I agree with online trees being a lower priority.  The majority are posted 
without any documentation and many of them are incorrect.  Online trees may 
point you in a direction to search but should be suspect until you can find 
the documentation to suppose that tree.

Digital and microfilm images of the original documents are only as useful as 
the abilities of the abstractor and transcriber to correctly do their work. 
Sites which provided these images, usually for a fee due to the cost to make 
those images available, always face the problem of incorrect indexing.  No 
site can be 100% accurate in that area, whether a commercial or private free 
site.  No person who abstracts records for publication will ever be able to 
guarantee that they accurately read every document.  But without the indexes 
and abstracts, finding that useful original documents can be difficult.

There will never be a time when all family trees and all original documents 
are available for everyone to see, whether on commercial or private sites. 
A successful researcher will never be able to complete a family tree by 
using only free Internet sites and definitely not by relying heavily on 
family trees posted by other researchers.  But many researchers really 
aren't interested in proving the information, they just want to be able to 
say they have something that shows they are related to someone famous or 
that they can trace their lines back to Adam and Eve.  To most people, 
genealogy is just a fun hobby.  The serious genealogist is the person who 
finds the documentation just as important as the tree itself.

Pat Duncan
[log in to unmask]



-----Original Message----- 
From: Rondina Muncy
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2012 10:12 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Genealgy Future

Eric,

My point was that you do not need a database if you can look at digital or
microfilmed images of the original documents. Derivative sources are
helpful, but reliance on them often leads researchers to overlook documents
that will answer their questions.

While everyone's tree being online is an ideal, it is only so if the
information includes the sources it is based on. Looking at online trees is
a low priority for myself and the use of information posted should be
followed with research to document the discoveries. The opportunity is
there to achieve what you want, but with millions of hobbyists re-posting
someone else's inaccurate and undocumented conclusions with no analysis,
I will not see this in my lifetime.

I do not post to the Muncy tree. My husband was a descendant of Francis
Muncy of Virginia.

Rondina
_______________________
Rondina P. Muncy
Ancestral Analysis
4008 Linden Avenue
Fort Worth, Texas 76107
682.224.6584
[log in to unmask]
www.ancestralanalysis.com


On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 9:01 AM, Huffstutler, Eric S. <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> True to a certain point because not all databases are available for
> Internet use.  Not everyone's tree is online.  To that we still need
> volunteers for lookups and people to post lineage someplace where others
> can share and connect to or someone like me, who figure by now certain
> branches would have been filled via scan documents, have no way of
> knowing if people don't post their finds somewhere.   By not sharing
> only creates new brick walls for others.
>
> Now, I see you are a Muncy.  Have we corresponded before on a Muncy tree
> here in Virginia?
>
> Eric

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rondina Muncy
> Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2012 11:26 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Genealgy Future
>
> Eric,
>
> I believe you are correct in your observation that some genealogical
> websites that five to ten years ago were very active don't seem to be
> updated. From this we cannot tell whether it is from lack of interest in
> the sites by visitors or from lack of interest by persons or groups in
> keeping up the sites.
>
> My theory is that the abstracts and databases that used to be uploaded
> and added to on a regular basis have been replaced by digital images of
> the original records by repositories of all sorts. It used to be written
> in stone that a trip to the library for derivative sources was the first
> item in a genealogical research plan. My first step is to now search the
> Internet for both derivative and original sources.
>
> Rondina 

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