Genealogy is a fun and rewarding pastime but those who participate are at
various places on the learning curve. In recent years the commercial market for
products has become big business. I remember buying all of the how to books and
manuals written by different folks when I first started. But after a time I
shifted to published records such at the books of abstracts of records
published by the Sparacio's and Fred Dorman. Still on occasion I post to a web site or
go to a source such a World Connect to see what other folks have to say about
a family understudy. Most are not useful but they often give a person who has
something like a bible record or letter that can help extend the family. And
they can allow you to follow where the family went when they left Virginia. I
of course try and point out what is in disagreement with my research. Thus it
is helpful to both.
I have been working on the Descendants of Hugh French for about 15 years now.
I stalled when I found the information on the French-Taliaferro Connection
and published it in 1995. It is gratifying to see this fact changed in many data
bases. But a funny thing happened on the journey along the way.
I have been contacted by many descendants of the group of French brothers
that were in the  Bedford-Franklin Co., VA area before migrating to Kentucky,
Indiana and Illinois. The father's name was Daniel and the mother's name was
Mildred. Someone asked me who I thought Mildred's name was. I said she MAY HAVE
BEEN a Strother. I had never tried to place her in that family. My reason for
this supposition is some thin onomastic evidence and a marriage between one of
her sons and a woman who had Strother connections. WELL if you look at various
data bases on this family you will see Mildred  Strother. What was a weak
comment on my part and probably unwise, has now become "fact" without anyone doing
the research necessary to validate it's accuracy.
Part of the problem with Internet genealogy is that the text in E-mail does
not allow for footnotes so if you copy and paste you loose them.
When I share I usually share portions of what I have pertinent to the
subject.  I have also compiled large studies of some of the families I have worked on
and I often send them. Attachments keep the notes in order but it also make
it possible to send it all to others. I do not care about those being
circulated as long as no one profits from them. But I have also found many just want
the name placed where it should be in a data base. It never ceases to amaze me
how many people cannot glean information in this way.
In my client contract I retain the intellectual right to my work. I also
require the client allow me to review the work before they publish so the work is
not distorted as it was in the Strother book. These are all lessons we learn
along the way. Human beings really are a "piece of work." Margaret

Margaret R. Amundson, CGsm is a service mark of the Board for Certification
of Genealogists, used under license by Board-certified associates after
periodic proficiency evaluations.




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