All the substantive things have been said, so I just thought I would share my online genealogy
story, briefly, I promise!
 
Several years ago I was recovering from an illness and started looking at Ancestry.com because
I lacked energy to do much else.  To my incredulous delight I found the ancestry of my family
of origin back to the German immigrant of 1741, place of birth, date of birth, marriage, all children
etc. etc. etc.  It took me a few months to begin to wonder:  how do they know this?  I began to
e-mail everyone who posted the information, as well as asking for sources on message boards.
Utter silence.
 
Last year a distant cousin in Wisconsin answered my question.  About 15 years ago he had gone
to Shenandoah Co., done some research, speculated on relationships and shared his speculations
with another cousin.  This cousin posted all of his speculations on the net, without attribution and
without identifying them as speculative.  Now this "information" is all over the place.  My Wisconsin
cousin, the original source, has given up online genealogy entirely.
 
Earlier this year I found a listing of dates of birth for a Pennsylvania ancestor's siblings.  I e-mailed
the person who posted this asking for a source.  She never responded but asked how I fit in.  I
told her.  I later checked her Rootsweb site again and found that she had added my gg-grandfather.
She got his year of birth incorrect.  The best part, however, was her version of his place of death:
"Vicksburg, Va.," 1863!
 
                                                               Sharon Peery> Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:47:52 -0700> From: [log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: Is Genealogy obsolete?> To: [log in to unmask]> > <grin> You know, I still copy most of it by hand. People ask--"Can you send me a copy of the original?" Well, no, because I just transcribed it! Of course, they think that's weird. If I copied ever doc I use I'd REALLY be in the poor house! I can give them book and page--if they just HAVE to have a copy... > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Mickey Fournier<mailto:[log in to unmask]> > To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 7:49 AM> Subject: Re: [VA-ROOTS] Is Genealogy obsolete?> > > No, genealogy is not obsolete and never will be. Those of us sat on cement> floors in courthouse sub-basements and hand-copied documents (before the> photocopier was invented) by the light of the 20 watt bulb dangling from the> 15 foot ceiling are still here.> > Most of us typed, transcribed, posted and otherwise shared our research> findings and copies of our work. We just got tired of handing several> generations to some new enthusiast who never even bothers to send a word of> thanks, then posts our findings on RootsWeb or Ancestry as their own work.> Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.> > And as to losing volunteers, how many of you who are complaining have> voluteered a precious minute of your time???> > I will get off my soap box now - just had all I could stomach.> > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at> http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html<http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html>> > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at> http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html
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