MARYLAND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

Accuracy, Legalities and other Details of MARYLAND MEMBERS' ANCESTRY PROJECT (Md-MAP) Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter Vol. 8 No. 2 - January 13, 2003   Accuracy of Online Genealogy Information   This week a newsletter reader asked if I might comment on a series of messages posted to a mailing list server that attacked Ancestry.com. I read through the mish-mash of statements and found a number of comments painting Ancestry.com in a negative light. The various messages all claimed that you couldn't trust the information found on the company's Web site, and that you still had to verify the information elsewhere. The general theme was that this particular online site was not a good place to find genealogy information.   My favorite line was, "Searching the records at NARA is more reliable and still necessary."   Duh! Where have these people been? Of course you still have to verify information elsewhere. You always do that with every piece of genealogy information you find, whether it is from an online site or from a published book or other printed genealogy publication. That is a basic in Genealogy 101: "Always check your sources."   Anyone who thinks that this is an issue only with Ancestry.com or only with another online genealogy database is misguided. The same issue applies to Ancestry.com, RootsWeb.com, Genealogy.com, FamilySearch.org, GenCircles.com, OneGreatFamily.com, books you find at the library, messages receive in e-mail, and even this weekly newsletter. It is true of all secondary sources and even occasionally of primary sources. Whatever you read, check it out!   I consider Ancestry.com to be valuable. I consider the other online resources I mentioned to be valuable. I also consider genealogy books to be valuable. I also solicit e-mail assistance from other genealogists. But I never, ever believe anything I read until I can verify the claims.    I also hear people moaning and groaning about the quality of genealogy information to be found online. There are claims that much of the online genealogy data is worthless. These comments seem to insinuate that people shouldn't place information online until they have verified it.   You know what? I don't care. I want to see the claimed information anyway. Yes, I even want to read the inaccurate information. When I am looking for the unknown parents of one of my "end of the line" ancestors, I want to see every possible clue, accurate or not. If someone else thinks he or she knows the parents of Washington Harvey Eastman, I want to know what that person is thinking. No, I don't care if their information is accurate or not because I am going to check it out anyway. If possible, I'll contact the person who created the information and ask, "Where did you find that?" I'll find out later if the information is accurate or not when I verify it in primary records. All I want is ideas and hints of possibilities.    In fact, this is all you ever find online or in print: ideas and hints of possibilities. Remember that nothing is ever a "fact" until you personally prove it.   I will also point out that genealogy information found online today is no different from information published in books before the invention of the Web. Walk into any major genealogy library and grab a bunch of books written 50, 75 or 100 years ago. You will find some books that were carefully researched, while others were not. I can show you some old genealogy books that are true fairy tales. In short, the same is true of the data you find today on the World Wide Web. The only things different about the Web are speed and convenience: it is easier and faster to publish accurate and inaccurate information alike. However, the percentage of inaccurate information doesn't seem to have changed much in the past 100 years.   In summary, the e-mail messages attacking one particular online database missed the point. This is not an issue with Ancestry.com, nor is it an issue with RootsWeb.com, Genealogy.com, FamilySearch.org, GenCircles.com, OneGreatFamily.com, or the information found on some distant cousin's personal home page. It is an issue dealing with conducting genealogy searches.   Quoting from Ancestry.com's own site at http://www.gale.ancestry.com/learn/learning/gedcoms.htm: "You verify and corroborate every single detail. Never assume that someone else did all the research and did it correctly. Even if their research is documented with sources and citations, recheck every detail before you accept it as fact."

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