I complain (a lot!) about sloppy research by others and how it is posted and reposted online without care it seems. Why do I bother to look at other people's research? Because it can provide clues.
I found a tree for a 4th great grandfather on my husband's side that had information I have never seen before. I wondered where the information came from. The tree had one source linked to it. That source sent me on a treasure trove of information.
That source was from the War of 1812. It was a pension index card.
I have a subscription to Fold3 which I haven't been all that happy with as I haven't ever found anything of real value in my opinion there. That changed last night.
I found the entire pension file for the 4th great-grandfather. His wife, my husband's 4th great grandmother, filed in 1819. Now I had documents for information in the family tree I found plus more.
One of the grandmother's sisters provided an affidavit for the marriage of the veteran. Now I had her married name and location in 1819. That led to census records and finally her family information.
I am now building a family tree for the 5th great grandparents, parents of the 4th great grandmother.
All because I took the time to investigate a clue from a family tree posted online.
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