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"Along Those Lines ..."
by George G. Morgan

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"Using Other People's Research"

It's always exciting to make contact with someone else who has researched the same line that you have and who claims to have had some success. When the conclusions that another person has reached agree with what you have surmised, it's very tempting to accept their work as fact. "Aha!," we say. "All the pieces fit together!" But do they? In "Along Those Lines ..." this week, let's discuss some of the places where you're likely to find other people's research and what steps you can take to determine the veracity of the information they might provide. Genealogical Gold Mines or Salt Pits? There are many places to obtain copies of other people's research. If you're like me, you'll go to untold lengths to locate new shreds of evidence to support my theories or corroborate evidence I've previously uncovered. Here are some of the places I look for genealogical information on a regular basis: Libraries and Archives The library is still a favorite place to search for family historical information. I seek books about the surnames I am researching, as well as collateral and allied lines. I read books about state and local history. In addition, though, I spend time searching through the vertical files. Vertical files are those collections of papers, manuscripts and other unbound materials housed in libraries and archives, typically stored in file cabinets or other non-shelf containers. A responsible library will have done its best to catalog the materials so that the researcher can determine what is in the files. However, some libraries lack the funding and/or personnel resources to tackle the cataloging and indexing. Whenever I visit a library or archives in an area where I believe my ancestors may have lived, I always ask the reference librarian or archivist if all the materials in the vertical files has been included in the catalog. If the answer is "no" or "not all of it," try to determine if the materials are organized in some manner so that you might be able to review the files. In one such collection, I located a series of letters exchanged between the author of a local history and my great-aunt during the years 1942 and 1965. My great-aunt described my great-grandfather's mercantile store in the town, her work as the accountant for the store and as a clerk at the county courthouse, her sister's work as a teacher for the deaf and blind, and a discussion about the evils of municipal fluoridation. If I hadn't asked, I never would have located these extraordinary documents. Genealogical and Historical Societies Members of genealogical and historical societies sponsor and promote activities associated with collecting, cataloging, filing, preserving, publishing and promoting information of value to researchers. Their efforts are dependent on their members' interests, funding and a number of other influences. You'll find that the information these organizations amass is prolific indeed. Works in progress, such as cemetery transcriptions, for instance, may take a long time and may not be published for years. Personal research compiled by members or by other contributors may never be published, but may remain in the files for access by those who ask. Mailing Lists If you're using E-mail and the Internet, you're probably well aware of mailing lists. Mailing lists allow you to subscribe to a group of people who share an interest in a common subject, and who exchange E-mail about it. There are literally hundreds of mailing lists on the Internet that you may join. Some discuss specific surnames, and people share information they have. Others discuss specific geographical areas, such as the hundreds of mailing lists for countries, states, provinces, counties, parishes and other areas. Still others discuss such topics as basic "how-to" information for newbies, ships passenger lists, immigration and naturalization, how to use the Internet, and a variety of other, more obscure specialty topics. Internet GEDCOM File Repositories People are using the Internet as a place to share their personal genealogical database files. GEDCOM files, as they are known, provide a standardized format for the exchange of genealogical records from computer to computer. As the Internet has grown, so have the sheer numbers of GEDCOM files. There are many repositories for these files. Among the very best are: The Ancestry.com Web site at http://www.ancestry.aol.com provides a place where people can submit their GEDCOM files and where you can use powerful search facilities to locate records on specific individual ancestors. You can then move up or down through the family lineage to locate vital dates. The E-mail address of the submitter is included in the event you wish to contact the person for more information. Access to this extensive database is free. The Family Tree Maker Web site at http://www.familytreemaker.com/ provides a similar free repository to that of Ancestry.com. ~ The Genealogy Forum on America Online maintains an extensive File Libraries Center which includes thousands of GEDCOM files, surname files, Ahnentafel files, and a vast array of other historical information files. You must be a subscriber to AOL in order to access the Genealogy Forum but, once there, the File Libraries Center is only one of many resources available to you. Personal Web Pages Also as the Internet has grown, many people have taken to publishing their own Web pages. Learning how to create a Web page is a relatively easy task, and newer word processors such as Microsoft Word and WordPerfect make the job simple indeed. Many people are extracting data and reports from their genealogical databases and adding them to a Web page. There are many thousands of such Web pages, and you can access them using any of the search engines on the Web. Simply open a search engine, execute a search for a specific surname, and then review the search results list and connect to specific Web pages. CD-ROM's There are hundreds of CD-ROM products for genealogists. They include census records, marriage abstracts, the Social Security death Index (SSDI), and a wide array of other reference materials. There are also collections of family trees contributed by individuals and published on CD-ROM for purchase by others. The most notable entry in this category is the series of World Family Tree (TM) CD's published by Broderbund. The bundled collections contain many thousands of family trees that may provide you with links to your own lines. Chats and IRCs The online services and the Internet provide another method of exchanging information with other people -- chats. A chat provides a way, while you are connected, for you to type information back on your computer and transmit it into a common area (or chat room) where other people can see it and respond. Chat rooms have received a negative reputation as a place where illicit activities take place. However, they are more frequently used as a forum