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Archiver > MO-OREGON-HISTORY > 2005-10 > 1130372787


From: "Cannady" <>
Subject: RE: TOPICS of Discussion
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 19:26:30 -0500
In-Reply-To: <628B8262-4651-11DA-A4BA-000393CCBB70@grm.net>


I think we have all become seasoned as we have grown in our hobby. There is
so much WRONG (yes, I'm yelling) out there that I shared with others when I
was just beginning and didn't know any better than to give everybody
everything and accept everything everyone gave me. Once they put it out on
the paid sites and it gets put on those CD's there is no taking it back, and
I cringe every time I see it. So, no, I don't give as much as I used to.
If someone has specific questions of me on my lines I will gladly answer
those specific questions. I always need a sanity check and love to debate.
But, we must also realize that as we made mistakes when we were newbies,
there always newbies coming along that have to make the same mistakes we
did. If they are serious researchers, hopefully, we can teach them our
mistakes. If they are not serious researchers, they will go away anyway.

We once had a website that consisted of serious researchers, all connecting
to one line, and consisting of folks all over the country. We all agreed
from the get-go that we would gather all the documents, in each of our
respective areas of the country, for that surname and share them with each
other via the website - cemetery pictures, documents from the courthouses,
newspaper articles, obituaries, etc. This worked out very well, and we were
able to prove and disprove a lot of information that had previously been
"common knowledge." Very exciting! However, we eventually opened the site
up to EVERYONE who voiced an interest, and it basically turned into a chat
room - not a genealogy site at all. All of the serious researchers have
left the site, but I'm still plodding along posting those documents, hoping
to generate some serious dialogue.

This is something I DO believe in: those documents are public documents and
are available to anyone. You could get them if you could reach them, just
as easily as I can. If I have access to those actual documents that you
don't, all you have to do is ask. Once I scan those documents and send them
to you, they are a gift from me to you - as public documents, they never
belonged to me. That first hand document is your source, not me - I was
just the channel to get it into your hands. So many people have shared this
opportunity with me, and I feel it necessary to reciprocate whenever I can.

Many people have asked me when I am going to publish a book. That will
probably never happen, as I consider genealogy a work in progress - never to
be completed, AND, I wouldn't want to perpetuate any errors (and even as
thorough as we THINK we are, we all make them) - I already have enough out
there that I can't retrieve! And, speaking of errors, in the early census,
relationship was not one of the fields, so we can only surmise what the
relationship was. So, although it is the best we can do, I don't
necessarily consider those early census' as PROOF of a relationship unless
it can be backed up with other documentation. That census DOES give us a
point to go look for that other documentation.

And, on the subject of family Associations: most of the "dues" to these
sites are minimal - $20 or so per year. You are not 'buying' the
information that family keeps secret. Those dues are to pay for maintenance
on a centrally located database that is maintained for that family, and
publishing and mailing monthly or quarterly newsletters for that family. If
you have ever purchased Genealogical Society newsletters, they are much the
same. I certainly glean MORE than my $20 worth from those newsletters!

Oops! Seems like a few of us have real opinions on these topics! Sorry
this is so long...

Peggy Brooks Cannady





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