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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 417267" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>husband does a lot of genealogy. One thing you can say about the Mormons - their computer software for genealogy is the best. </p><p></p><p>Accuracy is going to be a problem with any records. What people choose to record can be inaccurate for all sorts of reasons, from deliberate hiding of dates (my parents lied about the date of their marriage by a year to hide the fact that it was a shotgun wedding) to accidents (my brother organised the plaques at the crematorium and got the death dates wrong - swapped with the funeral dates).</p><p></p><p>Other issues we've encountered - people who ask you to falsify or delete information because it is personally sensitive. For example, my adopted niece asked to have her adoption identification removed, she wanted to be shown as the natural daughter of my sister. husband had to be tactful and make a change to the file in front of my niece, then later on made a private note re-correcting the data but hiding it from a casual printout. Later generations will have the true record. Similarly, I have an uncle whose parentage publicly is one thing, privately is unknown but we have increasingly strong suspicions, now never to be confirmed except perhaps by DNA maybe. Only nobody is going to ask, because it would be his kid's DNA compared with our DNA looking for mitochondrial evidence. Which we know won't be there. Frankly, too much hassle for what would only hurt people. So some things you can never know, the best you can do is put in info as accurately as you can.</p><p></p><p>Have you ever received genealogy info from someone, asking you to check it for accuracy, and found errors? This is the norm. Ancestry.com, like all other forms of information collecting (including church records and family bibles) is only as accurate as the hand putting the information in. You can send off your corrections, but how often have such corrections not been fully logged? Or someone accidentally digs out the earlier version? How often have you had to change your address or contact details on official correspondence when you could have sworn you'd already done it before? It's because there is always the human factor to consider.</p><p></p><p>Ancestry.com is good, we've been told, but we personally haven't used it. Too expensive and much of the information is out thee anyway, a lot cheaper. Anything that can afford the sort of advertising we're seeing, is making good money out of it. They need to pay for those ads. So we'll continue to stick to family records reinforced with copies of birth, death and marriage certificates (get scanned copies from family where possible) - otherwise known as "hatch, match and despatch".</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 417267, member: 1991"] husband does a lot of genealogy. One thing you can say about the Mormons - their computer software for genealogy is the best. Accuracy is going to be a problem with any records. What people choose to record can be inaccurate for all sorts of reasons, from deliberate hiding of dates (my parents lied about the date of their marriage by a year to hide the fact that it was a shotgun wedding) to accidents (my brother organised the plaques at the crematorium and got the death dates wrong - swapped with the funeral dates). Other issues we've encountered - people who ask you to falsify or delete information because it is personally sensitive. For example, my adopted niece asked to have her adoption identification removed, she wanted to be shown as the natural daughter of my sister. husband had to be tactful and make a change to the file in front of my niece, then later on made a private note re-correcting the data but hiding it from a casual printout. Later generations will have the true record. Similarly, I have an uncle whose parentage publicly is one thing, privately is unknown but we have increasingly strong suspicions, now never to be confirmed except perhaps by DNA maybe. Only nobody is going to ask, because it would be his kid's DNA compared with our DNA looking for mitochondrial evidence. Which we know won't be there. Frankly, too much hassle for what would only hurt people. So some things you can never know, the best you can do is put in info as accurately as you can. Have you ever received genealogy info from someone, asking you to check it for accuracy, and found errors? This is the norm. Ancestry.com, like all other forms of information collecting (including church records and family bibles) is only as accurate as the hand putting the information in. You can send off your corrections, but how often have such corrections not been fully logged? Or someone accidentally digs out the earlier version? How often have you had to change your address or contact details on official correspondence when you could have sworn you'd already done it before? It's because there is always the human factor to consider. Ancestry.com is good, we've been told, but we personally haven't used it. Too expensive and much of the information is out thee anyway, a lot cheaper. Anything that can afford the sort of advertising we're seeing, is making good money out of it. They need to pay for those ads. So we'll continue to stick to family records reinforced with copies of birth, death and marriage certificates (get scanned copies from family where possible) - otherwise known as "hatch, match and despatch". Marg [/QUOTE]
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