My advice to newbies is that "there is no such thing as a free lunch" and, like all hobbies, this one costs money. There is a lot of information available via the Internet now, but from personal observation there is a lot of absolute rubbish published as "facts", and anything you find on line should be verified by at least one or more alternate sources. Many of the Family Trees on line contain assumptions and mistakes and if anyone copies anything he/she finds on line without further verification or proof deserves all he/she gets as far as mis-information goes. I am ever thankful that I started researching my family history in the early days of on line information (I think only the IGI was available) and I have spent many (productive and rewarding) hours trawling through films of Parish records at our local Family History Centre attached to the LDS (Mormon) church. I also learned very early on that a lot of the Mormon "facts" need to be verified too - as anything submitted to the IGI as a "patron submission" is very often a guess. But, I repeat - you cannot do a good job at this hobby without spending money. You need to join something like Findmypast or Ancestry (I am a Findmypast and Genes Reunited person myself) and you often need to buy copies of certificates for proof of something you have found - and sometimes you will find you have a wrong certificate which is yet another expense. (but also, negative "proof" is as good as positive in many ways) I appreciate that not everyone has the same financial resources and we all have to limit our spending, or justify in which direction we spend money - but the same would apply if we are gardening, doing needlework, knitting, carpentry or whatever. It is still well worth anyone's while to go to his/her local Family History Centre and for a minimal fee you can borrow (and study on their premises) any of the thousands of films of various records the LDS have available to share with the world. The censuses available on line are an invaluable source of information and if you learn to think laterally and "outside the box" it is amazing how much you can piece together - and remember to be flexible in how you expect any names to be spelled. (and transcribers have to write down what they are copying - not what they either think or know should be there to copy) Another bit of advice is don't accept all family legends as true (but don't totally disregard them either) - work on the assumption that there is possibly a grain of truth in them somewhere along the line. An example of this in my family is that one of my great aunts was married to a Russian who was reported to have been related to Tolstoy. Recently I found his obituary on line it mentioned that his family had a holiday 'cottage' in the area where the Tolstoy family had property and the families knew each other - but that hardly made him one of their relations! So now I know how that legend came about - that great aunt's sister, who was a bit of a "Mrs Bucket" - sorry Bouquet! Elizabeth Pugh Whitehorse Yukon Canada PS I have loved reading Pat's letters from Dorothy Smith.

Bravo, Lee I'm saving this one. thanks for posting it. Hope all is well in whitehorse. I've heard about hard weather conditions up there occasionally. we've had a mild winter but very cold and the crows and seagulls are starving. I can feed the small family of crows left but the seagulls must have come from the entire coast of washington state there are so many when I throw out a few pieces of bread. the females are chirping like baby gulls, something I've never heard before and I know they are very hungry - but no fish so they don't even go down to the harbor anymore, just sit on the lamp posts all day. My capitalization isn't working well so please excuse. take care. Keep warm and continue with the good postings, please. very best wishes - carol On 2/5/12, Elizabeth Lee Pugh <elp@northwestel.net> wrote: > My advice to newbies is that "there is no such thing as a free lunch" and, > like all hobbies, this one costs money. > There is a lot of information available via the Internet now, but from > personal observation there is a lot of absolute rubbish published as > "facts", and anything you find on line should be verified by at least one or > more alternate sources. > Many of the Family Trees on line contain assumptions and mistakes and if > anyone copies anything he/she finds on line without further verification or > proof deserves all he/she gets as far as mis-information goes. > I am ever thankful that I started researching my family history in the early > days of on line information (I think only the IGI was available) and I have > spent many (productive and rewarding) hours trawling through films of Parish > records at our local Family History Centre attached to the LDS (Mormon) > church. I also learned very early on that a lot of the Mormon "facts" need > to be verified too - as anything submitted to the IGI as a "patron > submission" is very often a guess. > But, I repeat - you cannot do a good job at this hobby without spending > money. You need to join something like Findmypast or Ancestry (I am a > Findmypast and Genes Reunited person myself) and you often need to buy > copies of certificates for proof of something you have found - and sometimes > you will find you have a wrong certificate which is yet another expense. > (but also, negative "proof" is as good as positive in many ways) I > appreciate that not everyone has the same financial resources and we all > have to limit our spending, or justify in which direction we spend money - > but the same would apply if we are gardening, doing needlework, knitting, > carpentry or whatever. > It is still well worth anyone's while to go to his/her local Family History > Centre and for a minimal fee you can borrow (and study on their premises) > any of the thousands of films of various records the LDS have available to > share with the world. > > The censuses available on line are an invaluable source of information and > if you learn to think laterally and "outside the box" it is amazing how much > you can piece together - and remember to be flexible in how you expect any > names to be spelled. (and transcribers have to write down what they are > copying - not what they either think or know should be there to copy) > > Another bit of advice is don't accept all family legends as true (but don't > totally disregard them either) - work on the assumption that there is > possibly a grain of truth in them somewhere along the line. An example of > this in my family is that one of my great aunts was married to a Russian who > was reported to have been related to Tolstoy. Recently I found his obituary > on line it mentioned that his family had a holiday 'cottage' in the area > where the Tolstoy family had property and the families knew each other - but > that hardly made him one of their relations! So now I know how that legend > came about - that great aunt's sister, who was a bit of a "Mrs Bucket" - > sorry Bouquet! > > Elizabeth Pugh > Whitehorse > Yukon > Canada > > PS I have loved reading Pat's letters from Dorothy Smith. > > > ------------------------------- > 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 >