WHITNEY-L Archives
Archiver > WHITNEY > 2001-10 > 1003523400
From:
Subject: Re: [WHITNEY-L] Whitney ancestry
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 16:30:00 EDT
Dear Lin & WRG:
I really hate to be the one who rains on someone else's parade, but the data
from Ancestral File at the Mormon website is frequently useful but not always
reliable. I have used it for many years as a place to find clues as to where
to look for hard data, but have frequently found it to be in error, and thus
not a reliable source. The problem is that it (the Ancestral File) is made
up of the collective submissions of thousands, probably even over a hundred
thousand individual contributions, made by ordinary people and not by highly
skilled professional researchers. Given the manner in which the Church must
operate with limited resources, there is NO ONE who checks the validity of
the data thus submitted. Thus, much is sent in by careful researchers, and
at least as much or more by people of good will who make mistakes. It is up
to us to retrace the steps of every submission.
With regard to the lineage submitted, we can confirm things back as far as
Thomas Whitney and Mary Bray. I have personally viewed the Parish Registers
of St. Margaret's Westminster in the Library of Westminster Abbey, and can
confirm that the data about Thomas and Mary Whitney is to be found there.
When one reads on our website the material from the two articles about
Whitney ancestry published in The American Genealogist (TAG) it seems quite
clear that the link between Thomas Whitney and his putative father, Robert
Whitney, is not tenable. The other data about the earlier generations of the
family looks like it came from Melville's book on the Ancestry of John
Whitney, but if that is the case, why did it not go back further?
I hope that this will not be discouraging to anyone. I've been working on
these problems for over twenty-five years, and I, too, thought I had found
all the answers. I went to England four times and found reams and reams of
data, but it wasn't until after I got home the last time, in 1996, that
someone else on this list clued me in about the two TAG articles. Oh, do I
wish I had known before I went that time, as I missed the opportunity to
approach the problem while I was right there with the sources at hand. Which
only goes to prove that the job is never done, I guess.
Happy Hunting, everybody.
Allan E. Green
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