What should I do if I believe parents listed for Josiah Lawrence are incorrect?

Question

As I have researched my Lawrence line I have become more convinced that the parents currently linked to Lawrence-4611 are incorrect.  I do not manage any of these profiles and the only sources used are from myself and another treer.  I do not have conclusive evidence at this time that I am correct, but a baptism record from Ancestry Connecticut Church record Abstracts, a "Sons of the American Revolution membership application"  and a number of articles I have found seem to support my findings.  I mentioned who I think the parents are in my research notes on the profile also.  I did reach out to the profile manager and he stated that the tree is correct and no changes need to be made.  I asked about sources and he stated he has family records.  

I would like to correct this tree, and perhaps collaborate on it with another ancestor.  I am looking for suggestions on how to proceed.

Thanks

Comments

Not related to your question, but I'm curious at the removal of "United States" from the birth location field.  It presumes everyone knows where Connecticut is.

---

I didn't do that.  I thought someone else did it because of the time period?  I'm fairly new at this so I didn't know or ask why.

---

The United States didn't exist yet, Melanie.  Maybe it should say Connecticut Colony - there's a rule or a list for that somewhere.

---

Yeah, thanks, Herbert.  I forgot the not existing thing. 

But it should say more than Connecticut, so if adding Colony is correct .. ..  :)

Where's that list?! 

(I am NOT volunteering!)

---

Found it!  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19msdf4uzxBiyIwCSNUBcrHt15Qp-DXpGxBYLp3YWDO0/edit#gid=1136264887

which came from here.

Answer 1

Betsy, you are on the right track.  Gather your evidence and make your case to the profile manager.  If he has other sources not shown on the profile, maybe he can find a way to put them there (e.g., scanning).  'Family records' could mean many things.  We can't evaluate them if we can't see them.

Edit to add - I just noticed the parents named in the bio don't match the connected father.  The sooner that gets worked out, the better.

Comments

I was looking through the changes and it looks like the only source that was there before Betsy added them was a 5 digit number, whatever that represented.  It also appears that the profile had also been marked as unsourced.  I do recommend that Betsy should copy all the information she has entered and paste it in a document for safe keeping, just as a precaution to preserve your work.

---

Herb, along these same lines, the record of one of my ancestors cites only two trees for evidence of parents that I am almost certain are not only wrong, but who did not exist, at least not in the century for which they are said to have lived. One tree cited for my ancestor's father (my ancestor was born in 1692, N. Ireland), a man born in 1960 in Attleboro, Massachusetts.

The other "source" is a tree that has a mother who would have been 60 at the time of her child's birth, in 1670.

The admin of my ancestor's page thinks its ok to include the dubious parents. I do not. I see this wrong information copied over and over with absolutely no evidence to support it and it is being spread as fact all over the internet. What can I do?

---

Hi Robin.  First, I think your issue deserves a G2G question of its own.  You can probably get a lot of great suggestions about dealing with it.

Probably the best thing you can do about dubious parents, especially for pre-1700 people, is demand sources.  Politely, of course.  An undocumented tree does not cut it as a pre-1700 source.  If you can prove with primary sources that the connected parents are impossible, you can disconnect them from the profile and state why in a ==Research Notes== section.  Maybe there's a Project that can get involved with such an early ancestor.  It all depends on facts and circumstances - every case is different.

If the PM refuses to concede to objective facts and insists on maintaining an incorrect and unproven lineage, it might be an Honor Code issue.  A respectful reminder of this in a private message might help.  Or you might need to ask for Mentor intervention.  The one thing you absolutely should not do is try to litigate a profile dispute on G2G.

I hope that helps.  Good luck!