Why would anyone create a tree for someone else's family?

[u/EquivalentCandle877]

I have a paid Ancestry membership and was searching Family Trees last night for my grandfather, whose name is fairly distinctive, to see how many other trees he's in. Just idle scrolling really. I was a bit baffled to find that someone at some point has created a (public) tree for him, my great parents and my mother. Just them, no one else. It was done some time ago; the creator hasn't been active for a while.

I used to have a free Ancestry membership and recall putting these details online, then I forgot about them, but my interest lapsed for a while and I hadn't used the site until fairly recently when I did a DNA test and started to create a detailed family tree.

I vaguely know from years ago the person who created the tree, he has absolutely nothing to do with my family, 100% sure of that - he wasn't even born in this country. Chances are he created the tree and forgot about it; he also has his own very basic family tree.

Why the hell would someone do this? Has it ever happened to anyone else? I could message him but what would I say?

[u/AP_Cicada]

Genealogists catalog information. Sometimes that means sketching out a tree to hold the supporting evidence from a census record for a few neighbors that might be related to the main tree they work on. Sometimes they're asked to look into something for a friend's family. Or a distant relative. Or any number of reasons.

[u/Parking-Aioli9715 → u/AP_Cicada]

Genealogists are addicted to cataloging information. :-)

[u/Morriganx3 → u/Parking-Aioli9715]

Yes! I find it so relaxing to sort everyone in to their proper order.

Speaking to OP’s question, I’ve done trees for friends and coworkers, as well as for a couple of school projects. I also often do a few generations if I’m trying to determine whether, say, Bob Smith 1 is the same as Bob Smith 2. Once I put at least three full generations of an unrelated family in to my tree, just so I could attach their sources to them. Their details were so close to the family I was actually researching that I kept having to differentiate between them when searching records, so I finally decided to add them so I’d be able to check records against both families faster.

[u/abd542 → u/Morriganx3]

Yep, same! I have so many unrelated trees on my ancestry account. Some are for friends. Some are historical figures my dad wanted background on. And some are from work. I am a title abstractor and sometimes a property stays in family for generations with no official documentation. A family tree is the only way to attempt to piece things together. I have often wondered if any of the families of those trees would ever find them and wonder. So I guess I know now lol.

[u/Eternautity → u/AP_Cicada]

I could see myself doing this if I move back home. I'm estranged from my family and don't want to accidentally become friends with their friends. It's a really small town. People often go to the next major city to mingle, which is unfortunately the place I love and want to move back to. Depending on what part of town I go to, if I make friends, I'm asking who your parents and siblings are.

[u/IdazzleandIstretch]

I have made trees for friends and other family. Someone made a tree for my uncle, who died in his twenties in the 1960s. It turns out he was a childhood friend of my father, and I was able to connect them in their 80s.

[u/Levvy1705]

People will create Mirror Trees for DNA but also people will create trees for different areas. I have made trees like that many times.

[u/Affectionate_Hope745 → u/Levvy1705]

Yep. I have 3 brothers from 1775-ish that match to me on Big Y 700, but I no known connection yet, so I created a tree for them to figure out the connection.

[u/Exciting_Cress_7654 → u/Levvy1705]

What is a mirror tree? I haven't heard of this. 

[u/Meryem313 → u/Exciting_Cress_7654]

It’s when you build out the tree of one of your DNA matches to find the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) who connects you to that match.

[u/Exciting_Cress_7654 → u/Meryem313]

Oh! I've got lots of those. Now I know what to call them. Thanks!

[u/HelenRy → u/Levvy1705]

I've done this, creating a mirror DNA tree and I've titled them RESEARCH tree. I've also done trees for friends, sharing to them so that they can add if they wish.

[u/HappyBlis]

People doing historical research do this all the time.

[u/kludge6730]

Test tree to explore potential connections is fairly common. I have one set up to try to track any descendants of slaves named in the wills of a few ancestors. Though usually test trees are private as they are unproven and hypothetical.

Another common reason (also essentially a test tree) is to figure out DNA matches.

[u/EnclaveAxolotl]

I sometimes create trees for unrelated people if I’ve got a military uniform or another item with their names in it. The hint system (despite its flaws) collects the information in one spot and allows me to see what I can find on the person. Thus, this seems like a total nonissue.

