TMG-L Archives

Archiver > TMG > 2000-05 > 0957214619


From: "Grawrock, David" <>
Subject: [TMG-L:] RE: TMG-L: Beginner's Problems
Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 13:56:59 -0700


The idea that I learned the most from Evidence was the evaluation of a
source. The fun only starts when you have a document in front of you. Asking
those questions of who did it, when they did it, why they did it and what
axe they have to grind is where "real" genealogy starts.

I have two dates for my grandmother. One date is a public record made at the
time of her birth, the other date comes from the rest of her life where she
celebrated another day. For now I have no way to resolve this problem.

The question I ask now is should I spend effort in resolving this problem.
It doesn't change any real genealogical issues, 3 days in 1911 will not make
a difference, her parents remain the same etc. I am currently just marking
the discrepancy and moving on, but is that right?

David

-----Original Message-----
From: Mills [mailto:]
Sent: Monday, May 01, 2000 12:46 PM
To:
Subject: TMG-L: Beginner's Problems


> That may be but there are errors on vital records.

Cheri makes an incredibly important point with the above statement. Since
the thread of this is "Beginner's Problems," it's germane to say that
Cheri's point may very well be the most important thing a beginner needs to
know about genealogy. Lawrence of Arabia wasn't a whole lot off the mark
with his statement "All records lie," and we put ourselves at great risk if
we trust any one source -- be it a record or person. Yes, we drastically
slow the pace of our "progress" when we decide to search out every possible
record each forebear might have left, as well as records created by
collateral kin. But finding every relevant document and weighing each
against the other to determine where the truth most-likely lies is the only
way to ensure that we aren't "progressing" in the wrong direction. Probably
everybody on this list who's been doing genealogy more than a couple of
years has tales to share with "beginners" about those "former ancestors" on
whom we spent oodles of time and boo-coodles of money!

Elizabeth Shown Mills


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