached is PROVEN. A fact inferred from a record is LIKELY. Anything else is a GUESS, and a fact with no source at all is UNSOURCED.

How to check a hint

  1. Ask where it came from. If the hint is another user's tree, it is a lead, not a source.
  2. Find the record behind it. Search for the census page, the register or the stone. Use /records/ for the free sets.
  3. Read the original. Open the image. Do the name, age and place fit the rest of what you know?
  4. Grade it. Tick that you read the original and the fact becomes PROVEN. Otherwise it stays LIKELY or GUESS.

In their own words

It is essentially a giant game of 'Telephone.' If User A makes a mistake in 1998, and User B copies it in 2005, and User C imports it in 2015, Ancestry's algorithm eventually sees that mistake as a 'pattern.'

Family History Foundation, read

Never, EVER, blindly accept hints

DNA eXplained, read

I wish there was a way to say to ancestry "I've viewed this tree already don't send me anymore hints from it

r/Genealogy user, read

Questions

Are all hints wrong?

No. Hints that point to a record, such as a census page, are often right. Check the image before you accept it.

Where do RootsFree hints come from?

Only from records the site searched itself, never from other users' trees.

Go to the records

Related guides

FamilySearch vs Ancestry: what users sayFree records versus a paid index. What r/Genealogy users say about each, quoted with links. Find a Grave: how to use it wellFree to search. Memorials are volunteer work, so check dates against the headstone photo and other records. 1950 census: how to search it freeFree at the National Archives, no account. Search by name and state, or by place when the name index misses.