Thanks Ruth! We all need to be reminded about using others data as LEADS ONLY, not fact. Another point: Look before you leap! Don't assume that any "John Smith" is YOUR John Smith! Just recently, I had someone copy all the data in my online family tree for John Olen/Olin Wilhelm of Allegany Co and added the info to their tree for a John K. Wilhelm of Balto Co. MD. All census records etc. have John Olen/Olin in Allegany, and all the census records consistently have John K. enumerated in Balto. Co. The only similarity is they were both named John! Now all of John Olen/Olin's family has been combined with that of John K., which does not belong. Many items should have tipped the person off: repeated listing of "John O." and "John K." duplicate census records for the same date in two different locations (i.e. 1900 Allegany Co. John O.; 1900 Balto Co. John K.) different spouse names different childrens' names different ages different parents Thus, John K. has two sets of parents, several wives and about a cabillion children and descendants! So remember to look closely at data before you decide to add it to your tree, it will save a big mess later. Genie Re:Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:53:05 -0400 From: "Ruth Sprowls" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Subject: [MDALLEGA] The Dangers of Internet Genealogy - All researchers shuld read this- A GOOD REMINDER To: "[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Cc: "[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>, MDALLEGA <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>, [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>, [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>, [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Message-ID: <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original This article is about doing YOUR own research to PROVE or DISPROVE data that you locate in OTHERS trees/files. We SHOULD NOT be lazy and just accept that the info/data is correct and take the chance of publishing/posting data wihtout first proving it. http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/data/topics/t002-dangers.htm<http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/data/topics/t002-dangers.htm> Ruth