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I think most, if not all, of these posts have been about info from the Internet. Nothing has changed. I was doing genealogy LBC (Long Before Computers) and it was the same back then, only it took longer for the stuff to cycle around. I spent $$ on postage and long distance phone calls (so long ago that if you called outside your town there was a "long distance" charge) and found, too often, that after someone milked me for all the info I had, I never heard from them again. Also, I've had my chewed out because I questioned some family oral history which I had documents proving it was wrong, or incomplete.
So, as long as you use "public info" as leads, then do your research to prove the point, or set it aside if incomplete, you will be O.K.
Ain't it fun Keeps me off the streets and out of the bars
Ah, yes -- oral history.... sort of like for my hubby. His 6th or 7th great grandfather came over from Scotland through Ellis Island in the mid 1700's and married "Jane, A Lakota Woman". Or "Theresa, A Lakota Woman". Or "Ruth, A Lakota Woman".... who knows? maybe he had a harem of "A Lakota Woman"s...
When I got into genealogy, the first thing I discovered was Ellis Island didn't exist as an immigration point in the mid 1700's.
Second thing -- pretty sure there were no Lakota in Bedford County PA in the mid 1700's.
Third thing -- I managed to track down "the source" of this "information" -- some odd ball half baked document online that listed a name the same as ancestor who is married to several Lakota women, with no mention of children... and nothing else.
So, essentially -- some guy named Sam married Diane, Phoebe, Millicent, Gertrude and Helen and this "information" is written on the internet equivalent of a badly stained paper napkin. Does it really say Gertrude? Or is that barbecue sauce?
So Hubby's line stops at where I can be sure....that nonsense didn't even get listed.
She had cousins (now deceased) who had recorded family history that could only be gotten from first hand accounts, family bibles, family records etc. I have no earthly idea how to get my hands on copies of their work.
You might try looking at historical/genealogical societies where they lived or where the family that they were researching lived. They may have contributed copies of their work. I was quite chagrined once to come upon a computer print-out I'd sent another researcher, way back in the early days of computers, in the local public library. With MY name as the author. How embarrassing!
And ArkansasSlim, Find-a-Grave is a great and helpful website, but it's a primary resource only if there's a photo of the grave. Much of the information regarding tying families together, etc., is just contributed by researchers, and as such is no better than online trees.
You might try looking at historical/genealogical societies where they lived or where the family that they were researching lived. They may have contributed copies of their work. I was quite chagrined once to come upon a computer print-out I'd sent another researcher, way back in the early days of computers, in the local public library. With MY name as the author. How embarrassing!
And ArkansasSlim, Find-a-Grave is a great and helpful website, but it's a primary resource only if there's a photo of the grave. Much of the information regarding tying families together, etc., is just contributed by researchers, and as such is no better than online trees.
Additionally, the image of the gravestone needs to be readable - not all gravestones are readable even in person, let alone in a photo. And some might be readable in person but it doesn't show well in the photo.
Some cemeteries will provide plot info for free though, or for a minimal fee - so sometimes, the info on FindAGrave can be easily confirmed if you take the extra step to contact the cemetery.
On a side note, I was going to abbreviate FindAGrave but then realized what that abbreviation would spell.
[quote=HappyNCGirl;24496897]Someone sent me a scathing email after I copied information from another person's tree and apparently the birth date of one individual was off by one year. The person who emailed me sounded completely unhinged by this "error" and actually sort of frightened me a bit!/quote]
I recently wrote to an individual when I saw the name of my Great-Grandfather in her tree. I was excited about maybe getting more info, etc. She wrote me back and was a bit haughty about it. "Are you SURE you have the right person? MY GRANDFATHER was married to 'Jane Doe,' not this 'Sally Smith' you mentioned in your email." I wrote her back and said, "Uh, yeah. Jane was his first wife and Sally was his second wife. You're descended from Jane, I'm descended from Sally." Haven't heard a peep back. I'm wondering now if I shocked her, I'm convinced she had absolutely no idea that he'd been married twice. And yes, if she ever writes back, I do have sources, etc. that I can share with her. I hope she does.
