Which James Is the Son of Alexander?

Do you ever look at someone else's tree? Do you trust other trees? Do the number of sources attached to the tree matter? Do you trust Ancestry public member trees more than the global tree on FamilySearch?

For the most part, I look at trees and I use them for hints. I prefer trees with sources other than other trees but will look at any tree that seems to match what I know about a family. I also use the tree on FamilySearch for hints.

Recently, I've been frustrated when looking at trees for any of the James Crawford families with roots in early Kentucky. For some reason, many of them seem to lead back to Alexander Crawford and Mary McPheeters as parents.

To see if my impression was wrong, I decided to do a search of Ancestry's public member trees for a James Crawford with parents of Alexander Crawford and Mary McPheeters. My search turned up 50 trees.

Assuming I counted correctly, I found the following:

• 12 trees showing a James Crawford who died in 1803 in Fayette County, KY
• 3 trees showing a James Crawford born in 1752 and dying in 1753
• 3 trees showing a James Crawford who married Jean and died in 1791
• 1 tree showing a James Crawford who married a Llewellyn and died in 1847
• 9 trees showing a James Crawford who married Rebecca Anderson and died in 1836
• 1 tree showing a James Crawford who married a Vansandt and died in 1836
• 6 trees showing a James Crawford who married a Frazier and died in 1811
• 2 trees showing a James Crawford born in 1748
• 3 trees showing a James Crawford born in 1735 and dying in 1825

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Do you ever look at other trees on Ancestry? I know I do. I use them for hints. I also attach them as 'sources' so that I can get back to trees that match my ancestors.

However, I try not to add 'new people' from those trees to my tree. I also try to add additional sources to support the information in my tree. Some of those sources are obtained thru Ancestry and the hinting system.

However, some of my sources come from outside of Ancestry. Thus, when you search Ancestry's Public Member Trees for someone in my tree, the number of sources attached to the individual will be shown.