I, too, have been following this discussion closely, and although it has
now run its useful course, I thought I would try to wrap it up with two
comments.

 

One is to thank Elizabeth Shown Mills for her wise and thoughtful
commentary on sources and documentation.

 

The other is to point out that the Internet is not the villain here. Old
books and genealogical articles as well as new Internet postings can all
contain errors or omissions. The authors of some of the older
publications (in whatever format) may not have had access to information
that we can readily get today, so they committed unknowing errors. Which
should remind us that none of us can ever have every fact that we need,
and that from time to time we make well-educated but imperfect
deductions from the evidence that we can find.

 

I treat Internet sources precisely as I treat printed sources, as
starting places with leads to the original records, hoping that the
original documents survive and do not contain inconsistencies or errors,
themselves.

 

Now, back to work.

 

Brent Tarter

The Library of Virginia

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