Have you ever found members of your family inaccurately posted on someone else's family tree on Ancestry.com or some other website? Or seen a photo of one of your relatives incorrectly labeled? It's frustrating, particularly if you contact the originator to explain the error - and nothing happens.

Earlier this year FamilySearch.org opened access to "Family Tree." This feature allows one to connect and collaborate with others who share a family line. I recently browsed the site and found an error.  This fact is undisputed: Patrick Hickey and Julia Ryan were married in Rock County, Wisconsin on 14 April 1856. The problem: There apparently were two couples with the same names living in Wisconsin during that time period.  Someone had connected the marriage of "our" Patrick/Julia to a different Hickey family on FamilySearch. 

About five years ago I'd seen this same misinformation 

(on Rootsweb, as I recall) and e-mailed the party who posted it. The response was unsatisfactory to say the least. The person was certain the marriage record was for HER Patrick Hickey and Julia Ryan. After all, her Patrick/Julia Hickey lived in Wisconsin the remainder of their lives; our Patrick/Julia Hickey later lived in Minnesota. 

While reviewing family history files for the Hickeys and Ryans a few weeks ago, I realized I'd overlooked a piece of excellent documentation: a page in the Hickey family Bible showing Patrick and Julia's 1856 marriage on the fourteenth of April in Janesville, Wisconsin. I e-mailed a photo of the page to the party with whom I'd communicated previously. While the writing is difficult to read, it had the desired result. I no longer find the marriage attached to the wrong tree on FamilySearch. Hurrah!

Now I'm encouraged to persist when I find errors. I may even take the time to report incorrect transcriptions of names in census records.