New complications in your tree? Read the newsletter below: Jennifer Sherwood Braswell jensgen@iol10.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Family Tree Finders <soda-send@gt.sodamail.com> To: <jensgen@mail.integrityonline10.com> Sent: Monday, July 17, 2000 7:55 AM Subject: Family Tree Finders Monday July 17, 2000 : : : FAMILY TREE FINDERS : Monday - 17 July 2000 : : How to handle a situation where you have : disproved a long accepted lineage. : : : Brought to you today by iPrint : ***************************************************************** : Get your FREE Self-Inking Stamp today! : Q: What's blue, great to have on your desk, and FREE? : A: Handy stamps - ideal for return addresses! : Pay just $2.39 for shipping in the U.S. & the stamp's FREE! : - Limited time special offer, good for new customers only. : : http://www.cyberbounty.com/ad?a=97&b=8&c=1273 : ***************************************************************** : : : : FAMILY TREE FINDERS : Monday - 17 July 2000 : : Etched in Stone - Or Is It? : : You have been diligently researching one of your lines. : You've spent hours, days, months, perhaps even years : locating primary documents and developing and proving : your hypothesis. You put it all together and eagerly share : your final results with cousins only to be shot down. : Instead of hurrahs your cousins say that you couldn't : possibly be correct. They then proceed to point out that : your conclusions disagree with some previously published : family history. : : This is not an unusual scenario. Unfortunately, it generally : causes dissention in the family. And you as the researcher : that has worked so hard, will undoubtedly feel hurt. After : all, you didn't originally set out to cause a problem among : the family researchers. : : It is important to not lash out at the family. Some of them : may just need to take a little time to re-examine your : findings and then they will see where your research is : correct. It may take some of them extra time as they : compare your research with what they had done previously. : Allow them this time. : : A friend of mine worked very hard on one of our research : trips. She went page by page through some very old and : hard to read records in Virginia. When she was done, : through the records relating to a slave purchased by one : ancestor and bequeathed to the son, she was able to : disprove a long established lineage. Because of the records : she discovered, she could show that instead of there being : three generations of individuals with the same name, it was : only two. Why had this not been discovered earlier? : Perhaps because the records she was working with were : unindexed. It is only the truly dedicated that will go : through page after page of colonial writing looking for an : ancestor. : : Of course when she shared her discovery, there were some : who wanted to dismiss it. They were not pleased with what : she had found. Others saw it for what it was, the true : lineage and they were happy that she had found it. : : There will always be a few that will never acknowledge the : lineage as you have outlined it, but if you have followed : correct research principles and used primary documents : then you know that you have proven your case. Of course, : just as you disproved a lineage, don't close your eyes to the : same possibility at a later date. : : As researchers our expertise is always developing. What : seemed perfectly logical when we were beginners now is : full of holes. We also learn as we progress what are the : best records to work with and what ones are questionable. : We learn to seek out repositories with manuscripts and : other more difficult to access records. We learn to go page : by page through those unindexed records. And through : these endeavors we sometimes find where an error has been : made. : : In the land of the Internet, share that find. Share your : sources so that people know where you found the : information that is the basis for your discovery. And be : willing to answer questions when asked about how you : came to that conclusion. : : : : : : Rhonda R. McClure : rhondam@sodamail.com : : : If you know someone who is interested in genealogy, : please forward this entire message to them! : _________________________________________________ : : IMPORTANT ADDRESSES: : Sodamail Web site: http://www.sodamail.com : : TO UNSUBSCRIBE VIA WEB : Click on the following link to be unsubscribed immediately: : http://gt.sodamail.com/exec/gt/unsubscribe_FT.html?user=583428afee65 : : : NOTE: You can subscribe to other Sodamail newsletters at the same : time! : : TO UNSUBSCRIBE VIA E-MAIL : Send blank email message to: : leave-family-tree-finders@gt.sodamail.com : : TO SUBSCRIBE VIA E-MAIL : Send blank email message to: : join-family-tree-finders@gt.sodamail.com : : Need help? -- write to: help@sodamail.com : Have questions--write to our editor: editor@sodamail.com : __________________________________________________ : COPYRIGHT 1999-2000 SodaMail LLC. All rights reserved : http://www.Sodamail.com : : : : : :