Sometimes it's fun to touch base with relatives, other times, yeah. It's dicey.
You might try looking at historical/genealogical societies where they lived or where the family that they were researching lived. They may have contributed copies of their work. I was quite chagrined once to come upon a computer print-out I'd sent another researcher, way back in the early days of computers, in the local public library. With MY name as the author. How embarrassing!
And ArkansasSlim, Find-a-Grave is a great and helpful website, but it's a primary resource only if there's a photo of the grave. Much of the information regarding tying families together, etc., is just contributed by researchers, and as such is no better than online trees.
10-4 on Find-A-Grave being a good source, however, once again, be careful and don't take it as gospel unless you can eyeball it. Case-in-Point; The Find-A-Grave census for a country cemetery where many of my ancestors are buried lists my great grandpa two times with different inscriptions. I knew for a fact that he was not even in this cemetery but in one six miles down the road. I had not visited the one down the road so drove down there to check his tombstone (for the first time) and found what had been recorded as two tombstones in the other cemetery was actually the inscription on his stone and the inscription on his bronze Civil War plaque. Both on the same grave.
I sent an email to the recorder but it came back, so I sent an email to Find-A-Grave noting the error and they responded that only the original recorder could correct it. I understand that policy because if they responded to all such communications, anyone could request changes which could really mess things up. Oh well, that's life.
Headstones can also be wrong. My ggf & ggm have headstones that match exactly.... and she wasn't born the same year as him, and she didn't die the same year as him.... because his obituary listed current wife as his second wife -- and the 1900 census they are already married with one child.
I was shocked when I first started working on our genealogy that so many people were married more than once, it really wasn't that uncommon - I guess spouses died younger from diseases and whatnot.
You may actually be related to some people that you didn't really think you were related to, a professional genealogist did part of our family tree for one part of the family, and my one ancestor who came to America in the 1500's has had descendants numbering over 2 million since that date, according to the researcher.
It is easy to mess up with genealogy especially at the very beginning when you first start,
and especially if you follow too many of the hints at ancestry as gospel. I would think that most people would be really glad if you pointed out the mistakes, so they could correct it. I don't know what to say, if they just left it - obviously a woman didn't give birth when she was 5 years old.
(I found a couple of these on ancestry.com too)
My great-grandfather had 91 descendents when he died at the age of 96. That was 22 years ago.
Probably all of us are related to at least hundreds of thousands of people, millions if you go back far enough. Every person born had to come from somewhere.
You have to take genealogy information with a grain of salt, and cross-reference it with census and other records if you can. Sometimes you just have to take somebody else's word for it. Just be careful when you do. If you make a mistake, you can correct it, though it's harder to correct it if it's online and people have been copying it.
You may actually be related to some people that you didn't really think you were related to, a professional genealogist did part of our family tree for one part of the family, and my one ancestor who came to America in the 1500's has had descendants numbering over 2 million since that date, according to the researcher.
That's normal when you go back that far. Just think about how many kids people used to have before there was effective birth control - then think about how quickly the numbers would multiply if each child went on to have that many kids. And then each of their's had that many kids too... and so on and so forth.
There's practically a whole township in PA of people I'm distantly related to since my colonial ancestors were Mennonites who settled that area and it's still heavily populated with Mennonites. In fact, I found out that I'm distantly related to one of my friends from high school because we share one of those colonial Mennonite ancestors.
I have a great-aunt who evidently wasn't very well-liked by her first husbands family, or perhaps they hold a grudge for whatever reason. She divorced him and remarried. They have posted all kinds of nasty things about her on ancestry.com and on other genealogical sites that aren't true. It's awful. They even claim she's Native American when we know for a fact that she is not. I don't know how they can claim this since they do not even know her mother's maiden name, nor her father's name. It's bizarre.
I've made my tree private because I think it's better to have someone ask for permission or to open up those lines of communication first before sharing info. If people were to do that more often, I think less mistakes would be made.
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chewed out because I questioned some family oral history which I had documents proving it was wrong, or incomplete. 
Keeps me off the streets and out of the bars
