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Archiver > RHEA > 2002-02 > 1012783750


From: "JOSEPH C RHEA" <>
Subject: Re: [RHEA] Re: RHEA-D Digest V02 #20
Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2002 17:51:00 -0700


Norma, et. al.:
In over 40 years of genealogical research, I have never met a "primary" or secondary source I didn't consider valuable. I published "Ray-Rhea" on the descendants of Joseph C. Ray (Rhea) of Washington County, VA over 30 years ago after 10 years of research. It began with a set of notebooks on the genealogy of that family that were authored by my great grand-uncle, most of which was written around the campfires of regional meetings of the Grand Army of the Republic. I never found an error in those notebooks. Most so-called primary sources are not really primary. A town or county clerk in the 1800's transcribed notes of physicians and family members of the dates of birth of children. Just how primary is that? The same sorts of problems exist with marriage records, and death records are notoriously inaccurate. We all learn a lot over our years of research. One of the lessons we learn is that accuracy is a goal without guarantees. I have learned to treasure every contri!
bution made. Over the past 30 years great progress has been made in giving us all tools to do a better job. I concur with others that electronic publishing is an excellent alternative to book publishing because of the costs. Publishing a genealogy by burning a CD costs very little and offers an excellent way to distribute results of our research at very little cost. The primary problem with current websites for presenting family genealogies is they are limited in the ability to present the author's documentation of sources and notes. This problem is overcome by producing the genealogy on a CD.
Joe

----- Original Message -----
From: Polly Dixon
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2002 8:52 PM
To:
Subject: [RHEA] Re: RHEA-D Digest V02 #20

Norma:
Well said!
Polly in Houston

----- Original Message ----- (Excerpted)
From: Norma Lewis <>
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2002 7:17 PM

> In defense of (genealogy) book authors and sellers. Most of these authors
don't make a profit on their books and the time they have put into the
research. They do it for the pure
> love of genealogy research. A book should be the end result of a
> lifetime of family research.
> So, we should really appreciate these guys who publish books and support
> their efforts.
> Norma



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