I enjoyed your novelette here placed. :-) You have a gift of expression, and I hope you develop it by writing some family narrative.
Though I surely join in your encouragement of others to add their info to appropriate net sites, I am reminded of my Father who would have said that relying on the internet for in-depth genealogical research is similar to standing at the back door and taking a shot at the woods, hoping thereby to bag breakfast. Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 12:14 PM
Subject: Footnotes on taxlists, etc.
(Cynthia here, making Feet-in-Mouth Notes)
....
Gulp.
Squirming here, because I have not yet translated this Glorious
Conclusion into Action.
....At present, I am sitting on a number of completed 1850 Census
transcriptions I've done up which I find indispensable in my own personal
research and am certain would be a welcome addition to the general
genealogical database of their particular county websites, but.......
First of all, even though whatever I am doing is not for profit, in the
context of this discussion I realize now I *stole* the original census
images I've painstakingly transcribed, by way of my paid ancestry.com
subscription... yes?
**** Nope; censuses are public record.
....Yet mispellings aren't computer
findable and I was first of all doing this for my own personal use.
It's a horrible job. "Errors" are inevitable. If the enumerator hasn't
gone 'n made 'em, (miswritten, misunderstood, mispelled, misplaced,
misnumbered)...I can certainly misread the blurry scribblings myself.
Short of that, I am still wondering if one Illinois head of household
enumerated as, "SIMMONS, Medad", was somewhere out in the back-forty
the day the census-taker stopped by the farmhouse.
****may well have been !
Nevermind, but then you know what I am getting at. And once you submit
any of these things "to expand the accessible databases online", are you
consigning yourself to make endless updates if you hear from each and
every descendant who knows for sure a child's age was wrong or given name
spelled otherwise?
*** nope; your work is done, and it is up to those who borrow your conclusions to satisfy themselves as to your errors or lack of same.
....Back in 1996 when I first connected to the internet there was
next to nothing online, very very little in the way of raw genealogical
data. Even though now the amount of material is overwhelming, yet not
too long ago I myself sent a whining plea to the Powers That Be begging
that it be suggested to the hundreds of county genweb volunteers they
upload at least a Township Map of their counties - one of those with the
1-36 sections of each within their boundaries would be nice....&
available to scan from their local libraries but ordinarily not available
to researchers in other counties much less in other States - so we can
orient ourselves to the data they offer....
Now in 2004, there is however, HOPE !!!
....To increase the online database for each other and
future generations of researchers. Yes there are pitfalls. And
surprising consequences. Some pretty unpleasant ones. But I keep
feeling I ought to submit the stuff I've worked so hard on if it only
helps just one person, like I've been helped.
***Good thoughts.
.... I'm hoping you'll reconsider anyway.
***Many of us join in that hope.
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