I have to throw my 2-cents into this... When I began working on my own genealogy umpteen years ago, one of the biggest things that was pounded into my head by a seasoned researcher, was prove, prove, prove. This conditioning has stuck with me over the years and today, even when I find things on the internet, I treat them as "clues", make note of them and research them to find sources of proof/disproof. Like others, I have also found my work posted out there, although I haven't posted my research online. It is my pesonal opinion that the internet has been both a boon and a burden. As more records get digitized, our research resources get more bountiful and much, much easier to obtain. Many of us, when finding information online, still have that "prove, prove, prove" thought running through our head. However, I think there is a dual challenge we face...in the last few years (along with the growth of the internet) the has been an explosion of interest in genealogy. So many new researchers haven't been conditioned with the "old school" way of thinking and I tend to find that quite often (although not all the time) these new researchers find information on the net and call it good...then share their information online and it propogates like mad. This makes the number of "clues" available increase exponentially, giving us a lot more information to sort and prove. Which makes our research hard enough. Then to have a company, whose software is built to quite simply get around the checks that search engines have put in place to block nefarious content, make our chosen passion even more difficult by introducing a billion or so new names, which are fictitious, into the mix. I read the information on this company's website and they see to believe that there is so much information already wrong out there that what they are doing is ok...all for the sake of sneaking advertisments around the search engine filters. I am all for making money, but not at the expense of others. In the end, is there really anything we can do about it? I doubt it. We aren't going to shut down the creeps running this company and we aren't going to be able to stop them pushing their software out there. What we can do is blend the old ways with the new...in other words, continue to preach and teach the "prove, prove, prove" sentiment out there. Take everything you find on the net with a grain of salt and by God, if you haven't proven the information you are about to post, then don't post it. Basically, it is up to us. Adrian Adrian Williams Williams DNA Project Administrator http://williams.genealogy.fm/ [email protected] [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] Sent: Nov 11, 2005 2:43 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WILLIAMS] Fake Family Genealogy We must all remember that LDS merely posts the information that individuals send them. So does Ancestry and Genealogy. It would be an almost impossible task for them to verify it. I have shared my information with others researching the same family. I have never posted my information with any of these services, but I have found data that I provided to someone else posted. Sometimes, that data is later found to be in error. I have found the data posted by others to be a tool to give some general information (dates, places, names). You should always take this info with "a grain of salt." Try to verify it for yourself and use it as a springboard for finding new clues. Larry -----Original Message----- From: Dorothy C. White <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 09:31:15 -0500 Subject: FW: [WILLIAMS] Fake Family Genealogy LDS is dangerous. They list anything people put on there without checking for correctness (that would be pretty well impossible, wouldn't it?) so it is a place to start but everything has to be checked out carefully. You can find most anything on LDS. They do have excellent resources for checking, however, if you just know to go to that. The local Mormon library attendants are so very helpful. Dorothy C. White [email protected] 804.795.4296 > -----Original Message----- > From: Nathan [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Friday, November 11, 2005 7:27 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [WILLIAMS] Fake Family Genealogy > > > What about www.familysearch.com ? > Some of the stuff on there is plain wrong, and has set me back ages. > > Nathan > [email protected] > > > > > ==== WILLIAMS Mailing List ==== > List web page: http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/surname/w/williams.html > Genealogy Links - http://www2.netdoor.com/~cch/GEN-links.htm > > ============================== > Census images 1901, 1891, 1881 and 1871, plus so much more. > Ancestry.com's United Kingdom & Ireland Collection. Learn > more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13968/rd.ashx > > ==== WILLIAMS Mailing List ==== List web page: http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/surname/w/williams.html Genealogy Links - http://www2.netdoor.com/~cch/GEN-links.htm ============================== Search Family and Local Histories for stories about your family and the areas they lived. Over 85 million names added in the last 12 months. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13966/rd.ashx ==== WILLIAMS Mailing List ==== List web page: http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/surname/w/williams.html Genealogy Links - http://www2.netdoor.com/~cch/GEN-links.htm ============================== Search the US Census Collection. Over 140 million records added in the last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13965/rd.ashx