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May I Rant??!!!

Re: May I Rant??!!!

Betty Rose (View posts)
Posted: 16 Dec 2004 1:07AM GMT
Classification: Query
Ernest, you make a great point.......but it's just the ones who keep posting and not updating.....and most times their info is not correct, that are bugging me to death!

From what I understand, each time you see the same "contributor", it means he/she has uploaded (or downloaded) an entire new "genealogy". Instead of going in and updating/correcting what he already has put out there.

The other thing that really gets me is when a person has married twice; it's obvious who the first wife was by the dates their children were born, etc....and yet some folks have the second wife listed as the first!!!! ARGH!!!!!! Doesn't anyone look at their work after it's been posted and say to themselves, "Hmmm, that doesn't make sense. This needs to be switched around!"

Okay, just found a possible cousin link, thanks to the wonderful nature of these message boards.....I may have found the proof I need to link someone with someone!!!~ (Wish me luck!)

Re: May I Rant??!!!

Pat Hargus Sommerfield (View posts)
Posted: 17 Dec 2004 1:43PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 1 Mar 2005 3:10PM GMT
I have had that same particular problem......the order of marriages of my own parents and their other two spouses...each! Is it that complicated to update information? That is one reason I don't give out much info anymore....I have 4 times sent the correct info to the person, and have yet to see corrections. I will be posting mine, complete with sources. I had always hesitated about posting on the internet, but now I will.....I would suggest that when people go to a website, use the info as a starting point. And go to the person who posted to list sources. If they don't indicate their sources, then don't take everything on the site as the gospel truth...
If their sources are "other researchers", then question that too. A lot of times they are just "name collectors" and don't bother to check sources......I have seen quite a few "false genealogies" out there....so if more people start questioning, maybe it will help.

Re: May I Rant??!!!

Posted: 20 Dec 2004 8:34PM GMT
Classification: Query
Boy did that message hit a nerve in lots of people!!! I have a few comments of my own on about everything that you all have listed so I'm going to number them and leave them out there for whatever they're worth!
1. I have more than one tree on one particular website mainly because after the old, out of date one was posted, I moved, changed servers, got a new addy and promptly forgot the 'old' info in order to obtain access to the old site. The new ones are updated approx. every six months.
2. When someone messages me that I have wrong info but they don't give me anything to prove it or sometimes don't give me anything but the 'you're wrong!' message, I check with my sources and if I feel they are right, then I'll make a change but I don't make changes just because someone disagrees with what I have, willy nilly!
3. Sometimes you receive a rude message back due to either the previous explanation or because the tone of your own message was not exactly pleasant! I've had to bite my tongue and think Christian thoughts quite often before sitting down to write a reply.
4. Most people, myself included, attempt to place a warning at the top of their online trees stating that you should only use the enclosed info for a 'stepping-off' spot for your own research, whether they have sources listed or not. If you're too lazy to do your own research, then you deserve what you get!
5. I would hate to have to wait to surf all these trees until everyone was exactly accurate to be posted! If most of you have the researching bug as bad as I do...quitting is NOT an option! There's always just that one more hunch to follow!
6. By sifting thru what I find as carefully as I can, I've been able to piece together some great information which I then proceed to find the sources for myself. I would have several thousand less names and on one side of my family, not be out of the 20th century, without all that info to play out my hunches on!

Please take this in the spirit in which it was written...not as a criticism but as just another researcher's opinion. .
Thanks,
Joyce

Re: May I Rant??!!!

Betty Rose (View posts)
Posted: 21 Dec 2004 3:29PM GMT
Classification: Query
Joyce, your response certainly has its merits!! You are a serious researcher...and I can appreciate what you have had to put up with from rude people. Luckily I have not run across them (yet) but I well may when I get up the courage to write one person who literally has about 10 "postings" on the same ancestor. There is nothing new added, and for the most part they list the ancestor and mother and father.....nothing else. It's as if they forgot their password, (or however the system works to get back in and update/correct) so they just put in the same old, same old....

Is there a way to have Ancestry or Rootsweb delete the ones that don't need to be there anymore? That would solve the problem in many cases.

Thanks for your response, and good luck in your efforts!!!

Re: May I Rant??!!!

Posted: 21 Dec 2004 4:35PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 7 Jun 2005 8:45PM GMT
Thanks! And yes, it takes time and effort but one can ask for one's info to be emailed and then change the password, allowing you back in. I also [on my very first tree] had changed addresses, phone numbers and online services so couldn't go back in as it wasn't set up to send me the old stuff to the new addy so I emailed ancestry themselves and asked for its removal...I THINK they finally deleted it!

Research isn't addictive...I can quit just anytime I want to...as a matter of fact, I've quit about 4 times already!!!! :-)

Re: May I Rant??!!!

Posted: 21 Dec 2004 6:23PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 1 Mar 2005 3:10PM GMT
Yours is a very good post, Joyce. And to the point. I agree totally with what you say about not just accepting people's word that something is wrong in the tree, I also do ask them for more specifics, and then I do my own research on it. There have been several times when I was told that a particular family didn't have that extra child in their family that is listed on my tree, they know because they or their parent has never heard of him. Well, I think you know that many times family members died while very young, and the child may never have been discussed again, and that's what I have told these people. I show them the census pages listing that additional child, and many times it takes several tries to convince them that the census page wasn't just made up. Those are basically the only really argumentative type of emails I get, and generally the person finally accepts it, and to tell you the truth, I've never had a really rude person email me. You are so right that people should use the online trees as just a stepping stone to their families, they give you an idea of where to look for that missing piece of information you are looking for, and anyone looking at the trees have to understand that and should follow-up any info they find themselves, because remember, we are all only human and humans make mistakes.


Deloris

Re: May I Rant??!!! ADDRESS CHANGE

Posted: 5 Jan 2007 8:06PM GMT
Classification: Query
My new address is ekgreen@adelphia.net. Roots Web can not get my address to change. They said they are working on it.

Re: May I Rant??!!!

Posted: 16 Aug 2014 4:46PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 16 Aug 2014 5:28PM GMT
"
I am glad to hear that you have received nice replys. I contacted a person that had posted incorrect information on my family. It was information that I knew and could prove was incorrect. The reply that I received was about the rudest anyone could write. She informed me that the information that she had posted had been verified and gave me reference that had no mention of the person that she had posted as a child who was in fact a nephew.
The information is still on the internet. This experience has caused me to seriously question any information that I read on any of the genealogy sites. "

Someone has photos of my family incorrectly identified. In some photos, someone else's name is attached; in other photos, their name is attached but that is not them. It's someone else.

The person will not change the captions and identifications despite being shown it is incorrect. And others are pointing to this person's site as a source and repeating the errors.

In one case the person's child looked at the photos and said "that is not my mother." I asked her "Are you sure? This person has a habit of not changing information." She said "I ought to know my own mother."

I repeated this reply of hers to the person in question. The person refused to change a thing.

The person would not take the person's own child as a source.

The person also had many other mistakes on their site.

Why would anyone insist on wrong information? Your guess is as good as mine.
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