The Myth of Stanstead Abbey - The Dangers of Internet Genealogy
Genealogy in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire Ancestors. In a nummber of cases the problem arises because
they have copied someone else's research without checking , That persn had
copied from dsomeone else with out checking - and so on - and the first
person in the chain had made an error - so everyone is wrong because no-ne
had bothered to check.
I have just posted an example of what can go wrong on my web site - in this
case a shipping clerk in 1635 recorded the names of people who went on board
"The Hopewell", As more people arrived he recorded less and less detail
about them, making (by 21st century standards) many spelling and other
errors. One of these errors is obvious to anyone with a knowledge of 17th
century documents and Hertfordshire place names. However the error is easily
overlooked by those simply looking for ancestral names on the list. As a
result 99% of the references I have found on the internet given the wrong
place of origin for the ancestor - in most cases assuming that if an adult
travels from a (non-existant) place they must have been born there!
See http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/links/stanstead-abbey.htm for a
full account.
--
Chris Reynolds
Visit www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk and if you find it useful please say
thank you by visiting http://www.everyclick.com/chrisreynolds
Wes Groleau
> I provide a help service for people who have hit a brick wall with their
> Hertfordshire Ancestors. In a nummber of cases the problem arises because
> they have copied someone else's research without checking , That persn had
> copied from dsomeone else with out checking - and so on - and the first
> person in the chain had made an error - so everyone is wrong because no-ne
> had bothered to check.
Another example: the book series Germans to America. I got from
that work that the manifest for one of my answers failed to note
a particular bit of information on any passenger. When I finally
got around to looking at the actual list, I discovered that the
column was NOT empty but quite full. For some unknown reason,
the transcriber had chosen to pretend it wasn't there.
This prompted me to check other lists and find other evidence
of malfeasance--not (in my opinion) simple innocent errors.
I live very close to an old cemetery. I discovered that a
D.A.R. book claiming to transcribe the cemetery only had five
entries and one by a genealogical society also had far fewer
than I knew were there. So I decided to do my own reading.
I then discovered that those books were NOT transcriptions
as their titles said, but contained many assertions from
unknown sources, most of which could not be verified by
the stones, but some of which contradicted easy to read
information on the stones.
If you can't trust the D.A.R., a genealogical society,
or P. William Filby, who _can_ you trust?
--
Wes Groleau
Oral language in the classroom—what is it good for?
http://Ideas.Lang-Learn.us/barrett?itemid=1351
Bob Melson
(Grolea...@FreeShell.org) opined:
Probably like many other things "out there" - what's transcribed is what's
of interest to the transcriber (see much of the GenWeb archives). The
person doing the transcribing probably submitted his incomplete work to
the DAR or SAR, who didn't check it for completeness before publishing it
in an "official" document. Some blame accrues to the organization, but
more to the transcriber.
Bob
Robert G. Melson | Rio Grande MicroSolutions | El Paso, Texas
-----
A government big enough to give you everything you want is big
enough to take away everything you have. Thomas Jefferson
Lesley Robertson
news:hd5he3$eit$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
>
> If you can't trust the D.A.R., a genealogical society,
> or P. William Filby, who _can_ you trust?
>
I didn't realise that DAR was a genealogical society. I thought the
genealogy was a by-product of people trying to prove descent in order
to qualify for membership?
Lesley Robertson
Bruce Remick
"Lesley Robertson" <l.a.ro...@tnw.tudelft.nl> wrote in message
news:St6dnXaPw_XTEWvX...@infopact.nl...
Maybe it depends upon what they do with the ancestral documentation
submitted by prospective members. If accepted, do they then make it
available to researchers, or is it considered private and personal? If the
latter, I wouldn't classify the DAR (or SAR, Mayflower Descendants, etc.) as
a genealogical society. Otherwise, sure, that label seems valid.
Wes Groleau
Sorry for the confusion. Let's try:
"If you can't trust the D.A.R., or a genealogical society,
or P. William Filby, who _can_ you trust?"
See, the D.A.R. published JUNK, and the local genealogical
society also published junk about that cemetery, in separate books.
And Filby has a reputation (or so I thought) for quality work.
- Germans to America
- Italians to America
- Passenger and Immigration Lists Index
- etc.
--
Wes Groleau
Free speech has its limits
http://Ideas.Lang-Learn.us/WWW?itemid=99
Wes Groleau
> person doing the transcribing probably submitted his incomplete work to
> the DAR or SAR, who didn't check it for completeness before publishing it
> in an "official" document. Some blame accrues to the organization, but
> more to the transcriber.
And some goes to the person who drives a hundred miles to the
Allen County Public Library and copies falsehoods from the book
without driving another five miles to the actual cemetery. :-)
Meanwhile, folks who live a thousand miles away see those falsehoods
on that persons website. How many things in my database are falsehoods
from books I thought I could trust? Probably a lot.
--
Wes Groleau
New Worksheets: Blue Butterfly and War of the Worlds
http://Ideas.Lang-Learn.us/russell?itemid=1598
Bob Melson
opined:
> Bob Melson wrote:
>> person doing the transcribing probably submitted his incomplete work to
>> the DAR or SAR, who didn't check it for completeness before publishing
>> it
>> in an "official" document. Some blame accrues to the organization, but
>> more to the transcriber.
>
> And some goes to the person who drives a hundred miles to the
> Allen County Public Library and copies falsehoods from the book
> without driving another five miles to the actual cemetery. :-)
>
> Meanwhile, folks who live a thousand miles away see those falsehoods
> on that persons website. How many things in my database are falsehoods
> from books I thought I could trust? Probably a lot.
>
Due diligence?
I agree that there's a lot of crap "out there" as the result of poor or
incomplete transcriptions, the "hey, this looks like it fits" attitude of
many, sheer cussedness (I'll put the wrong DOB here so I can know
who "steals" my data) and a host of other reasons. Only way I know of to
combat it is what has been cussed and discussed to death - verify
everything before you dump it in your own collection.
Wish things were otherwise, but we all know it just isn't so.
Bob
--
Plymouth Rock
>sheer cussedness (I'll put the wrong DOB here so I can know
>who "steals" my data)
I work it the other way around. I have many instances where incorrect
information has been published in old books or is online, and I have corrected
it. If someone else puts the correct data online it is likely that they cribbed
from me.
...Rock