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I rather think that the comments that have been made in response to Renee’s first posting indicate a major problem that needs to be sorted.
My own experiences are:
a. Re the elusive/mythical Ann Blount. I was contacted a year after a series of postings on the Blount Genforum. Had I found anything yet? I replied that I did not expect to, but that should I do so, I would most certainly post on the Forum. I was told “Keep looking!” I am very old. I have been fascinated with descent through history for almost half a century. Getting past the cheek, I was left with an uneasy feeling about anyone who, on being told that there was no evidence for Ann being a Blount still maintains that *continuing* to look for her will eventually find her.
b. Shortly afterwards I was contacted regarding a theory that had been proposed of a possible name change. People with two surnames but the same Christian names, occupying the same land holdings, living in the same time frame: could they be the same people? I replied that this theory made complete sense to me and gave another illustration where exactly the same factors applied to one and the same family. Surnames get changed; we know that. My contact sent me comments made by a fourth person to the lady who had proposed the theory. They were virulent. Quite shocking.
c. I posted a summary of a will on another message board some years’ back. I was contacted for further details. I gave them and added a few personal points because I really believed that I was in communication with someone who was sharing my line of interest. “Remove me from your mailing list”.
I have seen enthusiastic contributors disappear from their message boards in the wake of personal attack; I have seen others goaded beyond frustration similarly disappear and never contribute again. We are losing some good people out there.
“The English Government has probably destroyed the records on purpose!” I would love you all to see the work being carried out in the county record offices, the labours of love of the volunteers who work to spot the names in which others will be interested and to have them entered in the index, and the care in which these ancient documents are handled. That others have failed to survive the ravages of fire, water, carelessness, being used as firelighters, etc. etc. should not surprise us. Nor should we be surprised by the mistakes of other enthusiasts, producing the pedigrees of others, without our advantages, one hundred, two hundred years’ ago. Do we not owe it to them to try to get history right?
Renee asks how such situations should be handled. May I suggest:
a. We either post our sources or have them ready to hand when others request them.
b. That we never feel embarrassed to ask for the sources of others’ information – but to always ask for it with a smile. Smiley faces are great.
c. I well remember how difficult it was to go back in time before the internet. We (or most certainly *I*) owe so much to Family Search and the IGI. I am sure that the above problems must get debated with them. Would it be possible for the *source* of information be included in the entries?
d. Very few people have my e-mail address. The only way in which the above persons were able to contact me would be via my "not authorised" information within GenForum. (PLEASE correct me if I am wrong.) When we receive unsolicited, unpleasant, communications into our e-mail addresses, if the only possible way in which those addresses could be obtained is as I suspect, then I suggest that we publish these private responses on the Forum, together with the names of the senders. I am certain that those managing the Forum are unaware of how our details are being misused. We can do nothing about those long listings that appear elsewhere or faction presented without qualification, but in the Genforum postings we can exchange our views – perhaps sometimes get matters wrong – put them right...Communicate!
Renee has touched on a big problem here, regarding dishonesty and unkindness, frustration, depression and, eventually, disinterest.
Well done, Renee!
Gillian
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