Our Policy on Privacy
Below you will find a question and answer segment. The question was put forth to the web site in early August 1998. Below is the question and my response. - AWHurst
Dear Folks,
I received this great question to the web site this morning and decided that others may have also wondered about this - therefore, I am sending the question and my answer to everybody.
>One question?? On the lineage's spot, shouldn't there be a place of b: d: m: or at least a >residence indicated to show migrant trail for each generation or a change in residence >from one generation to another? ?? I just thought for someone looking in NY, OH, MI, >KS, GA, FL etc. it would help newcomers.
On the Lineage's page there is a migration list for each family that covers the earliest known ancestor to the present. If people have specific questions about specific families they may contact the individuals who have graciously given their email addresses for such correspondence. I will not post more information than I have already on the lineages (known birth and death years for deceased people) because of the simple fact that there are far too many instances of individuals scavenging information from web sites (and CDs), then calling it their own without doing a scrap of actual research to verify what they present. That is how misinformation gets started and continues - one person scavenges then another one uses that person as a source and so on and so forth until so many people have used that one person as a source that their information begins to look like "responsible researching" when it most certainly is not. I do not want the web site to contribute to that.
When Jolene and I started this web site the major topic of discussion was how do we deal with the issue of providing reliable resources and not perpetuating questionable material? One way we deal with the issue is to not provide all the known information on individuals in one lump sum on the web site. That also makes damage control infinitely easier when one suddenly stumbles across new information that changes or corrects previous information. The other way we deal with it is to scrutinize the sources and whenever possible to cross-reference information with other known reliable sources such as other historical documents, newspapers, census and other vital records, etc.. This is why we don't like to post information when its' only source is a Broderbund CD (for example) - Broderbund while they are a reputable software company and their software IS great - their CDs of compiled information from their users is NOT verified AT ALL! We are also wary of information from the LDS (Latter-Day Saints/Mormons) In the last 10 years, the quality of their verification has dropped considerably - on numerous occasions when I have visited my local LDS Family Center I have been unhappily surprised at the errors I have found and I have repeatedly heard these same stories from other researchers.
In summary, we know more than we post to protect everybody. And it has been my experience that when folks are researching on the Internet, if they are sincere about genealogy, they share information back and forth and are willing to do a little footwork (i.e. emailing specific researchers who have listed ways to contact them) to get the information they seek.
Sincerely,
Allison W. Hurst
Providence, RI
Co-foundrix, Cone Research Site, Geocities.com
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