Samuel Graves - This profile is obviously wrong and needs some cleaning

I accept your source and welcome your "tree ironing" on one of my family lines. Have you thought about uploading the Graves Family Association document and using it as "cited sourced facts" for multiple profiles?

I can "make MP" as you work to prevent Mis merges in the future. Just post when ready.

Gratefully ....

Thanks for the reply Erica.

I will start working soon.

Not a bad idea linking the document to the profiles. It should however be done be one of the administrators of these profiles.

I usually only link documents to my own profiles. I am not an administrator to any of these profiles, but seeing such clutter just makes my fingers itch.

I'll think about citing the document though.

I suggest some cleaning before making MP, agree?

I love to see people jump in and fix and improve profiles and parts of the tree. Kudos to you Private User.

Curators in the early American lines, including Erica and me, are happy to help add sources and certainly to MP the corrected profile, as Erica suggested.

Links in About Me are a good start.

Indeed! Tom, this group is not showing accurate relationships to me right now but I am a Graves cousin - I just unlinked previous documents I had uploaded, no longer relevant from the "bad merges.". I've sent you a "collaboration request" although it's probably not technically necessary. Your source compilation is of very good quality and can always be added to from other sources, but I've found it a terrific way to "clean lines" and "source as you go" from using a doc like this for multiple profiles.

Yes, MP once we've got it better sorted - unless there is a similar name in the line that could cause confusion.

Thanks for the nice words Hatte!

I have started to sort thing out, and as I go along there are more relations that are flat out wrong.

Many users get it wrong when the same name crosses generations. If there are 5 consequtive 'Samuels', then one of them is bound to get mixed up chronologically.

In this case though some relations are several generations away from being right.

I've seen worse, though. Some of the Norwegian lines (not famous people) I usually work on have many unmerged, waiting to be approved for merger and wrongly merged profiles. The tree looks like spaghetti.

The only thought running through my head is: "where to begin!!??"

I often MP when there are multiple generations with the same given name and I come in and find them all confused. Once it's straightened out, I hope that MPs and Curator's Notes will prevent them being confused again.

There are some lines, like the Lees of Virginia, that are so daunting that I hesitate to even begin. But most early American lines are fixable and many have excellent sources out there to consult.

Tom follow your source! I often create a new little narrative in the "about" just to keep myself unconfused - parents, spouses, children - and a clickable hyperlink to open up in another window as I work through the generations. You identified a "key" profile - the immigrant - good place to begin. Resolve data conflicts "to source" as you go along.

Erica: Thanks for the tip

That's what I usually do though ;-)

GMTA (great minds think alike).

This turned out to be more work than I thought it would be. Or, more elaborate is the right word, I think.

There's so much to clean up and I find myself spending a lot of time connecting and merging spouses and children of the Graves' to other profiles in the large tree.

Great fun, but a lot of work.

I feel you. If it's a motivation, it should help the sad state of my Graves family tree.:)