NYERIE-L Archives

From: Genealogy <>
Subject: [NYERIE] Print vs. electronic sources (fwd)
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 11:55:07 -0500 (EST)

Of possible interest...

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Webmaster & Moderator: Cynthia Van Ness, MLS --
ROOTS: The Buffalo NY Genealogy Forum -- http://freenet.buffalo.edu/~roots
Featuring local newsgroup: wny.freenet.genealogy.general

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"The world is made up of stories, not atoms." --M. Ruykeyser, paraphrased
Cynthia Van Ness, MLS, email:
Genealogy, Buffalo pages: http://www.buffnet.net/~allemand/aboutcv.htm

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2000 17:57:59 -0700
From: Jayare Roberts <>
Reply-To: Librarians Serving Genealogists <>
To: Librarians Serving Genealogists <>
Subject: [genealib] Re: Print vs. electronic bibliographies

Comments on the integrity -or lack thereof- of genealogy databases on the
Net.

Many of the popular US Marriage files are based on copies of the same US
Marriages on CD that several companies, especially some from Utah, have
marketed in the 1990s. Please inform your patrons that most of those sets
were based on indexes of published transcripts that were readily available
on FHL shelves. That means they are third-hand evidence at best.

Concerning FamilySearch files:
Remember that the Ancestral File consists of voluntarily contributed
pedigrees, first automated by volunteers and now coming straight from GEDCOM
submissions, warts and all. FHL does not reject or correct anyone's files,
and it does not show the sources (if there were any). Moreover, FHL has
tried to Match&Merge related pedigrees, and this has caused relief to
confused researchers as well as errors. Mostly because the 50 people who
submit the same ancestor (such as "my" Ephraim Roberts of 1838 IL) cannot
come close to agreeing on every name, date, spelling, jot and tittle. That
is why FHL is strating the Pedigree Resource File which takes Net
submissions and displays them without Match or Merge or any changes. The
PRF now is out on 5 CDs also.

The 300 million entries of the IGI are very different from AF and PRF.
About 80% of these names come from the Family Records Extraction program
started in the 1960s. The IGI source notes will say either something like
"submitted by an LDS member" or "extracted from the births of Widsor,
1840-1885, FHL film number 000000". The millions of FRE entries come from
volunteer extractors. They are often retired folks, some very experienced
and some not, and their work is usually extracted independently by a second
person, and then the local FRE director uses Universal Data Entry software
to "verify" and "audit" randomly selected names. The disk is then randomly
audited again in SLC before some names and dates are "standardized" or
"corrected" so they can be displayed on FamilySearch for free for all to enj
oy.

So if an 1880 census page changes the spelling of the town, it might be
standardized. If 2 extractors read "Ephraim Roberts" and all his data
slightly differently, a 3rd person tries to determine the best view. And
many of the FRE folks also volunteer to run those 3500 FHCs, so it is a
miracle that the results are as good as they are, in my humble observations.
Ask at your local FHC for the FRE director, and you too can try automating
some Russian names in the 1920 deaths of the Bronx, or some 1679 Catholic
entries from a little village in Italy!

Jayare in SLC

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• [NYERIE] Print vs. electronic sources (fwd) by Genealogy <>