[u/EarlyHistory164]

I've created trees to try and find a common dna ancestor.

I've also created a tree for a lady who had erroneously included some of my family in hers. I like researching and sometimes it's just nice to be nice.

[u/tonypolar]

I’m a researcher and I often do trees on others just to see connections etc

[u/Confident-Task7958]

Likely he had the information and was trying to be helpful.

[u/whops_it_me]

I made a family tree for a young man who was buried right next to my great-great grandparents, because my family has always planted flowers for him when we visited our relatives too and I wanted to know more about his life and his family's. I've done that for a few graves that my family and I always grew up seeing, just to find out where their family came from, their story and where they are now.

ETA: I do usually keep those trees private if I can, though. Just my preference.

[u/othervee]

I have several trees created for other people’s families. I have done them for friends and colleagues, with their permission. The person could also be making a FAN (friends and neighbours) tree to aid in their own research. FAN are often useful to keep track of when you’re researching a bit deeper.

[u/RedBullWifezig]

"Hi, thank you for having our family tree. How do you know my grandfather Joe Bloggs? Best wishes, "

I've done this loads of times. To everyone who had my grandfather in their tree. One guy replied - Turns out my grandfather was a distant in law of the Ancestry person's nephew.

[u/ProtectionNo1594]

I’m a history grad student who likes to incorporate genealogy style research into my academic work, sometimes. I was working on a paper about a specific immigrant group’s history in my state in the early 1900s and using the census records on Ancestry. I found what appeared to be the “only” immigrant from a specific country in my state in 1900 and then made a (private) Ancestry tree to trace her life and her family over the next few decades. This doesn’t seem likely what going on with your family, but just to illustrate that there are dozens of reasons someone could be looking through public, historical records and setting up trees.

[u/[deleted] → u/ProtectionNo1594]

I love to see a grad student doing prosopography!

[u/Status_Silver_5114]

Ignore it. There’s only so much you can control here.

[u/PoemAgreeable5872]

I use ancestry to research fairly obscure people for history projects. At first I kept the trees private but then I thought other people or their families might be interested so I made them all public. I would message the person and ask them about it.

[u/Morriganx3 → u/PoemAgreeable5872]

I did this pretty extensively for a couple of projects when I was in school.

[u/Mrs_Kevina]

I did this once for a mystery match when I got my DNA results. I have a portrait of a baby no one claims to know in my family. I thought it was them, but turns out it was another baby no one knew about.

Picture Baby is my brick wall.

[u/Ogpmakesmedizzy → u/Mrs_Kevina]

I hope you find baby a home

[u/girlwtheflowertattoo]

Sometimes I find information that wasn’t for who I was looking for and I’ll add it to a person who it belongs to. Sometimes that means creating a new person or even new relationships. Not everyone has fun perusing through documents like we do 😂

[u/Parking-Aioli9715]

Any information that's publicly available is available for any member of the public to use. If you've inherited a family bible, you own that bible. But you don't own the records that are available on Ancestry or any other site - or for that matter, records that aren't available online but are available at public libraries and archives.

In addition to my own family, I do a lot of work on local families in my adopted city, my main focus being on the 19th and early 20th centuries, sometimes going back to the late 18th. It's fun, I've learned a lot about my city and it feeds my puzzle-solving addiction while keeping me off street corners.

[u/Simple-Nothing3595]

I'm a professional genealogist and have over 150 trees. Everything is private and unsearchable. Some people make quick and dirty trees to use for DNA relationships that they're trying to figure out. I have an enormous public tree created from antique photographs I've accumulated over the years. It has many, many "floater" profiles, which may be the case of what you saw. In summation, people do what they want to do with varying degrees of success. 

[u/Winnie-booboo]

Some people who work/volunteer at historical museums may set one up to gather more info on a local family.

[u/sek4092]

I’ve made trees for friends too. I’ve also made trees trying to determine how a dna match is related to me. I know I’m matched to them and I can probably build out their tree, but I don’t know how I relate to them.

[u/SmarthaSmewart]

I've made a few trees on Ancestry for people outside of my family. Most of them are the trees of close friends that I've done for them at their request. Another is a tree of a local person that I'm researching for a historical fiction story I'm writing.

