STANDLEY-L Archives

Archiver > STANDLEY > 2000-02 > 0949851321


From: "Jean Dalrymple" <>
Subject: [STANDLEY] Tid-Bits
Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2000 08:35:21 -0700


With the compliments of our hard working friend Hermon B. Fagley....... He
has submitted this to another list I am on, and feel that it is good
information for ALL of us..... Old hands and beginners.....

Thanks Hermon!


I spend 3/4 of my research trying to research to prove of disprove what
others say..... this confirms what I have always taught..... PROVE
EVERYTHING... tho this is often hard to do... and often takes years... it
is worthwhile .

Jeannie <><



NTERNET GENEALOGY - WHAT'S GOOD! WHAT'S NOT!
. . . AND WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
by Bettie Cummings Cook, CG

[Published in The Packet, Tri-State Genealogical Society, Evansville, IN,
vol.XXII, no. 2 (Dec. 1998)]


Before computers there were two kinds of genealogists. The experienced and
the beginners. The experienced passed their knowledge to the beginners.
The
"experienced" covered degrees of knowledge from more than a beginner to
years
of work in the field. The work was too new to the beginner to do much
adventuring except acquire blank family charts, work at finding dates and
places, and take advantage of seminars, classes, and advice from friendly
experienced genealogists. They learned as they went along about where, and
how, to look for dates and places. If they did rush to judgment those who
had worked at the problem longer quickly called them to task. They were
usually chastised sufficiently to be more careful with future endeavors.
Still-they learned and eventually passed into being experienced. Enter the
undeserving villain . . . Internet Genealogy!


What's Good!
With the addition of the computer to the home the experienced genealogist
became a computer-user and continued to apply his work habits and expertise
with the aid of the computer. The world of the Internet opened boundless
possibilities of accessing records to the genealogist. Email is an amazing
convenience to make contact with others and receive an answer within
minutes.
The knowledge to be gained on subjects without leaving your chair is
staggering. The genealogical sites of interest range from very
interesting to
ho-hum. There are records of federal, state, and local levels of
government,
library card catalogs, resource files that are easily downloaded, and
sites
dedicated to specific records such as land, marriages, etc. If you have
great
grandpa's gun he carried in the Civil War, you can learn about its make,
model, and manufacturer by consulting a website on Civil War guns. An
antique
piece of furniture handed down in the family may be identified as to its
age
and maker from sites that discuss descriptive markings, styles, and time
periods. You are not confined to US searches. Research on a family said
to
have owned and operated a winery in Germany led to a list on a German web
site of existing wineries. Think of a subject and, except in rare instances,
Internet has some data.


What's Not!
The Internet has developed a new group of family searchers. Unfortunately,
the experienced genealogist is in the minority. There is new group of
persons who know first how to use a computer and second want to locate
others who can give them information about their families. Notice I do not
call the second group genealogists because they are lacking in the skills to
prepare them for productive research. Before Internet this person would have
been the beginner genealogist sitting across the table from you in a
library. The computer-user/researcher cruises the Internet hoping to find
his family tree, unaware there is a more accurate way to find it using
primary records. The cruiser, who in the past would have had no recourse
except to go a genealogical library and learn the skills, now sets up a
webpage or a newsgroup in quest of the answers. He contributes uncited
"merry-go-round" bits to others. His heart is in the right place but his
ability to do research is not. He is totally oblivious to the fact he is
doing more harm than good both to himself and others.


Is it ever safe to use undocumented material found on the Internet? Not
unless you verify it first with proper sources. Some of it may be right but
how much faith can you put in rehashed, regurgitated, uncited data? A
typical appeal looks like . . .


"my grandfather died July 4, 1920. Does anyone know who his parents were?"
or
"my Great Grandfather was John Right born 1848. He married Jane ?. They
lived in New County and had seven children. I don't know their names . . .
."


Most of us quickly assess these queries as being from beginners. And ask
ourselves why haven't you looked in a census? Why don't you write for a
marriage bond? Why don't you get a death certificate? Why are you taking up
byte space and my time to read this unskilled query? It is easier to ignore
this query than deal with it. But where will this searcher turn next? To
undocumented websites, forums, and various tree programs on the 'Net. He
finds and records incorrect data and passes it to another person. Thus, the
data is repeated in the name of "helping" for the next twenty-five years.
No
one knows the data's origins but will not discard it because "it might be
something."


