James, Well said!! Cindy mheaden@kimbanet.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "James F. Klumpp" <jk44@umail.umd.edu> To: <VAPITTSY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, July 01, 2000 7:38 AM Subject: [VAPITTSY-L] Re: Courtesy and Accuracy I was hoping someone else might enter the recent conversation on courtesy in our exchanges, upholding the importance of accuracy. But, a bit of time has passed, and I suspect I should do so. This is not to belittle the virtue of courtesy, but there is also virtue (perhaps even more virtue) in "getting it right." I understand there are some working in family history for whom quantity is the key - the more relatives the better. But ultimately, we should be equally concerned for the quality of our work. If I may, permit me to list a few objectives: - Identify the faith you have in claims and information you provide. Is a "fact" documented? a hunch? a theory? an inference?, possible? probable? most likely? Such words communicate real information that is an essential part of using that information. - Respect the faith of others. You can disagree and have more faith than others have in the same information, but if you associate their name with the material, respect the faith that they have. I bristle when I see my "theories" reported as "facts" with my name attached. When you identify a source for your information you show respect for someone else's work. Extend that respect to their judgement about the accuracy of what they report. - Don't believe everything you read in books. We all appreciate Maud Clements and what she left us. It is invaluable and important. We do not disrespect her when we point out she has erred. In fact, we express respect for her desire to get it right. We have information available to us she did not. We ought to find errs in claims made with the information she had available, or what's the benefit of more information. We disrespect her far more when we repeat her material without recognizing the error. - Explain the evidence you have for your claims. Does it come from county records? From family? From a Bible? This respects the right of others to draw their own conclusions about information. Especially today, there is a very real cost to simply repeating misinformation. I will list two: First, as any of us who are using the internet know, a search engine attempt results in a blizzard of hits that are totally unhelpful because they repeat wrong information. We have to sort through the blizzard to find the morsel of information that we did not have. The same thing can be said for the gedcoms now available from free and commercial houses. They may provide us clues, but finding the wheat in the unweeded is often difficult. The more misinformation is repeated, the less efficient our research becomes. Second, people who do respect the truth become more reluctant to share as they discover themselves misrepresented with supposition repeated as fact. Together we make progress as we turn hunches into suppositions into theories into probabilities into documented facts. That process is easier to advance together. So as we become afraid to send information, our progress is impaired. I repeat that I recognize the virtue of courtesy toward our fellow researchers, but a charge of being wrong is not an insult. We have all been wrong. I thank my correspondent who points out my errors. S/he respects my interest in accuracy. I have named no names here, and no one need take personal offense. None intended. I simply want to make certain that our reminder of the virtue of courtesy is matched by a reminder of the virtue of respecting truth. Sorry to be preachy, but it seems a necessary sermon. In the best of all possible worlds, we would not hesitate to send forth things that we have found, but would be sensitive to whether they are right or wrong. ---------------------- James F. Klumpp jk44@umail.umd.edu Voice: 301-405-6520 FAX: 301-314-9471 HomePage: http://www.wam.umd.edu/~jklumpp/home.htm ==== VAPITTSY Mailing List ==== Find tons of Pitsylvania County info at the Pittsylvania County VAGenWeb Project! http://www.rootsweb.com/~vapittsy/