Dear J.R.: You web site undoubtedly is the largest compilation published on Hamrick family history ever. It is impressive in its scale and you are to be commended. But I want to sound some cautions to that portion of the West Virginia family history that relates to descendants of Benjamin Hamrick and Nancy McMillian. The book is riddled with errors, lacks attributions and sources. It appears you have followed Les Hamrick's "Roots and Wings" on my own family line complete with its multitude of errors. Les Hamrick and his principal researcher, Beverly Hamrick Kenney, are friends of mine. I've told them about the errors. Unlike the Jones' book on Carolina Hamricks, Les Hamrick was fair at family line connections but deplorable with facts, the ability to use judgment about sources and to cite any attribution or sourcing at all. I told Les he needed an editor. I have known Les Hamrick well for six years. My own biography has eight sentences and four errors. Les never took a note in my presence, even though we discussed my own life frequently. And the obvious factual errors make the book extremely risky if you are quoting facts. There are so many errors it is useless to recount them. For example, my grandfather, son of Peter, was Daniel Stoffer, not David. He lists four children of Daniel Stoffer and Rosa Riggleman. There were seven, and I provided them to Les and to you. Daniel and Rosa could not have had two sons born in 1908, my father and a brother, listed a month apart. My aunt Ruth, in the book, was listed in 1997 as 94 years old and, at the same time, was listed as having been born in 1906. My great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Miller Hamrick, was the daughter of Francis Miller, not John Miller, one of the first settlers and brother of Francis. Both did have daughters named Elizabeth. I could go on for most of the day. There are those who say, "Well, Les did contribute connections in some family lines that had not been connected previously." That is probably true. But there is little accuracy in those he did. Many of the errors are of the type that could have been caught by a good proofreader. It simply is unfortunate that the information was not shared with anyone, let alone a good editor and I don't mean me. I simply abhor the possibility that the misinformation can be perpetuated. dhamrick@neo.rr.com Dan Hamrick 402 23rd Street NW Canton OH 44709 Phone and fax: 330-454-2376 ---------- >From: "Hamrick" <hamrick@home.com> >To: HAMRICK-L@rootsweb.com >Subject: [HAMRICK-L] New Hamrick Listing >Date: Mon, Dec 20, 1999, 7:06 AM > >Hamricks! > >I awakened this AM at 3:30 and could not go back to sleep >so decided to read my mail. > >My first letter was from James Hamrick who told me he had >put his GEDCOM of many years of Hamrick research on the >worldconnect site. It is a WORK TO SEE and is extreemly >well documented. Should you go there click on the URL below, >Select 'Search Gedcoms' then put "Hamrick" in the Surname >Box and "Patrick" in the given name box. In the last box >'Exclude database' be sure to put 'jrm' to eliminate all the >trash on the site. > >Then if you are from the Rutherford-Cleveland area you can >click on son 'James' and his children will appear. Many will >be names you will recognize. > >Other Hamricks can click on other sons and go see other well documented >relatives. If you are a Ham(b)rick you can still >participate but you will need to read Hamz(b)rick for some of >what you see. > >Enjoy! I am going back to bed and dream about genealogy. > >J R >Hamrick Hambrick Genealogy at: > http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com > >