White and Cochran profiles are a huge mess

Question

Seriously, the people who are managing the White and Cochran pages that I mention below need to get their acts together, because those pages are a mess:

Adam White [White-12907] is shown married to an Isabella Cochran [Cochran-5593]. Their son, Moses White [White-12910] is shown married to an Isabella Cochran [Cochran-7267], and their other son, Hugh White [White-11959] is shown married to an Isabella Cochran [Cochran-6714].

Now, if this wasn't enough...

Hugh White [White-11959] and Isabella Cochran [Cochran-6714] are shown to have had a son named Moses White [White-2565] who, believe it or not, is shown to have married an Isabella Cochran [Cochran-1075].

The Isabella Cochran [Cochran-5593] married to Adam White [White-12907], according to her bio, was born 2 Mar 1631, in Stow, Midlothian, Scotland, and was the daughter of William Cochran. However, according to Scotland Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950 (Online, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X1BP-579), this Isabella Cochran was only christened on 2 Mar 1631 (not born on that date), and her father was Thomas Cochran (not William Cochran).

The profile page for the Isabella Cochran [Cochran-7267] who supposedly married Moses White [White-12910] gives a bit of info, but cites absolutely nothing.

The profile page for the Isabella Cochran [Cochran-6714] who supposedly married Hugh White [White-11959] gives practically no info in the bio, and cites Find a Grave, "A Line of White" by Jack D. White, and "Descendants of Adam White" (the exact same thing as "A Line of White") by Jack D. White. The bio on this page says that this Isabella Cochran was the daughter of Thomas Cochran and Mary MacKay -- this info is supported only by the Find a Grave memorial page cited, which is wholly unsourced.

The profile page for the Isabella Cochran [Cochran-1075] who married Moses White [White-2565], son of Hugh White [White-11959], cites... wait for it... "First-hand information as remembered by *** (name removed since we aren't supposed to mention living people)". I have serious doubts regarding that citation since *** (according to her profile page) was born in the 1970s; there's no way that she could have given "first hand information" on events that happened more than 200 years before she was born.

Answer 1

A lot of these were probably created by GEDCOM import, and they were probably pulled from bad trees. It's annoying but very common the further back you go. You're more than welcome to go in and make corrections/add sources, even if someone else is managing the profiles. I just spent some time this morning trying to fix someone else's funky line that I came across. At the very least you can add {{Unsourced}} above the Biography line so that it can flag the unsourced profiles.

Comments

Melissa - Thanks for the reply. I've spent quite a bit of time tonight trying to locate sources to cite (primary and secondary) that may help to unravel this mess. Once I feel that I've got a decent grasp on the White and Cochran connections, and decent-enough sources to cite, I plan to go in and try cleaning up these profiles. I don't know if the profile managers will become upset with me changing what they have, but if I am diligent with my research then it will be a heck of a lot better than what they have right now.

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It looks like several of the profile managers haven't even been active in over a month, so you're probably safe. And Moses White has 7 profile managers, so that one has probably been merged several times, which could also explain the mess.

Honestly, I wouldn't care if someone modified the profiles I managed unless it was immediate family or something that I was currently working on. People have messaged me about data errors before, but if the info is wrong, it needs to be corrected regardless of who does it.