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Archiver > NORCAL > 1998-02 > 0886359266


From: Larry Kuttner <>
Subject: Re: Just the Facts!!
Date: Sun, 01 Feb 1998 10:54:26 -0800


At 08:58 AM 2/1/98 -0800, Charles Herbert Crookston wrote:
<snip>
>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.
>
==================================================
Maybe this explains replacement of the term genealogist
with family historian. To me, when I site an event from a book
or somewhere else, I say that such and such a source says
this and that no other documentation of the event has been
located.

I think there is room for acknowledged "conjecture" in writing
family histories so long as it is identified as such. If many
people came to SF via ships and the Panama Canal and information
leads to the conclusion that this is the most likely way that the
ancestor arrived, then say so, but label it as conjecture without
proof.

I constructed a history of my gr-grandfather KUTTNER from entries
in the SF city directories. I was always careful to say that the
city directory for such and such a year said the following. I never
just said that he lived at such and such an address, since I really
couldn't verify that fact since anyone involved was long since deceased.
My statement is accurate since I had a copy of the city directories and
could prove that was what they said. The fact that I couldn't from
person routes verify that he did in fact live there was to me irrevelant.

Genealogists seem to swear by birth certificates, but barring DNA
testing how does one prove that the listed father is in fact the
biological father? I accept that the listed father is in fact the
biological father since statistics would prove that this is the
most likely occurrance. But then I was an auditor and we worked
with accepting the total program from samples.

What one does with one's work can be said to be your own
business and there certainly is enough room in the "hobby"
for both genealogists and family historians.

Lawrence E. "Larry" KUTTNER of Oregon

Larry Kuttner <>

RESEARCHING:
KUTTNER [CA, NY, Prussia]
BELLAH/BALLAGH [CA, AR, SC, VI, Ireland]
GIBSON [CA, AR, TN]
NEWCOMB [CA, CT, NY, ME, MA, England]
REYMANN [CA, NM, TX, Alsace]
SHADDUCK/SHATTUCK [CA, MO, IA, OH, NY, England]
SHARROCK [CA, TX, IL, OH, NY, England]

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