Email sent out: 2/8/2015
Within
recent decades the world of genealogical research has radically changed. With
tools like computers, genealogical software, email, the Internet, online
genealogical databases and tools for exchanging genealogical data - it has
become easier then ever to get involved with and rapidly accumulate and share
genealogical information.
“A
wonderful revolution in the field of genealogy!!!” many will say. And yet some
(if not many) have found it to be a very double-edged sword - often in ways
that maybe are not always readily apparent and some times not always easy to
grasp – without actually experiencing it first hand.
Both
the pros and cons of common genealogical practices in the Information age have
been widely discussed and there are various differing "camps" of
perspectives on the benefits and the negatives of the genealogical world we now
find ourselves in.
To
maybe better portray some of the issues - - let me share some differing "invented
scenarios" for the sake of at least providing some “food for
thought”. The specific details of which are made up - but the underlying issues
very real and even some details very much based on fact.
I will
share the stories in a "before and after" mode - with the memories
of Paul Harvey’s "Now you know the rest of the story" radio
line.
Case
#1
Mary Jane
has to do a genealogy workshop for her club to show them how to use family tree
software, In her presentation she creates a fictional family in her
genealogical database using the PAF program. She creates Father, Mother, and
children - and shows how easy it is to create and print a corresponding family
chart. “Wow - what amazing things technology allows us to do!!” - she
says.
Case
#2
Bobby Jo
- is tracing her family tree and doing research on the early Yanceys of America.
She
has input her family tree into Family Tree Maker and traces it back to Charles
Yancey of Virginia. She reads that Charles Yancey came to Virginia
from Wales. And being "cute" she enters a father for Charles
Yancey in her database as "First Name: "Welsh" Last Name:
Yancey - just as a reminder as to where he came from.
She loves
genealogy and hopes to trace the family back into the Welsh royal families.
“Computers make genealogy so fun and easy” she says.
Case
#3
Billy
Jean - has just received a copy of her cousin’s family tree database and
uploads it into her own database. WOW! - a thousand names entered into her
database in just a few seconds with a “database import”. “OH1” but now
there is a bunch of duplication between her original names and the new names just
loaded - - BUT NOT TO WORRY - thanks to technology - she can now merge
these duplicates into single entries - using a the auto merge feature of her
software. She loves this way of importing into her family tree and soon has more than
50,000 names in her database –from files copied from others. What Magic!!!
Case
#4
Bubba Jim
- has just acquired a copy of a book on his family tree that was published 100
years ago. (a rare volume that he just barely acquired) He spends weeks
inputting the data into his family database. He is so proud of himself and
wants to share his new found information with the world - so he uploads it to
familysearch. Everyone will be so grateful for him sharing his new
discovery!!!
Case
#5
Jim Bob -
has been building his family tree database on ancestry.com - he LOVES the
"hints" feature that allows him to find others researching the same
family names - and how he can "pull in" additional information from
their database into his. He has now extended his Yancey family line three
generations further - and even back into Wales and England. He loves those
“hints”!!!
And
now you hear the "Rest of the Story" . . .
Case
#1
The
fictional family Mary Jane created for her workshop - was the family of Donald
and Daffie Duck. You may be interested to know she entered the family
into her primary genealogical database. She forgets to later delete
the family. Later she uploads her entire database to Ancestry.com.
Time goes by . . . the data gets propagated across various databases - -
A few years later - The LDS church (founder of FamilySearch) gets a nationwide
newspaper article about them - when they are accused of doing LDS
ordinances for the Donald Duck Family - - what a riot!!!! Donald Duck is
now Mormon!! *
Case #2
Bobby Jo
actually created a person in her database not of the name "Welsh
Yancey" - but actually rather of "Cymru
Yancey". You see Cymru is how the people of Wales - call their
country. Later Bobby's database gets uploaded to ROOTSWEB - with the
GEDCOM copy option set to yes. Within months - this "CYMRU
YANCEY" starts propagating across many rootsweb databases as the father of
the first Charles Yancey of Virginia. People who really don’t know much
about Wales - have no clue that "CYMRU" actually means
"Wales" - and that the entry is totally fictional. “HEY -
maybe its not true - but its the information I found” they say – “that’s better
than no information at all” they say. Its a "clue" for me
to look for more info they say – not realizing it’s a totally fabricated name. **
Case
#3
Billy
Jean - Billy
Jean – wasn’t very careful when she did the merge. She actually clicked
"YES" on various potential merges - when she should have
clicked “NO”. Now she has one person with two different wives - when it
was actually two different people – one with each wife. She loads her
data up to familysearch and now family search has the man with two wives. The
two wives propagate across the world as people download data from
familysearch.org. ***
Case
#4
Bubba Jim - What Bubba Jim didn’t
know was that the book was written by a genealogical farce of the 19th century
and was mostly fabricated information.
