Dubious John Smith Profile

Question

This has come up on the Unsourced List for Co. Laois,  Ireland, probably since January 2013, when it was added by Gedcom. It has no profile manager, and very little information.  The only source I have been able to find is a negative one. His Daughter Smith-36700 has a citation for the 

1880 Census: "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZ8S-51M : 16 August 2017), Mary Oldman in household of William Oldman, Buffalo, Erie, New York, United States; citing enumeration district ED 174, sheet 433B, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,832.

However, looking at the transcription of this, it suggests her Father and mother were born in Scotland, and there is no suggestion of where the possible Irish birth place came from.

Any thoughts of what I can do to clear it up?

Comments

There is a FamilySearch/Family Tree citation on the wife’s profile. There are sources with that, but the data on WikiTree profile differs. If you can determine that sources at Family Tree are appropriate, you could transfer those to WikiTree, and change the locations to be consistent with those sources.

Answer 1

I checked online trees and found the following:

The 1900 Census record for his daughter, Mary Oldman nee Smith, states that her parents were born in Ireland:
"United States Census, 1900", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSXX-G8H : 22 January 2022), Mary Oldman in entry for William Oldman, 1900.

Scotland Census Records for John Smith that are attached to him on Ancestry trees state he was born in Ireland (I used the citation maker, you can copy and paste these if you need them):
1851

* '''1851 Census''': "1851 Scotland Census"<br/>Parish: Irvine; ED: 3; Page: 3; Line: 8; Roll: CSSCT1851_132; Year: 1851; Household Schedule Number: 7; Roll: CSSCT1851_132<br/>{{Ancestry Record|1076|2586850}} (accessed 2 October 2022)<br/>John Smith (22), Coal Miner, head of household on Bridgegate Street, Irvine, Ayrshire. Born in Ireland.

1861

* '''1861 Census''': "1861 Scotland Census"<br/>Parish: Irvine; ED: 2; Page: 33; Line: 1; Roll: CSSCT1861_85; Registration Number: 595; Household schedule number: 225; Roll: CSSCT1861_85<br/>{{Ancestry Record|1080|3000104}} (accessed 2 October 2022)<br/>John Smith (33), Dealer In Polataes, head of household on Bridgegate St in Irvine registration district. Born in Ireland.

1871

* '''1871 Census''': "1871 Scotland Census"<br/>Parish: Dundonald; ED: 7; Page: 11; Line: 22; Roll: CSSCT1871_110; Registration Number: 595; Household schedule number: 74; Roll: CSSCT1871_110<br/>{{Ancestry Record|1104|504893}} (accessed 2 October 2022)<br/>John Smith (45), General Dealer, head of household in Halfway in Irvine registration district. Born in Lanoy, Ireland.

I don't know where Lanoy is in Ireland or if the spelling is accurate.

I can see that the WikiTree profile for her mother also states that there is uncertainty as to whether she was born in Scotland or Ireland.

Comments

Re Lanoy - check these options

https://www.logainm.ie/en/s?txt=Lanoy&str=on&sort=en

Your most likely is probably the townland of Laney in Antrim, now Layd Parish near Cushendall. Scotland is only 20 miles away !

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Thank you, David! I also think that Adam might be correct with that townland.

Answer 2

I looked up some newspaper articles and found Mary had brothers, Joseph, James and John.  Maybe you can find naturalization records for them.

Answer 3

Thank you to those who replied. Looks like I picked a wrong unsourced profile, and got more work than a nice Source-a-Thon participant wants... but I will have a look and see if I can improve it, with your hints.

I did think we had procedures to eliminate these sort of empty profiles being imported into Wikitree, but presume these are more recent than 9 years. It also looks like the original import has been active more recently, but not for a few years.
Thanks again for the suggestions. It'll teach me not to pick any John Smith profiles in the future