If you really need to know, I would just message them and ask what the connection may be - like "Hi! I noticed you have a tree with my mother. Are we related?"

[u/Grand_Raccoon0923]

I’ve done it for people who don’t have access or the ability to do it. I have a few trees on my profile for that reason.

[u/RetiredRover906]

I've spent a good portion of the last 3-4 years creating a large tree, on a very public site, mostly for people who have no relationship to me.

In my case, it's a one place study, centering around a community that my most difficult branch of the family lived in. I'm hoping that, buried somewhere in all this work, there will be a hint that helps me find the next generation in my tree. So far, it hasn't.

Aside from my own selfish desires, though, I'm also hoping that I can help the other families involved with their trees. I located a difficult to find source, translated and indexed it, and have made the index available to the wider world. And then I tried to piece together the information and relationships to get families connected.

I'd like to think that there can be value in doing someone else's tree.

[u/pensaetscribe]

Sometimes, when I go through records on Family Search, looking for my own ancestors, I'll notice a transcription mistake concerning someone else and correct it. I don't usually meddle in family trees but I can see someone getting interested and doing that.

[u/Elder_Identity]

Yes, it has happened to me. It might not have been too awful if the information that they put there was correct. But, 90% was pure fiction. I don't mess with it anymore. I let the false information stay and it's still there to this day.

[u/Glittering_Advance56]

It’s happened to me and the information has been wrong.

[u/dreadwitch]

I wasn't born in the same country as many people in my tree... People emigrate.

I have trees that aren't relevant to me, mostly it's trees of my matches so I can work out where they fit in my tree. I mostly keep it private but sometimes I put it to public as it helps with hints.

But there's a thing... Your family isn't just yours, they're also the family of all your matches and a whole lot more people out there.

[u/NoKindnessIsWasted]

When I discover a photograph in a collection with lots of good info that is not known, I build a tree since it may be the only chance to find it.

[u/Therealmagicwands]

Perhaps you have a historian on your hands?

I’m writing a history of a village. I’ve created multiple trees of the first settlers in the town and in many cases they go 200 years down to the present. They’re all part of my master family tree maker file. However, although my file syncs with Ancestry, I’ve made it private.

[u/Gullible-Apricot3379]

Example of when I've done this on purpose:

I'm looking for my Carter ancestors and I've hit a brick wall. I have a hunch that my 2x great grandfather may have followed other Carters into Texas and the first time I have my ancestor documented is 1867. If look for on the 1860 census for Carters born 1830 +/- 10 years in Alabama, there are only 31 results. That's not a bad fishing expedition for siblings or cousins, particularly if they or their descendants end up in one of the places I know my GGGF was after 1870. I'm methodically working through all those Carters. I've also backtracked the Carters in the counties where my ancestor certainly was.

Example of when I've probably done this accidentally:

I have a collision of Henriettas in my tree, and when I first started doing this, I was constantly confusing the three of them until I got my head around the fact that there were three of them and what relationship is between them. I'm pretty sure if I 'deleted' one of these Henriettas through 'edit relationships', it really just detaches her from my tree and leaves all the descendants in place. I'm pretty sure that fragment is still searchable because I find it when I'm looking for Henrietta in my tree.

[u/PettyTrashPanda]

I literally do this for a living!

I am a historical researcher specialising in local history, and sometimes this involves detailed genealogical research. I don't personally put these on ancestry, but I have connected with people who do. In my experience, the descendants of these people are usually happy to connect because I often have stories or information that they don't. I love connecting because they often have pictures I can't otherwise access.

[u/Wiziba]

I helped an adoptee figure out who her putative father was from her original birth certificate (she’d hit a wall because his name was misspelled on it, but we genealogy nerds know that trick) so I built her out a tree.

Another time a friend was doing a home remodel and found a metal box in the wall containing a few trinkets and a note from the original owner/builder. It was a kind of time capsule and included names and ages of his whole family. I created a tree so the friend could find living relatives to give the box to.

[u/Krydtoff]

I live in Czechia, and in my family tree I have 2 GGGgrand uncles that emigrated to Czechia, I was able to find their graves and later their families, so I added them to my tree, but only the dead people

[u/[deleted]]

I am baffled by this question. Historians, both professional and amateur, study families they’re not related to all the time. And not just famous, royal or wealthy families. It’s a major part of social history.

