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Archiver > TMG > 2002-08 > 1028310471


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Subject: Re: [TMG] Re: Questionable Source Cites; Internet
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 13:47:51 EDT


What I was getting at is that the person who submitted the wrong material
ought to either correct it on the Internet, DAR, Salt Lake or where ever or
remove it. I can understand the problems of correcting a book, long article
or such. Sometimes the circulation of such in many libraries etc would
preclude revision, but even there, I have seen addendums added to published
genealogical material describing material in the article that is incorrect
and revising it. Much appreciated when that happens.
Another way to correct things on the Internet might be to have a sunset law.
Any submitted material on the Internet ought to disappear after some period
of time, say 1 year. That way incorrect material not re-submitted would be
eliminated and I suppose one could say that incorrect material re-submitted
would at least be freshly wrong. I believe the repositories of information
also have some responsibility. Take the DAR again. I would assume most
lineage reports associated with a soldier are reasonably correct, or at least
I have found it so. Where the errors are so bad is in the identification of
the Revolutionary soldiers themselves. I have seen instance after instance of
the wrong soldier being claimed as an ancestor. For example, there is a Tyler
family in the DAR records claiming membership on a Tyler Revolutionary
soldier. The lineage is fine but just a cusrsory knowledge of contemporary
records show that their Tyler ancestor did not die for several years after
the war. However the Tyler soldier of the same given name on whom they were
claiming membership died during the war in 1777. Of course the family should
have done enough military research to be able to separate the various
soldiers of the same Tyler surname; On the other hand it seems to me that the
DAR ought to have "experts" to check such information and make sure or at
least reasonably sure it is correct. Maybe I am just getting old and
cranky-Dale

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