Why should you use the Relationship Finder with Famous Profiles?

Question

I know many WikiTreer's do not care for using the Relationship finder to find connections to Famous ancestors.  The goal for them is improving and strengthening their branch of the tree, not to play with speculative connections.  

But I find it fun and it spurs my creative thinking when I get bogged down.

In fact, what I have discovered is that I have found my own Gateway Ancestors.  Those ancestors, if proven correctly, would lead to many of my more famous cousins.

For example, many of my connections are through my suspected 3rd Great Grandfather, Uriah Ricker. Uriah has a lot of circumstantial evidence but I have not found definitive  proof.  I am in need of DNA testers to help me confirm his relationship to his only son, Smith Alexander Stills.

I am reminded of this often when I "play" with the relationship finder.  Because Uriah is marked UNCERTAIN, this fact shows up often in the relationship trail produced by WikiTree.

So, even when I take a break to have fun; to gain clarity and focus, I am still working on my branch of our tree.

Answer 1

That's a good reminder. Doing genealogy is like working on a puzzle. When one gets stuck, it always helps to go do something else, even if it's playing. Using one's imagination helps to free the mind which can then potentially help on the original problem.

Answer 2

I use the relationship finder to get my family more interested in genealogy. I agree that it can be speculative in many cases but it makes for great dinner conversation and I think it also helps the younger ones relate to history since you can answer why they did what they did in the context of the times they lived in.