There are a lot of researchers, including myself, who do not post genealogies to the web. I subscribe to all the surname sites & message-boards I can find, and share my research on a one-to-one basis. I either respond to a query, or someone contacts me about information I have posted. When I exchange information, I first send a limited amount of data -- the record I have about their specific branch of the family in a regular descendant report, and an ahnentafel report, which gives only their direct ancestors. These are sent as MS Word documents, complete with sources and notes. (For questionable or undocumented data, I state in the notes where, or from whom I got it.) In return I ask that they fill in my record with what they are willing to share about their branch of the family, plus corrections of any errors they find in my data. (I also tell them that I will neither pass on information about living people, nor post their data to an on-line genealogy site.- and I keep those promises.) Sometimes the "exchange" ends right there -- they want my info, but are not willing to give me theirs. OK -- I gave them only a limited amount, and won't send any more.. Most contacts, however, result in a mutually satisfying exchange of further information. Sources: I have found no source -- primary, secondary or any other -- immune to error. The census especially so. If both parents are not at home the information may be taken from a spouse or adult child, who may not know the answers to some of the questions. My maternal grandfather's oldest daughter gave her father's birthplace as Norway. in the only census record for him that could be found I searched in vain until an internet cousin mentioned that "grandpa" might have served in the Civil War. I sent NARA a request for records with all the information I was sure of -- name, date of birth, and last known place of residence (Wisconsin). Sure enough, he enlisted as a Union soldier, and was killed two months later in the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia. But his enlistment papers said he was b. in NY.. He was killed quite a few years before my mother & her sisters were born, and the family just never talked about their long-dead grandfather.q In an official publication listing their marriage, both my paternal great-grandparents' surnames are misspelled - Wilmoth and Walraven are given as Wilmith and Walriven. And I actually found Wilmoth spelled three different ways in a single land document. You can't even believe it if it is inscribed in stone! I have photos of the headstones of three children in the same family who died between Oct. 26 and Nov. 2, 1862. They were Allen, b. May 4, 1856, Nancy Ann "Nannie", b. 27 May 1858, and McClellan, b. 28 Oct 1861, children of .William and Emily Warnock. Though I haven't been able to confirm this, I speculate that there must have been an epidemic in Eastern Kentucky in 1862. Only the fatigue of the engraver, having to inscribe too many headstones at the same time, plus parents too grief-stricken to make an issue of it, seems adequate to explain why these errors were left uncorrected. Allen's reads: "b. May 5, 1856, d. 1862, son of Emma and McClellan Warnock, twin of Nannie" (Birthdate wrong, he is not Nannie's twin, and McClellan was not his father) Nancy Ann's: "Nannie, b. May 5 1856, d. 1862, dau. of Emma and William Warnock, twin of Allen" (Only her nickname is on the stone, birth date is wrong, she is not Allen's twin.) McClellan's: b. Oct 28, 1861, d. 1862, son of Emma and William Warnock (the birth date is correct, but he isn't his brother Allen's father.) Virginia "Virginia Beck" <[email protected]>