And laziness begat disregard for the truth. Add anyone. Oh it “must” be them. No one can prove it wrong. The dilemma of copying trees.

Genealogy is hard work. All research is hard work. Multiple sources are needed for an assertion of any event – birth, marriage, death, date of founding, name, full name, name changes, etc. All of life needs multiple sources and one still should not ever say, that’s a fact – never. Facts change.

I have poured years into research and it is like seeing too much time and years of efforts crumble into dust before my eyes.

The first person who put up a tree erroneously conflating John Money with Jacob Money replied to me, “There is nothing you can do; no one can prove me wrong.”

That was not true. It was easy to prove him wrong.

The Last Will and Testament (and other records incl. B,M,Ds) for the State of Maryland are extant – they exist. John Money of Cecil County, Maryland had all kinds of records, birth, marriage, children’s births and marriages etc., but no will in the chronological list of wills in the publication by our much beloved genealogist, Henry Peden. When that list became accessible online via several databases, John Money of Cecil County was not there.

So it was easy for our genealogical fibber to say that John Money must have left Maryland and moved to North Carolina and become Jacob Money, who died in 1811-1813. And, this gave Jacob Money an ancestry.

But at the end of the Maryland Last Will and Testament database are the names and records of the Last Wills of the people who were missed for one reason or another in the initial transcriptions and publications.

John Money of Cecil County, Maryland, died in Cecil County and his will was probated in Cecil County, Maryland in 1795. Jacob Money of North Carolina has records showing him alive until at least 1811. There is another record from 1813 that could be him or his son or a posthumous record.

In my blogs you can find one with documents and details about John Money and my children’s ancestor Jacob, along with the paper records and DNA evidence. Now here is another blog that I have added, documenting John Money’s last will and other evidence to show that John and Jacob are not the same man. This includes a complete copy of John Money’s will from the State of Maryland archives.

John Money 1743 – 1795 of Cecil County, Maryland

“What’s Wrong With The Right Ancestors?” became my motto.

This kind of common genealogical lie was on my mind again after I got an email from our much beloved familysearch Rootstech LDS TCJCLDS…

“Are you related to…?” “Did you know you are related to…?”

The trees on familysearch (which I love so much) connect all trees, and so when I receive this kind of notice about an ancestor, I know someone has posted new information about one of my lines or added another of their fun features, such as a relationship to a famous person.

I have not looked at many of the fun facts for lack of time, though the emails are saved. But Elvis? Sure, I’ll bite, how are we related?

With all the mistakes I have seen in these trees, I know to take the info with a grain of salt. One has to be careful. Besides two people being merged to create a fake ancestor, there are trees with other obvious mistakes and even data that is clearly made up. That was the case with the tree showing that Elvis is my 8th cousin once removed.

Just lies. Fraud would be a better term. Considering the “money.”

It is at times like this that I miss my genealogy mentor, the late Cole Goodwin, Suitland. He has passed now, but he was the first person I would have called at one time. There was a need to calmly lay out all the ways this email from familysearch was so wrong and was so very, very hurtful and how would I hope to correct.

I cried and cried. It is a legacy of disgrace, it is no legacy.

The way this fun feature works is that you click the link in the email and it tells you how you are related to someone. I have my family database, Gedcom, in the database and when someone, anyone, finds new and wonderful data – more ancestors – they add it to the central tree, and this adds to your line of ancestors, because it is your tree as well as the world’s wonderful tree.

But in this case, the MRCA — most recent common ancestors — between Elvis and me are ludicrous.

From the email, one click on the link – “SEE HOW YOU’RE RELATED.”

Then sign in and on the site you click “View Full Relationship” and it shows me my line of ancestors and also Elvis’ back to the MRCA couple.

They are Christopher Graham 1670 – 1746 and his wife Mary Curd 1708 – 1791

According to this tree, Christopher was 42 and Mary was just 4 years old when their son Robert — Elvis’ ancestor — was born in 1712. It shows Mary had reached the ripe age of 7 when their second son — my ancestor William — was born in 1715. Was this a typo or a deliberate lie? Does it matter? Doesn’t anyone check these things?

The websites sometime say, “For entertainment purposes only,” but this was not even entertaining. I burst into tears at how sad it was. Just another lie in today’s world of mega lies.

Try it out and see for yourself. I have screen captures, I have asked for permission to share them. This is the link to the fun feature, from my page where I can share and “copy link”:

https://www.familysearch.org/en/connect/famous/elvis-presley/share/MMSC-81D?cid=rar_copy

Burke’s Peerage, which has researched, chronicled and published the genealogies of the great houses of Europe, has many of these miracle parents. 70-year-old women and 7-year-old little girls having children. Everyone knows it’s silly but no one wants to give up their royal lines.