Re: Genealogy For The Beginner

In article <47b851c4.5237220@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
J. Hugh Sullivan <Eagle@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

[trim]

>My problem, and that of so many, is: (1) fire, flood and war destroyed
>many essential records (2) poor dirt farmers didn't leave much of a
>trail.
>
>I have every Sullivan in the 1790 census in NC. I have eliminated all
>but 5 as possibly being the father of my gg grand. In theory I should
>be able to choose one of the 5. But what if his father was not even
>included in the 1790 census - and I know several Sullivans that were
>not.
>From this thread I gather several people would have no problem
>selecting the father that looked best - whether he was right or wrong
>does not matter. That's certainly one way to do it.
>
>One cousin went to Ireland, saw a tombstone with the name Russell
>Sullivan, and for 10 years said she saw the burial place of our
>ancestor. Today it seems that anything is okay if it makes you feel
>good.
>
>Am I chastising a deceased equine?

  Rather.

  That issue of the 5 known candidates for a slot in your tree, and
an unknown number of unknown candidates, is why my annoyance with
software that tries to push conclusions rather than evidence.  One
should be able to collect and work with candidates, rather than
having the choice only of 'leave it blank' and 'pick one'.  The
candidates, some at least, you may well be able to run a tree
back farther, reliably (for however you define reliability).  While
it may turn out that the candidate whose tree you've run back
another 3 generations is not _your_ ancestor, he quite possibly
is _someone's_, so a service to others (if you share your work,
which you've mentioned you don't, but for those who do).

  One ancestor of mine, relatively recent even, prompted my interest
in method of multiple hypotheses (written up by T. C. Chamberlin
for geology in the 1880s) for genealogy.  Common first name and
common last name, and was born in a large city/county.  About
a dozen candidates.   More than I'm going to try to handle without
some sup****t.

-- 
Robert Grumbine http://www.radix.net/~bobg/
Science faqs and amateur
activities notes and links.
Sagredo (Galileo Galilei) "You present these recondite matters with too
much 
evidence and ease; this great facility makes them less appreciated than
they 
would be had they been presented in a more abstruse manner." Two New
Sciences