Documentation is so very important. For several years my (Bingham) ancestors accepted the year of 1798 as the birth of my gggggrdfather. A relative doing research accepted it but in ding his own research found a birth record for a Willard in 1799 thinking it was the same man submitted it to AF as the same person. Now if he had down just a little more searching he would have found 4th ggrdfather to be born in 1793 according to the vital records found on the IGI. I learned early on not to accept what others have done as gospel. You will be sadly mistaken later. I use the rule of thumb "in the mouth of two or more witnesses shall my word be established." -----Original Message----- From: Oels' house [mailto:phibev@micron.net] Sent: Friday, August 07, 1998 2:07 PM To: GEN-ROOTERS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [GEN-ROOTERS-L] Agreement! Diane Wrightsman wrote: > I, too, spent years trusting the work of others, not documenting, not > thinking it was necessary in order to get my ancestors temple work done. Only recently, when I pulled some r-e-a-l-l-y bad stuff from the Ancestral file, have I realized what mistakes I could have made. > I agree wholeheartedly with Diane's position. When I am working with others who are just beginning their research, I always speak of the dual-nature of the project: Family history and genealogy. Family history to get recorded for future generations all those neat stories about ancestors. Genealogy to look carefully and determine how much of family history is really family tradition! Case is point: I and some fifteen cousins grew up hearing about the four brothers who came to the US from Sweden, changing their name after their arrival in order to gain employment. On closer examination, it turned out that between us we had a total of six names for four brothers! Searches of the parish registers in Sweden have thus far only turned up two of the four/six and the mother is now dead. Sooooo, unless great-grandpa married again and had sons with another wife, it looks very much as if our family "history" will need to be rewritten. Also, it appears from the records we have looked at that at least one of the sons changed his name before leaving Sweden. BUT without the history" we wouldn't have known what to look for. Or where. The parents and the children whose records I have located in the parish registers in Sweden have had their work completed including the sealing to the parents. The brothers whose very existence is still in question are listed at the end of the family group sheet with notes reminding everyone that they need to continue looking for these sons. No temple work will be done until I find them even though 16 of us "know" about them. As the first and only member of the Church in my family (excluding my immediate family), I feel a tremendous urgency about this work. I also feel accuracy is important. However, from the eternal perspective, how important is it if grandma was born on the 15th of May or the 14th? Maybe always operating prayerfully is the key? Thanks for letting me share my thoughts. Beverly in Idaho phibev@micron.net ==== GEN-ROOTERS Mailing List ==== We believe in being honest,true,chaste,benevolent,virtuous,and in doing good to all men; indeed we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul -We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous,lovely,or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these. 13th Article of Faith listowner questions to AZDEE@aol.com