What he also didn’t know was that Cousin Carol
- had spent 10 years of her life - trying to carefully document and correct the
errors introduced by that book. Carol spent painstaking time in documenting the family
correctly in familysearch and setting the family straight. BOB just
made trash of all Carol's work in familysearch - in just a few weeks.
Carol finds out and "murdering Bubba" goes through her mind. How could someone so
easily destroy her work of more than ten years. ##!!@@%%#$@!!# Carol is
now looking for Bubba Jim and Bubba Jim - better run!!! ****
Case
#5
Jim Bob
Did Jim
Bob really extend his family tree into Wales?? Most (possibly all?)
Yancey information prior to 1704 found in database like rootsweb,
ancestry.com, and familysearch has been found to be totally unfounded. My
experience has been that you ask the person where they got there info - and
they hum and hah and say they got it from some other database user - when asked
if they know of any sources for it - they say "not really . .
. I cant count the number of people I have seen adding generations to
their family tree that are based on pure garbage through features like
ancestry.com hints - or through GEDCOM exchanges. *****
Though
various of the details of the above are made up for the story - the base issue
- is based on actual similar issues often rampant in on line database
like rootsweb, ancestry and familysearch.
SOME specific notes of mine.
* I have
on MORE THAN one occasion notified Family Search administrators of Fictional
Disney Families in their databases.
This is
not made up! - In the first case - I asked them what they thought if a
news article came out about the LDS do ordinances
for the
Disney Families. The data was quickly removed . . . need I say
more?
**
Cymru Yancey - was for a time propagating on rootsweb.com
here is
one place I currently find it:
take a
look at http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/s/a/m/Darla-Sams-NC/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0066.html
***
GEDCOM data interchange for genealogical data exchange - has been an incredible
benefit to genealogists. Unfortunately it has also been the means by which bad
info so easily propagates almost eternally.
**** I
can’t tell you the number of cases I’ve heard or witnessed similar to this
situation.
How to
keep good well documented information from being replaced by sloppy research
and unfounded facts - has been and continues to be a challenge to familysearch -
where there is ONE database for all - and anyone can potentially change just
about anything they wish without even being required to have a valid email on
file by which they can be contacted.
***** its
amazing how people have such a craving to "fill in the void" of
sparse details concerning family origin that they make wild
conjectures that over time get interpreted as if it was fact. It
seems like any information (even if it is fabricated, false, twisted or a wild
guess") seems to hold more weight in people's minds then NO
INFORMATION. I welcome any information that anyone can supply as to real evidence of
Yanceys in America prior to 1704. Most of what is out there in family databases
- is downright bogus. In any family story it is almost without question - the
information concerning origin that end up having the highest probability
of being in error - just because that’s the area that people have the
least facts on and to fill in the void - the fill it in with guesses and
conjecture. NOTHING wrong with conjecture - as long as it is kept labeled as
conjecture until proven otherwise.
Some suggestions and food for thought:
What are
some of your pet peeves about the digital world we live in?
What
suggestions do YOU have for those posting and sharing heir genealogical family
data?
Let me
know your thoughts.
Dennis
Yancey
The Yancey
Family Surname Resource Center
http://yanceyfamilygenealogy.org/
Some
web sites of interest:
Common
Genealogical Mistakes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7LU4PfawJQ
Genealogical
Scams to avoid
http://genealogy.about.com/od/basics/ss/scams_1.htm
Classes
of Evidence
Weighing
Your sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4j6v1OQVnE
Errors in
LDS IGI files
http://yanceyfamilygenealogy.org/igi.htm
Working
with GEDCOM files
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdqb2_CsGB8
How do I
know I’m right
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd_fUIZk5fo