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(+) Should All Genealogy Data on the Web be Verified? A Contrarian View

8 Apr 2022 2:50 PM | Anonymous

This is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. 

Caution: this article contains personal opinions.

I often hear people moaning and groaning about the quality of genealogy information to be found online. Some claim that much of the online genealogy data is worthless. These comments seem to insinuate that people shouldn't place information online until they have verified it. I have heard a few exclaim, “We have got to stop those people!”

That is a lofty goal, although unattainable. People are people. New genealogists join in and post data much faster than we can educate them. The idea of requiring source citations for all data sounds wildly Utopian to me.

You know what? I don't care. I want to see the claimed information anyway. Yes, I even want to read the inaccurate information. When I am looking for the unknown parents of one of my "end of the line" ancestors, I want to see every possible clue, accurate or not. If someone else even thinks that he or she knows the parents of Washington Harvey Eastman, I want to know what that person is thinking. No, when first scanning for information, I don't care if their information is accurate or not because I am going to check it in any case. If possible, I'll contact the person who created the information and ask, "Where did you find that?" If they don't have a good answer, I still have a clue of a possible place or parents, clues that I didn't have before. I'll find out later if the information is accurate or not when I verify it in primary records. Only after I have verified the data will I believe it.

I do that for all unsourced information. I also do exactly the same thing for information that does contain source citations. I verify everything. So, what's the difference?

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Comments

  • 9 Apr 2022 11:02 AM | Anonymous
    I totally agree with you. Unlike those who think undocumented tree data is worthless; I find it is valid more times than not and can provide very valuable leads.
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  • 9 Apr 2022 4:38 PM | Anonymous member
    I agree with you Dick. I download and print to PDF, save in that family's folder for later review. Then print what I decide I might possibly use and start researching and validating. The reality is that often sources aren't found, yet the info is valid and true. For example, in Puerto Rico several churches in my maternal grandmother's side burned to the ground. The records weren't recreated, so my mother's older sister's birth and baptism aren't available. Neither is her mother's or maternal family. They still existed, my mother knew her mother, they told me stories and my grandfather told me how Abuela died, how they met, and shared her letters. I used all that info as my sources. Again in Puerto Rico many churches flooded during hurricanes, including the one in my home town, rendering the writing smudged and illegible. Termites made lace out of some of the old books with the same effect. Some were indexed as best they could. I spent many hours hunched over these books in sweltering heat, wearing white silk gloves and holding a magnifying lens, under the scrutiny of church secretaries transcribing every word I could to validate and source my data. It was worth the time spent.
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  • 11 Apr 2022 12:24 PM | Anonymous
    This is not about "privacy" it is about money in my opinion. When newspapers.com changed their search, I had a death record of a women who died in MA, city, and date. The new search stated no obit for this person. I had to know what newspaper it was in which I had no way of knowing. Went to the Boston Globe and started viewing obits for the aproximate date. The Globe had more than 100 obits. Looked at each page. Nine obits were inde. xed as "unnamed obituary with others index with random letters. I have screen shots. Now newspaper obits etc are listed as sources. We all KNOW Newspaper is a NOT A reliable source. The actual records are not searchable. This benefits the holder of the "public Record"
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  • 11 Apr 2022 3:55 PM | Anonymous
    A simple example to demonstrate a point. My name is Rabe and my father is in the 1940 census. I could not find him in the 1930 census until I searched for Robe. I am glad the 1930 data was available online for me to find it. The 1950 census on the government site lists my parents and my brother and myself with the correct surname. However, I have submitted spelling corrections for all 4 given names. Two were errors by the census taker and two were transcription errors by the computer that did the indexing. Again I am grateful for having the data readily available online--and that the government site enabled me to make corrections. I totally agree with your opinion. Having data is much better than no data. Even with poor data sources, I have a person to contact who posted it.
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