Lynda I agree with you 100% on what you said. I am finding so many mistakes in the AF but i print it up any way and then i take a higlighter and hilight it and then i know if it is a mistake or not and then i have the opption to chose to fix it and send it in, and then i know what part needs to be researched in that family or not. And the Scandinavian names are about the hardest for me. I have a friend though that hellps me with them cause she is all danish and she teaches sometimes about the danish genelogy. so I helps if you could find someone who has that knowledge. Jackie Carter Tazzy@enol.com Durfee_Lynda@tmac.com wrote: > We should always be cognizant of the AF disclaimer. With millions of > submissions, it would be impossible to check the records for accuracy. In using > AF, be aware that the information is only as reliable as the person who > submitted it. Some people are very conscientious, some are sloppy, some just > don't know any better are have submitted work done by other family members. > Unfortunately, AF records don't have notes (I thought the update was supposed to > allow it, but I haven't seen any). My note records take up about 2/3 of the > space on the disks when I do a backup, so I can understand why AF doesn't show > any notes submitted on GEDCOMs. > > AF should be regarded as a start. When I first got PAF 4 1/2 years ago and > started downloading from AF, I was extremely frustrated at errors and omissions. > I spent so much time correcting files (especially duplicate spouses) that I > wondered whether it was worth it and if I should have simply entered the date > from my own family group records and pedigree charts. I wasn't a member of the > church then, either, so the ordinance dates weren't important. Surprise, > surprise, the missionaries came to my door about 10 months later. Now, having > the ordinance dates has saved my time in checking against the IGI (though I > still do that anyway for missing links). One of my pet peeves is people who > don't show all the children in a family, but only their direct line. AARGH!! > > When downloading a GEDCOM from AF (or the IGI), I create a new PAF file on a > floppy and add the GEDCOM to that file. Then I run the checks for duplicates, > errors, etc. and fix records. Sometimes there are formatting errors (records in > GEDCOM too long for field, for example) which show up as notes and also in the > listing file. I create a new GEDCOM from the corrected file and add that to my > main file. It's a lot easier than trying to fix your main file and having to > resort to a backup when you find lots of errors in the added records. > > But I am sure glad I don't have Scandinavian ancestors. The patronymic system > drives me bonkers. In doing my handcart research, I found at least 10 > "Christian Christensen" or variants in the 1870 census alone, all born within > five years. How on earth am I ever supposed to figure out which one was with > the 9th HC company? There was also one with the 10th HC in the same year. I > read recently that the government (or some group) in Denmark is trying to > encourage people to adopt new surnames. Seems that about 75% of the population > has one of about six surnames.