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Archiver > NORCAL > 1998-02 > 0886364104


From: Charles Herbert Crookston <>
Subject: Re: Just the Facts!!
Date: Sun, 01 Feb 1998 12:15:04 -0800


Thank you very much Rudecinda,

It has been my experience that too many a person now engaged in the pursuit of
genealogy, rarely, if ever, does much primary source research. They keep repeating
the information they have found in secondary, primarily library sources, and now the
InterNet sources, which in turn have been taken from secondary sources. As you have
indicated, about three evolutions of these notations from three separate secondary
sources about any particular event seems to indicate proof of fact to many researches.
Never mind that the original quotation may have been an inaccurate interpretation in
the first place, of the first source.

Events happen, births, marriages, deaths, wars, floods, fires, famine, etc. These
events are the warp and woof a narrative we call call history. Historians
interpreting what happened at the time it happened is not necessarily truth of the
fact of what happened..

The primary danger as I see it, with the InterNet, is the rapidity with which this
information gets disseminated, without anyone calling it to question. Not only do we
now have a "Super Highway of Information," we also have a "Superhighway of
Mis-information,"

Charles

RUDECINDA LOBUGLIO wrote:

> My 2 cents worth:
> But, we have to be specific about which is which. I am an editor, and
> have insulted many people when I demanded verification of their statements.
> Family legends and stories are acceptable ONLY if specifically stated they
> are that, or footnoted as same. Unfortunately, lately it seems that if it
> appears in print three times, it becomes fact, and that is very, very
> dangerous.
> Repeating and error, or exaggerating the truth, does not make it fact.
> And in genealogy and history (and there is a National Genealogical Society
> Publication whose title is: "Genealogy, the Hand Maiden of History"), the
> location of those facts must always be presented to the reader in clear and
> readable citations, so they can double-check them if they are going to use
> them too.
>
>
> ----------
> > From:
> > To: ; ;
> > Cc:
> > Subject: Re: Just the Facts!!
> > Date: Sunday, February 01, 1998 9:16 AM
> >
> > In a message dated 98-02-01 12:13:19 EST, writes:
> >
> > << The truth is rarely the accumulation of the facts,but rather ones
> > interpretation of the facts-Roland Elliott.Who is to say that the
> dod,dob is
> > correct? I had rather use Marriages and Baptisms,and most of all what I
> can
> > learn of the customs,history,weather,crops etc of the era being
> research.I
> > agree with Walt.R >>
> >
> > I think you hit the nail right on the head, so to speak. History is both
> the
> > accumulation of facts combined with the author's interpretation of those
> > facts. It is what makes it all very interesting!!!
> >
> > Gayle
> >

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