Ellen Tapscott; Lottie Tapscott

These pages often contain the phrase “trees citing trees,”  family trees giving other family trees as sources. And those trees giving other trees as sources. Ad infinitum. Here are two more cases, two of thousands found on that wonderful, but terribly flawed internet.

Ancestry.com has 59 family trees showing a marriage between an Ellen Tapscott (1729 – 1807) and Martin George of Lancaster County, Virginia. Unfortunately the only sources cited for this marriage are other Ancestry Family Trees and a questionable DAR application, which does not give the name “Tapscott.” The Martin George in these trees is a child of William George and Rebecca Martin and a first cousin once removed of Benjamin George Jr., who married Ann (Edney) Tapscott. Martin is named in reliable contemporary records. But I know of no contemporary (18th, early 19th-century) record or document naming an “Ellen Tapscott” who lived in Lancaster County during this time period. Does anyone know of any contemporary or even a reliable secondary source with her name or showing a marriage with Martin? To head people off at the pass, an unsourced tree is not a reliable source. (Caution, the Martin George claimed to have married Ellen Tapscott had a second cousin once removed also named Martin George, born around 1770. Do not confuse the two.)

And on Ancestry.com we find 32 trees showing a Lottie Tapscott, born around 1740 in Virginia, marrying Walker Gilmer Snead. Other trees provide the only source for either Lottie Tapscott or her marriage.

Why am I interested in this? Descendants of Lottie and Ellen Tapscott (according to the attached trees) show up in some of the DNA matches I am studying. Nonexistent people cause terrible confusion, and I am certain that Lottie and Ellen are nonexistent. Please prove me wrong.