Most all genealogists used the FamilySearch website. We also use Ancestry, Find-My-Past, MyHeritage, and a host of other website containing user-submitted family trees.

How many of us look with a careful, critical eye to the information we find amidst the branches on those online family trees? Do we swallow every new name, date and places as if it were “good medicine?” Or do we stop, slow down and ask questions.

I was Internet-searching in the above named databases thinking to further the lineage of James Paschal. Here’s an entry I found on FamilySearch, copied faithfully as I spotted it:

James Paschal

1742 – Midd, NJ

1792 – North, Carolina, Puerto Rico, USA

What on earth was that dear soul submitter thinking??? That’s more than a simple “finger jerk” goof.

The point is here to yes, search those family-tree-user-submitted online databases but consider carefully what you find. At best you’ll find really goofy stuff and at best you’ll find great clues. Not final answers without further research. But you all knew that right?