Re: Genealogy For The Beginner

On Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:55:55 +0100, "Lesley Robertson"
<l.a.robertson@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>
>"J. Hugh Sullivan" <Eagle@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
>news:47b59ac2.5874016@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> On Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:01:49 +0100, "Lesley Robertson"
>> <l.a.robertson@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>"J. Hugh Sullivan" <Eagle@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>>>news:47b4f909.49688648@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>>
>>>> The National Genealogical Society is one in the US.
>>>
>>>We've had people trying to impose the US NGS rules on us before...
>>>It wasn't very popular. To say the least.
>>>Lesley Robertson
>>
>> I don't disagree EXCEPT popularity does not seem to me to be the only
>> criterion for standardization. Frankly I think it discourages it.
>
>If people don't like it, they won't use it.
>>
>> We may not all need to be on the same page but, if I use your data,
>> seems like I should know what page you are on.
>
>True. There's a simple answer - whatever one does, and however they do
it, 
>quote the sources in a form that lets other people find them to check
them 
>if they want to. Assume that anything not quoting sources is not
reliable.
>You can impose a set of standards on a set of professionals, but most
people 
>are doing this as a hobby - you can't force them to do anything they
don't 
>want as you have no sanction if they don't comply.
>Lesley Robertson

I have no intention of forcing anyone to do anything. 

A number of trees on the Internet say Owen was the father of Russell
(the line doesn't matter). I can easily disprove that - but it doesn't
remove the inaccuracy. I wish he was Russell's father - it would have
been so easy to accept and run with it if I wasn't capable of more.

A number of people say Russell had a middle name. There is no
authoritative source that confirms that - it's hearsay. It's like
saying he had eyes in the back of his head or wings and could fly -
you can't prove it wrong.

Almost everybody says Russell was born in 1789. I can prove that wrong
- he was provably born in 1790. It takes a bulldog math enthusiast to
prove it. All that can be sourced to the Family History Library,
Ancestry.com and other sources. So much for sources without adequate
confirmation. A lot of people are just lousy genealogists - and a
bunch of them don't seem to care. 

Hugh