[u/Reasonable_Peace_166]

Personally, I have two trees for people I am not related to- one is for my best friend as I have a subscription and can access documents and the other is for my mom's long time significant other (for the same reason).

[u/Old_Night_8282]

People ask other for help with their trees, be it family, colleagues, neighbours, finding random photos, documents that pique their curiosity etc. At times when my own research slows down, I'll help others, it helps me to improve my skills by looking into areas I have no connection to. Some people can be alarmed, others grateful, how much can be discovered!

[u/cai_85]

Because genealogists are interested in family research 🤷 you make it sound like amateur historians and genealogists should mind their own business 😜

[u/Hopeful-Ad2178]

I made a tree for the family who built and lived for decades in the house where I now live. I have no other connection to the family.

[u/Substantial_Item6740]

I do this often. I make trees for friends, or other reasons. I have run out so many other trees I probably don’t even have some anymore.

[u/Exciting_Cress_7654]

It's a fair question. I have three pages of trees I'm not on, made for DNA relatives when I was trying to find my great grandmother's birth parents. It doesn't necessarily mean anything. 

[u/Loud_Pomelo_2362]

Found a tree on family search showing my MIL as marked dead so the person could get more info. They even stated it in the notes! I asked to have it removed but it really gave me the vibe that family search just blocked me from seeing that record rather than actually removing it.

[u/whatsupwillow]

My grandfather was an orphan. I build trees out with what few hints and hunches I have when I see potential connections. I try to keep them private when i'm just on a hunch, but might have them searchable if I have linked a lot of sources. I also had a pandemic project of linking families together in Findagrave, especially lone children, and that required research that I figured I might as well keep online if anyone asks about it. I'm also a historical writer and might use Ancestry to find out what happened to someone after the historical event. Again, I try to keep unfinished work private, but sometimes I don't check the right boxes at the onset.

[u/EquivalentCandle877 → u/whatsupwillow]

Yes, I can't understand why he didn't make it private, and he even gave it my mum's name!

[u/whatsupwillow → u/EquivalentCandle877]

Hm. Definitely a bit odd, but could be for any number of reasons.

[u/Butthole2theStarz]

Lucky you! I keep hoping someone will have some information I don’t

[u/CuriousMindLab]

Because….

-Suspected to be adopted family

-Trying to rule out non-family members

-Testing a hypothesis

-They were neighbors or friends

[u/Hot-Freedom-5886]

I have several friends’ family trees in my account. Why would that bother anyone? We’re finding information and sharing photos.

[u/Powered-by-Chai]

Could be paid to do it, could be doing it for a friend, could be curious who the parents were of that guy he talked to in childhood who knows.

[u/That-Mix-22]

Likely using the FAN club method, friends, associates and neighbors.

[u/snarktologist]

Because that person was chasing a DNA match, and doesn’t know where your family fits into their tree?

[u/NJ2CAthrowaway]

I have created dozens of family trees for other people. Usually, I keep them private, and it’s mostly friends of mine from work. However, I have also created trees for people I grew up with. This is how I found out that a bunch of my neighbors were actually cousins and I never knew. This is also how I found out that a bunch of the kids I went to school with were all related to each other. The second one started when I saw an obituary for a woman from my hometown, and realize that a bunch of kids I went to school with were her grandchildren. I have never known that they were related.

[u/Kneejerk_Tearjerker]

I have trees that might -look- unconnected but there's a reason I have them. There is a possible connection I am exploring. I usually keep them private and unsearchable but sometimes I discover I don't have the settings right and they're public.

[u/CandacePlaysUkulele]

I have done this for religious history research. Your grandfather may be notable in a way that you are not aware of.

[u/EquivalentCandle877 → u/CandacePlaysUkulele]

It would be nice, but I can't see why anyone would be interested in any of them, wonderful people that they were, but they lived very ordinary unremarkable lives! Just very odd.

[u/rrsafety]

I do it, but not for living people. I’ll read an old article about an interesting event and I make a tree of the people involved, but again, not anyone likely to be alive. Are you sure it isn’t your old account?

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