Suzanne - you are assuming a consistent family, and consistent levels of expertise/research ability/cooperative approach. Everyone has run accross family members either uninterested in family history OR want to do their own thing in their own way OR has "found" relatives (they were the only candidates on the online indexes) and don't want to be told they are wrong OR don't want to reveal illegitimacy/crime/scandal in the family line OR (and so on). The next problem is that any person has two parents, and so two lines to research, and unless you are both siblings, these lines are at least 50 per cent different. The only way you can get a "central" database is by building up a massive file that includes thousands of people as contributers, and even the Mormons have found difficulty in guaranteeing data provided by their members. Really, the only way you can ensure reliability of data input, to an acceptable standard, is for one person to control it, which effectively means your own direct family database. You can put this online in a number of ways, for other people to connect with their own databases, but as soon as you connect with another database, one of you loses control of the quality assurance of the data. There are so many aspects to this type of discussion that it always ends up - do it yourself! Gordon

AMEN ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gordon Johnson" <gordon@kinhelp.co.uk> To: <aberdeen@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 10:58 AM Subject: [ABERDEEN] Online collaborative family tree tools > Suzanne - you are assuming a consistent family, and consistent levels of > expertise/research ability/cooperative approach. > Everyone has run accross family members either uninterested in family > history OR want to do their own thing in their own way OR has "found" > relatives (they were the only candidates on the online indexes) and > don't want to be told they are wrong OR don't want to reveal > illegitimacy/crime/scandal in the family line OR (and so on). > The next problem is that any person has two parents, and so two lines to > research, and unless you are both siblings, these lines are at least 50 > per cent different. The only way you can get a "central" database is by > building up a massive file that includes thousands of people as > contributers, and even the Mormons have found difficulty in guaranteeing > data provided by their members. > Really, the only way you can ensure reliability of data input, to an > acceptable standard, is for one person to control it, which effectively > means your own direct family database. You can put this online in a > number of ways, for other people to connect with their own databases, > but as soon as you connect with another database, one of you loses > control of the quality assurance of the data. > There are so many aspects to this type of discussion that it always ends > up - do it yourself! > Gordon > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ABERDEEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message