My experience exactly. Errors by Morton in his histories have thoroughly muddied the waters in my own family tree, and we still have not sorted it out. I often have people mail me relationships, yet they are just copying Morton's bad research. But the Census is no better. There is not one definitive source for information that is secure from human error. Question everything. Even hand me down stories are suspect. John Colaw ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: "sprtpr" <sprtpr@neo.rr.com> Reply-To: WVPENDLE-L@rootsweb.com Date: Tue, 07 Dec 1999 10:34:25 -0500 At 05:54 PM 12/06/1999 -0600, you wrote: >Hello Pendleton list > >I would like to vent a little. > >I have finished my Davis line from the Seneca area of pendleton Co. and >the mis-information that I have seen leaves a lot to be desired. > >1. People that believe things to be true just because they are written >somewhere in a book- books like the history of Pendleton co. and Braxton >Co. Put this junk in their tree and publish it all over the web and >there it will be to confuse others. And the LDS is the same. >It is apparent that these people never made a trip to the Federal Census >Records Center .I can understand that -I'm lucky to be fifty miles from >the one in Kansas City. In those history books I can believe the public >records that they quote- I consider the rest just a hint, a lead to be >confirmed. I will not take the time here to tell you of the things I >found to be wrong in my Davis line. > >2. In this era we jump to the conclusion that a John Sr. and John Jr. in >the same area must be father and son. That is not true for the early >years. I have two cases in my Davis line- Thomas Sr. and Thomas Jr. plus >Jesse Sr. and Jesse Jr . both of the seniors were uncles to the juniors. >It was just a way to tell them apart. It may have just been added by the >census taker. > >thanks for your time >don knarr in Ks Don, You're correct. Any time someone gives information, the source should also be listed. Remember also that the census lists ages given by people at the time, and I have found as many descrepencies in the census as everywhere else. They should also be taken "with a grain of salt" Neil > > > >