For years I believed my 2nd great-grandmother Ellen and her sister Agnes were daughters of John Rose. Their marriage records seemed to support the theory. Then two birth certificates turned everything upside down and uncovered a much larger mystery involving Joseph Barnes of Cheshire.
When I first started my family tree, I thought I was being careful—until I trusted a well-researched tree that quietly sent an entire branch in the wrong direction. Two first cousins, the same name, the same birth year, and the same village.
Read the blog to see how I untangled it—and what I learned along the way.
