I agree with you that sources such as FTM, WC, A.com, "my own history", a County History, "because I say so", etc. are pretty much worthless - I say pretty much worthless because sometimes I've found a stated relationship, for which I've been searching for years, and upon further investigation it proves to be correct and there are many records to back it up. With the tools Ancestry has now, it's fairly easy to find and attach real records, and/or links to them, to individuals. I have done a lot with the census records. As Admin for the BARTLETT-DNA Project, I have extracted BARTLETTs from every census 1790-1880 for VA, WV, MD, DC, NC, SC, GA, TN, KY, AL and AR, and have partials for many other states. When you look at this body of evidence (and I know it's strengths and weeknesses) you can learn a lot about the many BARTLETT lines - it took me about 6 months to do each state and arrange it into families (using other records, too), so that now I'm able to help most newbies with their tree. I've filled in the VA BARTLETTs with details from the annual Personal Property Tax Lists (PPTL; 1782 - 1850) - again a lot of microfilms to scroll, but once done, it's done, and the body of knowledge is very instructive in putting together family lines. My next big project will be committing this all to Ancestry (then making a GEDcom and uploading it to WorldConnect). Folks can use it, or not, as they wish. It's my legacy of researching since 1974... My point in the above is that Ancestry, now makes it very easy to link the census records to your tree pages; the same with many other digital copies and/or links of original, and transcribed, records - this is how I'm trying to document my trees on Ancestry. Adding pictures is also easy. For a NN Tree we should strive to populate each page (like a family group sheet) with links to real records or add pdf copies of records we have. This will be the real power of the NN Tree - documentation. Even many "copiers" will accept a documented tree over an undocumented one. It's almost a responsibility of serious genealogists to put up documented trees and try to get the record straight - to take the offensive! By working on this as a group, we can draw on the research of many, and build an impressively documented tree - I've seen in the email traffic, the kind of info this list holds - it's like gold - and a NN Tree could capture it for all. Coupled with serious peer review on this message list and FB, the NN Tree could be an outstanding model. Jim Bartlett On 09/26/11, Edward White<[email protected]> wrote: You can view World Connect for free. If you are lucky and patient, you may well find decent information with what we would call sources, or better yet a confession that the author is not sure of a certain listing. When I see a "tree" with thousands of names, I run. I once sent them a message asking why they cannot create better categories of what they call "sources". At present they list FTM files, LDS and whatever as a "source". Of course I received no answer. They are in business to achieve the greatest number of hits. That is why the ads, which take forever to load, are there. It is dreary, but then so are a lot of "sources" printed in hardcover for family glorification. This is why historians, often unfairly, view genealogists as poor stepchildren to be lodged in the scullery. On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 11:01 AM, Janean Ray <[1][email protected]> wrote: > I totally agree with you on being part of the solution and taking the > offense..... However.. What I'm saying is.. People take what is on line as > gospel. I think it's a step in the right direction. I had Ancestry for a > few years for research....... I was lucky to have gotten it at a greatly > reduced rate due to an error by the guy signing me up.... Unfortunately I > had to let my subscription go. I hear a lot of people complaining about > what happens to their stuff once its uploaded.... So that scares me. I > don't know enough about it. But my question is...... If invited.... Do you > have be subscribed to veiw it? I don't think so as I believe someone once > sent me an invite but there again..... With anyone having the ability to > upload their stuff (people LOVE seeing themselves online) its still a > matter > of proving it yourself. I am totally all for correct information getting > out > there... What I'm saying is.... Just on this list alone..... There has been > bickering over whose source is a better one..... So I'm just saying..... In > theory it sounds like a great plan.... But some people will STILL use the > source information that works for them so be prepared that one person can't > change the world.... But one person can possibly make a difference. Its > worth a try....because right now..... Doing something positive is better > than letting the weeds keep growing. I'm on board.... Just playing devil's > advocate > > > Janean Ray > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: va-n[2][email protected] > [[3]mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jim Bartlett > Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 5:06 PM > To: [4][email protected] > Subject: Re: [VA-NORTHERN-NECK] We have a golden opportunity tobuild > alastinglegacy for Northern Neck Families. > > > Janean, > > Some of what you point out may be true, but the other side of the coin is > that a lot of good research is on Ancestry, AND it has a good suite of > tools > that are integrated with teh trees to let you find records and attach > them > to your trees; add pictures of people and/or tombstones, etc. and add in > writen documents expaining what you've done and why. Of course there are > some who just mine the info and have no idea if it's right or wrong. But > we > can't stop that. What we can do, is put up well documented info - in > other > words: rather than duck or hide from the issues, go on the offensive and > post to the best of our ability. As a group, we would be open to peer > review, and could correct (and document) the info, just as has been > happening on this list. > > Let this group be part of the solution. > > > Jim Bartlett > > On 09/23/11, Janean Ray<[5][email protected]> wrote: > I'm a little suspicious of why anyone would want to upload their entire > database to places like ancestry and say world connect.... Nothing is > EVER > fully proven and therefore subject to just continually passing along > wrong > information. I have had people take my information and upload it to World > Connect and at this very minute my LIVING mother is listed on there. I > have > seen hoards of my information on there that someone got a hold of very > early > on in my research and put it on World Connect and its totally now wrong. > Ancesty I've heard then OWNS your information and people have tried to > remove it or make corrections and can't... I don't know the details > because > it didn't involve me but I've also seen people who "collect" names and > families..... And don't care where they get the information. 20+ thousand > people in a database seems a little suspicious to me. I've seen that on > World Connect and I've gone into people's pages...... And somehow always > seem to find my family attached to them. > Janean > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > VA-N[6][email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > VA-N[7][email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to VA-N[8][email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message References 1. mailto:[email protected] 2. mailto:[email protected] 3. mailto:[email protected] 4. mailto:[email protected] 5. mailto:[email protected] 6. mailto:[email protected] 7. mailto:[email protected] 8. mailto:[email protected]