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Archiver > TMG > 2002-08 > 1028396682


From: "Cliff Soderback" <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Re: Questionable Source Cites; Internet
Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2002 10:44:42 -0700
References: <131.11b3eb7a.2a7d3761@aol.com>


> >
>
> The worst thing is the lack of sources. Maybe an e-mail from every person
> viewing such information to the person posting the information explaining
> just how worthless their information is might start a trend to change
> things... or at least discourage them from posting further garbage.
>
> Also a campaign to the biggies asking them to refuse any unsourced
> information.
>
>
This is wishful thinking !

Most people do the family history and Genealogy as a hobby and can't
really afford to spend about $100 for each person to obtain the birth, death
and marriage certificates. Most States and counties will not supply the
original
certificate anyway.

In my case none of the people in my databases has appeared in any
publications
which makes a lot of my information hearsay at best, in most cases there is
no way
of ever confirming the data from any publicly available source(other than
birth
and death).

I would suggest to the purists, that if you want to use any of this data
that YOU do
the research and procure all the documents, or pay a professional to do the
work
for you. The rest of us will use the data and try to sort it out the best we
can.
You would be surprised as how valuable some of the clues are to someone
trying to follow a trail of peoples migration.

The worst thing is to stifle the exchange of information(although the
professionals
would prefer there was no exchange so they could have a monopoly on the
data).
What will happen, after a while, is the bad data will fall out of the bottom
and the data
quality will increase with time. My fear is that with the rewriting of the
copyright laws
large corporations will make claim(with an implied copyright) to anything
posted on the
internet. This is already happening on the pay sites.

Cliff Soderback


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