Saturday, August 7, 2010

Golly, I Hope They Aren't Reading

Recently I have had a couple of  experiences where my reaction was, "you've got to be kidding".  And, since I am gonna chat about them, I am really hoping the 2 people involved are not reading, as I don't wanna be mean or condescending.  I can only hope that they did not see my blog URLs in my sig lines of my emails.  SIGHHHH

One of my ongoing projects is to review every digital photo I have taken since 1999.  Yaaaa. Whew,  makes me tired too!  LOL.  I started at the oldest photo and am working forward, deciding, do I really want it, or should I delete it.  If it is a keeper, is it something that should be linked to my data base, used on one of the blogs, or even, put on Find A Grave.  I do a few at a time, usually later in the evening.

It was at Find A Grave that my first encounter of a weird kind happened.  I was charging around the site, adding a few memorials and photos when I discovered that someone had made an entry for a 3rd great grandfather of mine.  The information included a death place that did not agree with what I have, and it included a burial place, as in the name of a cemetery!

Well, I have done substantial research on this line, including looking at cemetery books, in fact, I believe I have been in this cemetery.  If this 3rd was buried here, it sure would be a surprise.  Having done enough research in my day, I also realize that there are surprises out there, just waiting to show me that I can always learn something new.

So, I contacted the submitter of the memorial and asked, sweetly, mmmm, what is the source of your information for putting this memorial online?  His answer came a short time later.

His answer:  Rootsweb.com.

Now, I love Rootsweb.com, but, gotta say, that answer surprised me.  You know what happened next - - I surfed right over to Rootsweb.com, typed in the name of that 3rd great and started looking.   My guess, correct too, was that it came off a WorldConnect family tree.  Yepper, after a few false leads, I found the family tree, stating the place of death and that cemetery as a place of burial.

SOOO, next, I want to contact the owner of this family tree.  I shoot off an email to this party, and got the second surprise.  I had to fill out one of those VERY annoying "you gotta fill out this form to become an approved emailer or your email will not go through" messages.  I have not seen one of those in a few years, was actually surprised that any one uses them any more.  Several years ago this was all the rage and caused me such rage that I actually decided to NEVER fill them in.  My theory was if you put info on the internet, like at Rootsweb, then, you should have an email addy that goes directly to you and will not make me jump through hoops or fill in forms.  I just don't get that ying yang attitude.  This WorldConnect family tree has over 68,000 entries.  I just have to wonder how many other researchers would love to contact this person?  And, they all have to go through the hoops, errr forms??

I am just curious enough about this death place and cemetery data that I filled out that stinking form, and am waiting to see if I am approved, am I good enough??  LOL

Meantime, I have some advice, my opinion, which you just know I am going to share, whether or not you want to hear it:
  1. Someone else's WorldConnect family tree entry is NOT what you should use to base a memorial at Find A Grave on. 
  2. Get a web based email addy, like gmail, yahoo, hotmail.  Don't expect others researching your family to fill out those horrid forms to get permission to chat with you.  Use it for just that one purpose, keep your form protected email addy for everything else in your life.
Oh, golly, I hope they aren't reading. 



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Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

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9 comments:

Lisa Swanson Ellam said...

Carol:

I SO agree with you! My first reaction to a Worldconnect Family Tree is "that is not a source!" I've also found relatives on FAG and gotten the response "I assume they are buried there". Hope the second contact doesn't read your blog....you may not get approved! LOL!

Éire Historian said...

AMEN AMEN AMEN!!! Carol, I hope they are reading your post, and maybe they'll learn something from you. The whole "I assume" and "maybe" and "whatever" attitude makes me crazy. I have a contact who assumed a relative was buried in a particular cemetery saying, "hey I assume he's buried there because it was close to his home". Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Sorry for yelling. Cheers! Jennifer

Lisa Wallen Logsdon said...

Awesome post Carol! Love your sarcasm and sense of humor and I agree with you all the way. I approach online trees from WorldConnect, Ancestry and anywhere else with great suspicion and a sprinkling of disdain. Psuedo-genealogists get on there with the idea "bigger is better" and copy and paste with flagrant abandon and errors get repeated over and over and over and over.....aarrrghhh! I won't say I haven't gotten some good info from time to time but I get so burned up when I see something that I know is incorrect and see it has been repeated 30 times; frustrating to say the least!

Anne Percival Kruszka said...

Don't we all go through this. Hope it wasn't an older family tree with a defunct email address.

Linda McCauley said...

I'm with Jennifer. I think they both need to read your post.

FranE said...

Awesome! I am ashamed to say I need to correct my tree on there, but have not figured out recently how to take it off and redo. Sigh.
You hear me clapping.

my Heritage Happens said...

Love your post, but oh what frustration! I hope they read your post although I am not sure it would matter. Do not trust World Connect Trees much and so sad FAG has these types of entries. Waiting to hear if you get accepted... and answered!

Kim said...

I share your frustration. One of my great-grandmothers is getting spread through the internet as dying in France, yet I have her death certificate, obituary, taped interviews from 2 witnesses who were with her when she died, and a photograph of her tombstone, yet the key person will not correct the chain.

I may have to write a piece on this in support, as it drives me crazy!

Charley "Apple" Grabowski said...

I love FAG BUT......there is some weird competition there to add and manage the most memorials. I have seen some of the cemetery transcriptions I've used end up there with no credit at all to the people that worked so hard to canvas the cemetery and make the transcription available. When I find incorrect information there and cannot get a response from the person that created it I leave a flower and a note with the correct information.