Okay, I’m writing to myself! Wow, gee, whoopee, that is so much fun! However, I suppose it has advantages, say I write something that could be offensive, I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to work it out with myself, even though I can be stubborn at times. Or, my grammar, use of words or punctuation falls short of being correct, I probably won’t judge myself, hey I may not even notice I screwed up. Yeah, I can certainly see an upside to being my blogs only viewer/reader, but somehow I’m still having a problem “sharing information with myself”. It seems, at least to date, I’m just not learning anything from me??? Not to sound arrogant, but I’ve read most everything I’ve written and I already knew the things I’ve read. Oh well, maybe this post will be different, but I’ll tell ya, I’m not holding my breath!
I’ll be honest, I’m a bit disgusted with many of those who research their heritage. Why? Well there are several reasons, but in this post I’ll will deal with but one reason. They are users! Oh, that’s not to say everyone falls into that category or fit’s the description. There are some who are genuinely helpful, willing to share and will even go that extra mile or more to assist. I have an ex-sister-in-law who falls into this category and while our research does not always match, she has been ever so helpful. Sometimes she amazes me at the information she finds. We bounce thoughts and ideas back and forth through emails and that was my hope that this blog would create the same communication for me and others, but nope, nada, nothing. Yeah, I’m beginning to whine and I almost said sorry, but I refuse to apologize to myself. Does anyone apologize to theirself and is it theirself or themselves? Well, according to this word processor program theirself is not a word and when I try putting them with self, together, one word, it immediately changes to “themselves“.
This is another advantage in not having readers, what I just wrote truly makes me sound like an idiot and while I may not be the sharpest pencil in every box, I’m not the dullest either.
Anyway back to my disgust with some researchers . . . . some seem to be interested in being able to “say” they have traced their ancestry to the Mayflower, the Revolutionary War or some other great moment in history, but do they not realize it takes more than to just “say” something? I discovered I was related to the third President of the United States. Thomas Jefferson’s father and my 6th great-grandmother were siblings, making President Jefferson and me first cousins, seven times removed. Wow! But so what does that mean, first cousins seven times removed?
I’m not certain, but it sounds like extremely distant relatives. Anyway, I was sharing this information with a relative by marriage and a couple of days later, got a call from her son, a guy I had never even spoken to and he was asking about our relationship to Thomas Jefferson. Many years later I was investigating a family tree on ancestry.com and lo and behold, it was this guy’s wife, who had the wildest tale of my ancestry imaginable. She had my 2nd great-grandfather being in Australia before he was born, then back in the USA within a couple of years and having families with similar names on both continents. Now in today’s world it is possible for someone to live “two lives” but not in the mid-1800’s, especially taking into account travel time. However, there in black and white was our relative Thomas Jefferson!
It was obvious two or more families had been combined and even more obvious the author of this family tree had not done the research, but instead combined research of others, who were probably not related, yet had posted this misleading, error filled garbage as fact. Yes, in my opinion it was garbage, true researchers do their own research or at least check the research of others.
Some years ago a fellow who had published numerous books and had the title of County Historian wrote an ancestor of mine died in 1860. At first, I took the guy as an authority, hey he’s published all of these books and I was still wet behind the ears, a genuine “rookie” in genealogy research. Then I discovered the 1860 date was based on a will, but the will was revised in December 1865. This ancestor had a slave and in his original will had left it to one of his sons, but the outcome of the Civil War freed the slave and a revision was needed. So much for being the author of numerous books and having a “title”!
I have the belief, if you attach your name to something, be as accurate as possible and if there are questions to the accuracy admit is, disclose it. I think it’s called having credibility. This post may not be agreeable to some, but it is my thoughts and opinions, thus making it accurate from my standpoint. However, if I missed something somewhere let me know.
Man that’s funny, no a bit spooky! No one will read this but me, so who’s to correct me, but me?
Maybe next time I’ll express opposing views . . no, that’s just too weird.
As always, have a great day and even if you aren’t in to genealogy, take a few minutes and write things down about yourself. Perhaps someone, a grandchild or great-grandchild will one day be interested in tracing their ancestry and even a “day in the life of” you, would be of great interest to them.
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