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From: "John Wylie" <>
Subject: Re: [APG] This American Life: The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:32:51 -0500
References: <465276.61463.qm@web36102.mail.mud.yahoo.com><200803171711.m2HHAhhB027433@mail.rootsweb.com>
In-Reply-To: <200803171711.m2HHAhhB027433@mail.rootsweb.com>


I too thank Kathy for bringing up this case study.

I especially found handling the complex inter-personal relationships of
people in two families by the amateur family historian interesting. When
exposing long past falsehoods there will almost always be people who are
threatened by the truth. And there were a bunch in this story.

Like so much in the mushy stuff of families, the issue becomes not what we
do, but how we do it. Barb and I listened to the show live and I'm
downloading it as I type this, but my first thoughts, when they got to
describing hurt feelings, class-ism and the injustices, was that I couldn't
seem to find behavior that was appropriately sensitive to peoples feelings.
Just wishing that relatives would understand and accept the new "truth" of
what really happened to Bobby Dunbar, now long dead, wasn't enough. Nor were
good intentions.

So folks, when you encounter a "truth" that has is potentially upsetting to
survivors:

What are your ground rules going in to these cases?

What lessons have you learned about dealing with cases like Bobby
Dunbar? For example, what do you do when you find that the living matron of
a family put a secret child up for adoption when she was 16 years old and
unmarried and her daughter, your client, knows nothing about the child?

What lesson had you wish you'd known when you handled a case in the
past? Or a current case?

I can just hear some of you thinking; "Haven't we already beat this dead
horse here on the APG List?" As professionals we need to continue to learn.
We must invite peer review of our professional decisions (while, of course,
respecting client privacy).

Perhaps the Dunbar story is so tainted by the media, both the print media
when Bobby Dunbar disappeared in 1914 and the broadcast media in telling the
"real" story on This American Life" that it fails as a case study. Maybe I'm
reacting as much to the media's failings in this case as I am to the
behavior of one amateur family historian. What do you think?

Regards,

John Wylie
APG Member

-----Original Message-----
From: [mailto:] On Behalf
Of Melinde Sanborn
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 12:11 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [APG] This American Life: The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar

Dear Kathy,
Thank you for a very enjoyable hour - another court case where the judge and
jury are blind to the obvious. Good for Bruce's son who wanted to know the
truth. The rest of his family seems to be happier living a lie.
Interestingly, the word "genealogy" only occurred once (?) in the whole
report - the mention of an online source.
Melinde


It is one-hour long and can be heard at:

Please go to

http://www.thislife.org/

and play the full program for "The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar".

Sincerely,
Kathy Flynn




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