where people can convene online to learn and to share information with one another. There are two distinct types of chat facilities: ----- The online services provide a venue for genealogy chats. The most prolific is the Genealogy Forum on America Online, which has over 140 scheduled chats each week. Many of these are hosted chats where a member of the forum's staff acts as a moderator and facilitates the interaction between visitors, directs them to other resources of the forum, or who may present a talk or lecture on the topic at hand. Other chats are unhosted, where visitors simply drop in and discuss the scheduled topic. CompuServe likewise has a good schedule of chats and a well-informed staff of hosts. ----- Internet Relay Chats (IRC) are similar to the unhosted chats in the Genealogy Forum on AOL. Using a connection through your Internet Service Provider (including AOL, CompuServe, Prodigy and others) and special IRC software such as MIRC or others, you can connect with chat rooms on the Internet to discuss a wide range of genealogy topics. Message Boards The online services and some Internet Web sites provide message boards where you may post information about a surname or a particular individual you are researching. Other people read your posting and respond, on the message board itself, via E-mail or by both methods. It really is not uncommon to make connections with others researching the same person or surname you are. In fact, "cuzzie connections" are often made where you might meet descendants of parallel line. I have met several distant cousins on the message boards in the Genealogy Forum on AOL and we have exchanged a great deal of information. What Do I Do With The Information I Find At These Places? What is the first rule of genealogy? Maintain a healthy skepticism! Even if the information you located in one of these methods above seems like the perfect match and the answer to your genealogist's research prayer, don't take anything for granted. It is essential that you retrace every other person's research steps to verify and corroborate every detail for yourself. Let's face it -- I wouldn't trust my own family's research! Why? They make mistakes. Here are some recommendations concerning the record types I've discussed above: Don't trust everything you see in print. Authors of genealogy books make mistakes, and people who transcribe and abstract courthouse records make assumptions that you might not make. Always double check the information in books with the primary source any time you can. In the absence of the primary source, look for corroboration or a preponderance of evidence that points to the correct fact. Carefully review information you find in a vertical file. Letters written by a person who claims to have done extensive and exhaustive research, pedigree charts and other materials should all be researched and corroborated. Take nothing for granted. Be wary of materials that may contain some bias or which may express a view or hypothesis that affects the genealogical facts. Watch for contradictory information. Make no assumptions about the quality of research done by someone else. Anyone can make mistakes, including even the most highly certified professional genealogist and the most august of institutions. They, too, will tell you to recheck every fact. I have reviewed copies of applications for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution in which I have found certain errors. Mailing lists can provide essential leads to point you in the right direction for important primary records. Remember, however, that you don't know the other people on the mailing list or how good or bad they are at performing quality research. If you exchange information via a mailing list, contact the originator and request citations for their sources. With those in hand, you can verify their research yourself. GEDCOM files are wonderful pointers too, but they should never be accepted at face value. The information you find in them may confirm your research, but that doesn't mean that you BOTH didn't make the same error. If you locate a GEDCOM file at Ancestry, Family Tree Maker or in the Genealogy Forum that looks like a match, do your best to make contact with the submitter. (Look for their E-mail address and communicate electronically if you can.) Request copies of their source citations so you can retrace their research steps. Offer to reimburse them for photocopies of materials they might have that substantiate or corroborate facts. Anyone can publish a Web page, and the genealogical information you find on personal Web page should be viewed with skepticism. Make contact and ask for source citations so you can verify the author's research. CD-ROM's are as suspect as other GEDCOM files. Chats can be a wonderful resource for education and for getting questions about a specific area or record type answered. Remember, however, that chats are an impersonal way of interacting with other people, and that the information someone may give you in a chat may be provided "off the top of their head," with little or no research performed. That doesn't mean that some wonderful people aren't out there who, when you ask your question, will pull a reference book off the shelf and look up information for you. However, don't hesitate to ask the follow-on question, "Can you give me your source for that information?" Message boards are a wonderful place to post notices about what and who you are researching. As you're reading other people's messages, don't hesitate to send them a private E-mail asking them for their sources. Make friends with other genealogists familiar with these types of research resources. That may be one or several people. Ask for their advice if you have questions. Also, make friends with the reference librarian at your library. He or she may be able to help point you to alternate, corroborating materials to help you confirm the information you find through these other sources. If there are some resources above that you're not using, perhaps now is the time for a late New Year's resolution. Learn how to do research on the Internet with mailing lists or IRC, or join an online service such as the impressive America Online and access the extensive resources of the Genealogy Forum. While none of these online resources will provide you with primary resources, there are a wealth of pointers to take you down some new research paths. Happy hunting! George Click Here for George Morgan's Archive Copyright 1998 George G. Morgan All Rights reserved "Along Those Lines ..." is a weekly feature of the Genealogy Forum on America Online (Keyword: ROOTS). This column originally appeared in the Genealogy Forum on America Online. You may send E-mail alonglines@aol.com. George Morgan would like to hear from you but, because of the volume of E-mail, is unable to personally respond to each letter individually. He also regrets that he cannot assist you with your personal genealogical research. Copyright 1998, 1999, Ancestry.com Inc. and its subsidiaries. Terms and Conditions | Privacy Statement