Hi Folks!
Being a rather new genealogy researcher, and considering the "experience" Ive recently
encountered, I would like to post a reminder to all other new researchers.
-When checking information contained in the LDS library PAF's, please remember to take
the info "with a pound of salt," and do not take the info verbatim.
Here's what happened to me: I have a first cousin who is a Mormon, and as part of a
Masters degree in genealogy, traced and placed our family history in the LDS PAF back
to our "Great Great GrandFather." Much of this info also listed the sources of his
information. When my cousin sent me all this, and I went to see for myself that he had
entered the info into the LDS PAFs, I thought "great! from here it should be easy to
backtrack even further!"
Well, my brother and I have been trying to follow this cousin's footsteps and have
checked all of the "sources," (ordered in census files, etc.) Guess what, we have not
been able to find any of the info he quoted in any of the sources he quoted! We checked
his info originally not to doubt his "word", but to gain experience in research so as to
take the family tree back a few more generations if possible.
So from this, I would like to remind all "newbies" like myself, that unless you get the
info from a vital statistic record or like, dont think for a moment that the info is
valid. More likely than not, it isnt valid. Now Ive got to go through the whole
process of research all over again, months wasted.
If this sounds like sour grapes, well yes, it is. But I guess that this is what makes
the process of genealogy the worlds greatest puzzle!
Sue Pawley
trottr@icanect.net
searching for : Greene, Church, Van Vleck
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