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Archiver > GENMSC > 1999-11 > 0943064493


From: Neil Bell <>
Subject: Re: The truth about "online genealogy"
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 18:21:33 -0800


"Cynthia M. Van Ness" <> wrote:

>
>Check out the fine essay at:
>
>http://www.iigs.org/newsletter/9904news/ethics.htm.en
>
>Titled "Restoring Ethics to Genealogy," I think it could also be called
>"Restoring *Research* to Genealogy."
>
>As a librarian, I cannot tell you how much it saddens me when people ask,
>"Can't you just type his name into your computer?" when they are tracking
>an ancestor or missing person.


Good essay. In my opinion, the two worst thing to happen to genealogy
research are:

Firstly: The hugely error-ridden FTM disks and all the poor folks
duped into buying them and thinking they are geeting quality
information. There are a few (very few) well researched family tree
submissions and virtually no source documentation. Mostly it is just
junk!

Secondly: The speed that the internet allows for dissemination of
errors! People (naive people) think that if it is on the computer, it
must be correct. Any serious researcher knows how error-filled the
LDS Ancestral files are and now, we can download those errors very
easily. Sigh!


Neil Bell
Remove the "ert" if you want to use e-mail

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