Ann,
The issue for many of us who see people relate these huge files is in
understanding how they came to be. There are certainly cases where someone
who has been consistently working for many years will have a well documented
database of tens of thousands of names. Hopefully you are one of those. But
for everyone like that there are probably 9 (more likely 99) more who have
simply appropriated thousands and thousands of names from other sources
(such as the Ancestral File) without a shred of independent research to
verify anything. Real research takes time, such as writing for vital
records, scrolling through microfilm pages, traveling to libraries, etc.
When you think about it, if someone works at genealogy like a full-time job,
at 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year for 20 years they have worked a total of
41,600 hours. So to get a 120,000 name database they had to *average*
finding, documenting, and data entry of 3 names per hour. Now I know that
sometimes I stumble upon some large family groups, but then there are the
MANY times I have spent all day traipsing around a graveyard, or reading
microfilms, etc and come up empty. I certainly have not averaged 3 names per
hour over the years. Then there is the fact that most of us, even those
retired, probably are not actually spending a consistent 8 hours a day on
genealogy, so the "find rate" has to be even higher than 3 NPH to accumulate
those kinds of numbers.
So, when people say they have 150,000 or 250,000 names, our skepticism is
not with the *existence* of these large databases, it is with their quality.
Only you can judge the quality of your research. If you know in your heart
of hearts that it is not junk genealogy then there is no reason to take
offence when someone expresses a *general* scepticism about these huge
databases.
Gary Templeman
----- Original Message -----
From: "Anne Hildrum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <LegacyUserGroup@legacyfamilytree.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2008 2:55 PM
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Criteria you use to add an individual to Legacy?
Hehe, I guess my file is extreemely suspect. Yes I do have thousands in my
family file.
Everybody in it is not related to me, but a great majority is.
We all start differently and do this genealogy stuff different. Is one
better than another,
not in my eyes we have different wishes or goals or wants I guess.
I started out with a family book, wanting to see how I was related to
different people in
it, and later decided I would try to find my ancestors. The problem was I
started with one
community to discover poeple married back and forth between all the
neighbouring communities.
Seeing most of these communities had what we call bygdebooks(farm and
family books) I decided
to enter them all into my file. Poeple I lost in one were refound in
another. Of course there are errors in
them as it might be in my file, because I write a date wrong or something
else. When it comes to my own
family I check censues and churchbooks and what I can find. I also do some
of it when people ask
me for help, so by time more and more gets better researched. Of course
they aren't all researched, but
as time goes by more and more are.
Some says I am just collecting names, I would rather say I am collecting
connections. These people lived on farms,
suddenly some of those might connect to my family, or if not they might
connect to yours.
I have helped lot of people finding their ancestor by the fact that I did
enter all the bygdebooks, sometimes
there are related to me, but other times not. So shame on me for having so
many people in my files,
and making it possible to help others <Smile>
Anne
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Herson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <LegacyUserGroup@legacyfamilytree.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2008 6:00 PM
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Criteria you use to add an individual to Legacy?
Criteria you use to add an individual to Legacy?Far too often, people are
just collecting names and don't really know if the connections are valid.
I'm always suspect about the claims of 10s of thousands of people in
someone's family file ;-)
Tom
----- Original Message -----
From: Claire Spinelli
To: LegacyUserGroup@legacyfamilytree.com
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2008 11:49 AM
Subject: [LegacyUG] Criteria you use to add an individual to Legacy?
I often read of people who have thousands and thousands of people in
their database. Today I read of one over 100,000. I have trouble
envisioning where all these people come from J I feel like a slouch - my
best branch (paternal grandfather) only has about 400 people in it and I
thought I was doing pretty well. I add direct line ancestors, of course,
their siblings, all spouses and children involved. I also include the
parents of any spouses, though, and generally just make a note of their
siblings. For instance, the wife of my great-uncle would be included, as
would her parents, but that would be the end of her line. (I hope I'm
explaining this so it can be understood.) I read questions about
downloading gedcoms found online. Perhaps I'm not as fortunate as others,
but the gedcoms I've found have only included 3 or 4 people that would be
relevant to me. In that case, I import the gedcom into its own file, and
only enter into my main database the 3 or 4 people. To do otherwise
would, to me, create useless clutter.
Is there something wrong with my thinking?
Claire
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