Recently a friend was horrified to learn an ancestor, to whom she devoted
years of work in order to identify his parents, had been added to a
different set of parents with the same surname on an Internet site. The data
was added by a computer-user/searcher because his ancestor had a son by the
same name.
Now if you have any experience at all, you know how many times several men
can have the same name! After a number of determined phone calls to everyone
responsible for the error, she succeeded in having it removed. But not until
she proved to the website her ancestor was a different man and sent an
obituary for the correct man to prove he had died in another state. And
worse, her well-documented work on the son and his descendants was included
on the website. It had been contributed by still another person without
giving credit to her for the work. It gave every appearance of being a good
genealogy with citations . . . except for the one link between parents and
the right son. This example of assuming and combining data to make a family
"fit" ought to make you shudder.


What Are We Going to Do About It?
One of the most agreeable attributes of genealogists is their willingness
and
unselfishness in sharing data. Some of the nicest people one could ever
hope
to meet share my enthusiasm for research. We regale each other endlessly
with
our "finds." The faceless aspect of the Internet keeps us from the
personal
evaluation of others that takes place in a face to face encounter. The
truth
is, there are a very few unpleasant folks in genealogy. So it is hard to
think ill of those pursuing their families on the Internet without
research
experience. If we could talk to them, we would treat them as we would the
beginner sitting next to us in the library. So how do we treat a faceless
beginner on the Internet? WE HELP THEM. Not by sending all the answers but
by pointing out where they should look to find the answers. This person
needs the experience of looking at a microfilmed census. Don't deny him the
thrill of finding grandfather's death certificate for himself. There's no
better way to convert the beginner to learning research skills than for him
to make an exciting discovery.


TELL them data must have citations. Let your data be good examples by always
clearly citing your source. Give county, book, and page from which the
record was taken. Cite published book sources with title, compiler,
publisher, year published, and page. INSIST on receiving the same citations
from others.
Contact the websites, newsgroups, and databases and encourage them to ask
for
citations. Kindly and tactfully point out to web searchers information is
useless without documentation. Direct them to local libraries and
genealogical collections. Tell them what genealogical societies have to
offer. Beginners are often under the mistaken notion that because they
live
far away from their ancestor's residence there is nothing in their locale
of
any use. Net-cruisers who are interested in genealogy must be made aware
of
how much they accomplish by using source records and learning skills
necessary to locate family data. Finding a cousin is fine but no matter
how
much the cousin can tell you it still has to be verified. My posting to a
surname website encourages everyone to cite his or her data. 1 am careful to
post cited items and explain there is more to be found by examining that
record. It is beginning to show results. The web master was reluctant to
post my first message regarding citations for fear it might offend someone.
Surprisingly (to him) some readers of the site wrote and agreed. The
surname
site is developing into a source of information. It is a website of
various
documented records on the same surname from many states and, if you share
that surname, is one worth visiting because most postings bear citations.
One of the main features of Internet is the broad coverage of the county.
For the experienced genealogist, it is this aspect of reachable records in
many states that is most useful and one that needs to be developed. Let us
think past the materials found on the bookshelf of any genealogical
collection and begin to build sites that represent our county's records.


The flood of incorrect data making the rounds on the 'Net is growing. It
is
comparable to undocumented family genealogies, early DAR records, and
early
LDS family files. Both DAR and LDS are making efforts to correct their
early
files. The 'Net has no one to guide it except experienced genealogists
who
care. We can no longer afford to ignore the unskilled query. Few of us
have
the inclination, or want to take the time, to deal with the unskilled and
the
inexperienced 'Net searchers. Someone is going to have to step up to the
flood and help with the sandbags. If each of us concentrates on improving
the
site concerning our surname, or a site under the sponsorship of our local
group, together we can make a difference. We must make an effort to deal
with this growing problem. Get on your soapbox for the sake of good
genealogy on the Internet!

________________________________________________________________
YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET!
Juno now offers FREE Internet Access!
Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tag

This thread: