On 7/1/2016 12:56 PM, Jeanie Roberts wrote: > I am new to this group and hope you don't mind me butting into this > thread. I confess to among other things, being an amateur genealogist > and to belonging to wikitree. If that's not bad enough, I also write > a blog. New posters are always welcome. We were all new posters at some point. > I am very new to medieval genealogy and it will be a long, long time > before I have anything new to add to this field if ever. However, when > I am 'working' on my ancestry I don't just copy what everyone else has > written without trying to find the original source to see what exactly > the researcher is referencing. I add these sources to the wikitree > profiles. I view my contribution to wikitree as a two steps forward > one step back process. I make some headway and someone else comes > along and edits my contribution. I am willing for now to give it a try. All improvements to the accuracy of online genealogy are a good thing, although I try to avoid the "one step back" part as much as I can. :-) Everyone should contribute their research in a way which they believe to be most suitable. One recommendation I would make for those working on such wikis is that they maintain a separate backup copy of their research which contains ONLY the material that they have carefully checked against the original sources, unpolluted by material contributed by others. Part of the reason for the current online genealogical mess is that too many researchers have imported and merged the GEDCOM files of others into their personal databases. My recent diatribes on this subject have been written to clear up two serious misconceptions. First, I wanted to explain in detail why I remain unconvinced that the current wikis or other open genealogical databases will EVER evolve into the type of relatively reliable resource that many genealogists seem to want. Second, I wanted to explain more clearly why many experienced genealogists do not believe that their time would be well spent contributing to such collections. Part of the passion behind my remarks has been due to some rather thinly veiled insinuations that experienced genealogists who don't contribute to wikitree or other publicly shared databases are somehow not contributing what they should to the genealogical world. Experienced researchers should not have to explain repeatedly their lack of enthusiasm for the suggestion that they turn their research over to be revised by those not qualified to do so. > I am hoping I can use this group as a resource when I need help, > especially when correcting errors on wikitree, and that you won't > dismiss my questions as to amateurish. My first attempt to reply seems > to have bounced back. My apologies if this is sent twice. Your message did appear twice. Messages don't always appear immediately after being sent. Try waiting for a few hours before you resend to see if your message appears. Stewart Baldwin