Hi, Missing Lincs, I know that many of you know how to do research, but it surprises me how often I find people who "take the shortest path". Nivard, Bazza and others have talked about finding more than one source to document a relative, but too many family trees are based on a leap of faith based on one entry found online. Fact #1: The internet is loaded with errors. Blame the humans, for the most part. Computers seldom make errors unless some silly human has set them up to fail. My wife's grandmother had some small problems with computers when she became 100 years old. Some computers couldn't handle three digits for the age. Silly programmers! When you reach 100, you'll still find some out there. Fact #2: Human brains don't always see our own errors. We put in 1984 when we meant 1884. We don't see the error. We put in a marriage date into a Family Tree program that is 10 years after the first child was born. Is it a mistake? Maybe not. Ever try to tell a fetus that it is too early? They just don't listen. In a way, it is a good thing your relatives were fertile. In another way, not so good. Fact #3: Our children are used to doing reports for school based on information that they find on the Internet. Who is the Internet Librarian who decides if a work is fact or fiction? I have found battles from the English Civil War that were set in the wrong place or wrong century. I've tried to correct those that I find, as you should too, but they keep reappearing like gophers in my garden. Fact #4: Our ancestors often didn't know. Where they were born, precisely. Even when they were born. Don't get me started on women's ages in the census. Most of you know those problems. I had a female relative send me the birthdates for her and all her brothers and sisters - each with about three years added to the birth year to make them look younger. My step-father's parents were from Hungary. Have you checked the borders of Hungary in the 1800s? All over the place! Turns out his mother was from Austria - well, it was part of Austria at the time. Enough of this! Do your research. Find at least three sources, please, before you go off and publish your family tree. Lou (list admin.)

Lou My tree software is Family Historian it is designed such that when one puts in a year and it detects that it could be wrong a message pops up asking me to check it. For example if I put in 1984 instead of 1884 the message asks me to confirm it. Another example if I out in a birth date after the mother had died a similar message comes up making me check this. There have been times when the birth date was correct but the mother turned out to be the second wife with the same Christian name. The message always appear when I put in 100 but if I confirm it is correct then it accepts it. It really comes down not just to human errors but also the design of the software you use. Victor On 27/03/2016 11:34 PM, lr_mills via wrote: > Hi, Missing Lincs, > > I know that many of you know how to do research, but it surprises me how often I find people who "take the shortest path". Nivard, Bazza and others have talked about finding more than one source to document a relative, but too many family trees are based on a leap of faith based on one entry found online. > > Fact #1: The internet is loaded with errors. Blame the humans, for the most part. Computers seldom make errors unless some silly human has set them up to fail. My wife's grandmother had some small problems with computers when she became 100 years old. Some computers couldn't handle three digits for the age. Silly programmers! When you reach 100, you'll still find some out there. > > Fact #2: Human brains don't always see our own errors. We put in 1984 when we meant 1884. We don't see the error. We put in a marriage date into a Family Tree program that is 10 years after the first child was born. Is it a mistake? Maybe not. Ever try to tell a fetus that it is too early? They just don't listen. In a way, it is a good thing your relatives were fertile. In another way, not so good. > > Fact #3: Our children are used to doing reports for school based on information that they find on the Internet. Who is the Internet Librarian who decides if a work is fact or fiction? I have found battles from the English Civil War that were set in the wrong place or wrong century. I've tried to correct those that I find, as you should too, but they keep reappearing like gophers in my garden. > > Fact #4: Our ancestors often didn't know. Where they were born, precisely. Even when they were born. Don't get me started on women's ages in the census. Most of you know those problems. I had a female relative send me the birthdates for her and all her brothers and sisters - each with about three years added to the birth year to make them look younger. My step-father's parents were from Hungary. Have you checked the borders of Hungary in the 1800s? All over the place! Turns out his mother was from Austria - well, it was part of Austria at the time. > > Enough of this! Do your research. Find at least three sources, please, before you go off and publish your family tree. > > Lou (list admin.) > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-LINCSGEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hello Victor. Just read your email and that you mentioned Family Historian in it. I've just bought Family Tree and cannot get on with it at all. I used FT several years ago and found it quite user friendly but the newer version and Ancestry itself is less comprehendible!!!!! Can only think age has something to do with it!!!! Barbara. Sent from my iPad > On 28 Mar 2016, at 08:54, Victor Markham via <eng-lincsgen@rootsweb.com> wrote: > > Lou > > My tree software is Family Historian it is designed such that when one >

Hi Victor To the best of my knowledge, all software available for at least a decade also has the same facility At least all I have tested or used have done, that includes most if not all the major suppliers I use PAF and that hasn't been updated for donkeys years and that alerts if you attempt to add a child whose birth is to close to the other siblings or the mother is deceased etc etc The problem I think is more due to those who just accept all or force the program to accept whatever they enter as they want numbers not true relatives I don't see that problem ending any time soon Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) On 28/03/2016 08:54, Victor Markham via wrote: > Lou > > My tree software is Family Historian it is designed such that when one > puts in a year and it detects that it could be wrong a message pops up > asking me to check it. > > For example if I put in 1984 instead of 1884 the message asks me to > confirm it. > > Another example if I out in a birth date after the mother had died a > similar message comes up making me check this. > > There have been times when the birth date was correct but the mother > turned out to be the second wife with the same Christian name. > > The message always appear when I put in 100 but if I confirm it is > correct then it accepts it. > > It really comes down not just to human errors but also the design of the > software you use. > > Victor --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

Can only say "Well written Lou". Surely part of the fun of family research is checking information yourself and perhaps adding that extra nugget of data..... W. Smith >