Advice before contributing to this pre-1700 Champernowne profile?

Question

Hi,

I would like to contribute some information to this pre-1700 profile for Elizabeth (Courtenay) Champernowne, but am unsure if the online source I've found would be considered reliable or not. I do also have a second-hand source from a written family tree created by my mother's cousin, but there were no official sources or records given to us with it.

The online source is this website: William of Normandy Genealogy. It lists birth, death, and marriage dates where known, and I have followed it reliably back to Elizabeth from two of my direct ancestors in the Rutland 18 section, cross-referencing where I can with GRO online index records for births and deaths. For Elizabeth, it gives a birth year of 1677, which is the same as the date on her profile.

Any advice on whether I can use this source or if I should contact one of the pre-1700s Project Leaders would be fantastic. Thank you!

Comments

Hi Lizzie,

This Help page may answer your question: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Pre-1700_Profiles#Cite_reliable_sources

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Oh thank you, that's very useful to know!

Answer 1

Hi Lizzie

Although some online genealogies of descendants of royal families, will give a list of sources consulted, very few of them, like the William of Normandy Genealogy, actually cite sources for individual facts. Which means it's difficult to work out whether the sources they have used are reliable.

I think it would be much better to do what you have already been doing and use it as a guide, and confirm the details with other more reliable sources if you can.  I'd definitely never use it to create a new pre-1700 profile.

Edited to add that the very first section or William of Normandy Genealogy Conqueror 1 has many errors.

Comments

Ah thank you, I'll keep it just as a guide in that case!