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From: Charles Herbert Crookston <>
Subject: Re: Just the Facts!!
Date: Sun, 01 Feb 1998 08:58:15 -0800


This may come as somewhat of a disillusion to you Walt, and all.

But Alex Haley's book has a goodly sum of fiction throughout its whole story.
There are too many assumptions and conclusions made by Haley that cannot be
documented. Much as any of our genealogies.

The fault, if one looks at it carefully, and as such, with most Historians, or
otherwise, and Biographers is that they too often expand, color, glorify the few
good and true facts that they know, the facts of a whole live or period of time,
in order to mold them into a good story or read. This is many times their
publishers fault. They wish to sell books and make money.

That is not the purpose of a Genealogy!

A Genealogy is not meant to be entertainment, though it maybe and sometimes is, if
the people written about were interesting, and led interesting lives.
Unfortunately most of our ancestor led pretty average, normal, everyday-mundane
lives, much as we do.. Important, sure is, but hardly the stuff fiction, or
exhilarating history.

When working with my own family lines I read as many Social and Political
Histories of the times of the people I am researching as I can. From this one can
get a fair sense of how they lived and what they were thinking and talking about
and how they may have amused themselves in the little leisure time they they
seemingly had. Where I have interesting factual history, or personal anecdote
about an ancestor, I use it. But I to hold to a strict rule to specify which is
fact from what is anecdote, and what is assumption or conjecture.

Charles

wrote:

> I have two books on my Kennedy side of the family One is the Reading Howell
> book and it has many stories about each main character and lots of interesting
> reading giving one an idea of how they lived and what they did for a
> livelyhood.
> The book is on the Quick family it has only names dates and places. As
> aunt Charlotte said about Mrs. Whitmans diary " I could hardley get through
> the whole boring boring book"
>
> There is a lot more to genealogy than just the facts. If you don't believe me
> then read Roots by Alex Halley.
>
> Walt Davies
> Monmouth, OR

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