We decided to blog for several reasons. One was to challenge current genealogical research standards, and the other was to provide a forum for communication and comments with our customers and those with a general interest in our services.
The former may prove somewhat controversial and it may not be possible to comment on the general research methods of family historians, without arousing ire and comments of elitism, snobbery and pomposity. If that occurs, then so be it.
We already live in a culture of misinformation and the likes of some major online genealogy services only help to perpetuate this.
One recent instance of poor research practice and one conversation with a customer has led me personally along the campaigning route of, when should we publish our research? What caveats should we present to the general public when we do publish? Should we be more circumspect where we choose to publish? What responsibility do we have to future generations to be accurate and diligent when we publish our work?
Of course one of the websites that I have issue with has to be Ancestry - almost endorsed by the National Archives who in partnership with it, allows it to produce indexes from our national records, I feel that the NA should be setting an example and only having B2B partnerships with companies who encourage good practice.
The recent example of poor research that I encountered on Ancestry was regarding my great-grandfather. In the personal family trees section a family historian had him listed on their family tree, naming his wife and parents. This was all very well except that he was illegitimate and did not belong to this person’s family at all! And yet here it was on Ancestry for all to see…
Could I contact this person and tell them they had got it wrong? No, there is no way of directly contacting them on Ancestry. Could I make my own corrections to the erroneous information? No, there is no button or link to make corrections on Ancestry. Could I add a comment to the information? No there is no comments area.
No, by far the easiest method to give the true version was to publish my own data on Ancestry, just to make sure there was a correct account of the family out there….