Paying Attention to Warnings in Genealogy Software
Does your genealogy software or online tree provide warnings when there’s an obvious error? My tree is in RootsMagic, which has that capability—but, admittedly, I don’t always pay attention to the warnings. That was the case with my recent research on the NAFUS family.
Having recently connected my third great-grandmother, Almira Nafus, to her father, William S. Nafus, on WikiTree, I decided to research her siblings so they could also be linked to William. This led me to updating sources for William’s eldest son, John C. Nafus, using Ancestry’s hint system.
One of the hints pointed me to an 1850 census record from Grayson County, Texas, listing the following household:
- Jno C. Nafus, 53
- R. Nafus, 48
- Geo M. Nafus, 20
- S. Chandlee, 12
- A. Chandlee, 7
Ancestry transcribed the surname of the youngest children as “Chandlee,” but I believe it actually reads Chandler, which happens to be the maiden name of John Nafus’ wife, Rosannah. My initial thought was that these children might be Rosannah’s niece and nephew.
While trying to determine their identities, I came across a Rosanna Adams, whose first husband was John Chandler. According to the FamilySearch tree, they had two children: Samantha and Adam Chandler. This strongly suggested that the Chandler children listed in the 1850 census were actually Rosannah’s children from her first marriage.
Spotting the Error
That’s when I noticed the red exclamation marks in RootsMagic—warnings that something was off. The children I had previously listed under John Nafus and Rosannah Chandler were born before 1846, the year John and Rosannah were married. That didn’t add up!
Fortunately, one of the two sources for John Nafus on the FamilySearch tree led me to a tree on MyHeritage, which identified Susannah Miller as his first wife, with an estimated marriage date of 1827 in New York. This discovery meant I had some major corrections to make.
Next Steps
Now, I need to:
✅ Remove Rosannah Chandler as the mother of John Nafus’ children in both RootsMagic and my Ancestry tree.
✅ Search for records confirming John Nafus’ marriage to Susannah Miller.
✅ Merge Rosannah Chandler into Rosanna Adams to reflect her full history.
✅ Merge John Niffers into John Nafus (another duplicate in online trees).
✅ Contact the MyHeritage tree owner to collaborate and verify details.
This experience was a great reminder to pay attention to software warnings and always question assumptions when reviewing records. Have you ever overlooked a warning in your genealogy software and later discovered an error? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments!