Re: Genealogy For The Beginner

On Fri, 15 Feb 2008 02:46:55 GMT, Eagle@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (J. Hugh
Sullivan) wrote in soc.genealogy.computing:

>The National Genealogical Society is one in the US.

I would have personally some problem with associating a society
and knowledge.  While the society (whatever it is and whatever the
purpose is, i.e. genealogy or other topics) may have the purpose of
publi****ng data (review, database, books, etc.), it is usually not
a monopoly.  A federation of societies is usually a better group to
define standards and in many domains, there are specific committees
to set standards and while they are usually associated to societies
or federations equivalent, they work better when they are
independent and include representants from the industry (genealogy
software authors in our case).  So, even if the NGS can set some
standard, FGS can have other and different standards and LDS may
have other as well so that in genealogy, there is no universal 
"authority", even at a national level.

>You're back to semantics. I'm looking at 3 or 4 generations. Adopted
>kids may have no medical info on ancestors and it will get worse for
>their grandchildren if they look to falsified ancestors for data.

From genetics studies I have seen and my own feeling from what the
records show, a typical rate for babies born out of weblock in Quebec
before the 1960s would be 1 to 2%, i.e. 1 out of 10 people making
a male line 10 generations back will get the wrong male ancestor.

The rate in New England and Virginia should be similar when records
exist, i.e. in small societies where the marriage is compulsory, there
is a small rate of biologically illegitimate babies.  And in larger
societies, when people can't be checked and where there are much more
foreigners, the rate is higher.

This is why genealogy is not genetics.  You have to believe in the
do***ents.  If the DNA doesn't match, then you can't know who broke
the line.

>70% is more than "possibly" and many Southern families are
>considerably more certain than that.

Actually, it could be around 99%.  But even with 99%, you must
accept that you go by the papers and not by the genes.


Denis

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