ANJOU

FRAUDULENT LINEAGE UPDATE #3
BEWARE OF THE SOURCE HOAX

Fellow researchers we are faced with an epidemic within the genealogy world that was completely unthinkable a few
years ago.

Internet research had opened opportunities to locate information at lightning speed and enable us to locate and search
sources that have been unavailable to those genealogy researchers of previous generations.

On the other hand we now have thousands of new researchers who have very limited genealogical or historical skills and are unable to determine if a genealogy source is true or false.

Many of these people will take published lines and republish them on the internet, as their own, without giving any thought
whatsoever as to their validity or giving proper credit to the originator. By adding their own personal work, good or bad, they create something that most genealogists can see through in a very short time.

By working back through parents, grandparents etc. we are working one line upward and at times those brick walls will
appear and it will get more difficult. However, the breakthrough appears and we continue backward until we locate the
immigrant ancestor or fail in extending the line.

More and more new researchers take their line back three, four, five generations and then leap back and start searching
for early immigrant ancestors with the same surname and start working down to their last listed g,g,g, grandfather or
grandmother. Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea of how many different lines you would have to work through? You must remember that not all immigrants had children and many that did were not able to continue the male line but for a few generations. Some of our early Ancestors may only be reached through the female lines and you will be amazed when they turn up while researching another line.

It can not be done folks! You can not start your search with the immigrants since there were so many around with the
same surname and many unrelated. Name changes and spelling variations have hidden many lines. And even today it is most difficult to tie the early families together unless they remained within a certain area. Once they start moving around, the records are most difficult to match.

It is rare indeed to find a family surname ancestor who is responsible for ALL? descendants of that name. Yes there
are some families in that position however, most of these have been known for years. An added point is that it is most
difficult to find the "first of that surname". There were so many early ancestors with the same surname and many of them
can not be pin pointed to an exact date of arrival. All ships did not have passenger lists and many people died during the voyage and were not listed as such and never reached our shores.

We receive a lot of mail here on various frauds and will try to cover and answer as many as possible.

Several people have complained about internet posters who have changed proven lines to include theirs to create a
Hoax line. This is being done by including various parts of their line with the proven line through the use of what appears
to be a source to a valid location. They know most researchears do not check an item if it carries a source.

The posted source may well be a valid one as it may contain the marriage date of two people including location etc.
Now the person creating the Hoax will insert a child's name within the line they are changing to give the impression
that the child is indeed the son or the daughter of the sourced married couple thus creating a line back to the couple
and their ancestors.

Now you genealogists may say that is impossible because before accepting any information you write down the source. Then you go to the source to be sure the dates, locations etc. are correct. By doing that you have trained yourself to prove the source and you would have caught the error.

Other variations that have been used to indicate that false information was included in the source is, the listing of valid people with fake middle names, maiden names of wives who no one else has ever found, false birth dates or ages added, children added, the name of a wife added to that of an immigrant male, a statement indicating a person was related to someone in Europe or a location in Europe, a relationship to another passenger, a child added as a twin, and anything else that would be opening up something later in the line. When you go to the source given you will not find the information you have jusr read listed there!!!

That is the way a trained researcher works. But the uninformed will take the information and possibly list the source as their own, without checking the original source, and then post the material for all to see and believe. That continues the HOAX.

This is just a sample of what is out there.

If you as a writer or a poster to the internet simply accepts everything that is written and then republish it without proving the sources, you too are guilty of continuing the Hoax. It is your responsibility to prove everything you post for anyone else to view.

How bad is it out there?

After running several checks I have to agree with everyone who have contacted us regarding lineage tampering that most all their complaints are valid. Also in spot checking the past several months I and some of our members have determined that some where close to 55% of all posted lines are incorrect.

All the blame is not with the poster. In many cases they simply pick up material and believe it must be correct so they repost
without checking it. It is going to be a problem for them when it is discovered, and it will be, then readers will not be able to
accept anything in the future from the poster or their site.

What can we do to stop false postings?;

First.....Check every entry you get from a posting and verify that the given source contains what is listed in the posting.

Accept only primary sources to add to your family group sheet. All others will need additional proof.

Call to the attention of the site manager any problem you have with their listing. You may be wrong with your work or
he/she is wrong with the post which may be an honest mistake and they should appreciate the help.

If they refuse your primary proofs such as birth, death, marriage, land records and recorded wills vs "so and so stated
in their book" (no proofs) you must make other researchers aware that the material is tainted and the poster is not reliable.

If for some reason you do not want to take the last step to protect your work and those who are following false lines,
contact me with the facts on both sides and we will make it available to the researchers at large.

A few things you should know about Sources.

Be aware that none of us are sources and that includes internet posters or authors or web sites including our own.

A Family History Is Not A Source, only the sources given to prove a statement should be quoted as the source. You may also include the name of the book to indicate where the source is. Extremely bad are the New England Family Histories
published in the late 1800s. Modern research sources such as the various census records etc. have proven an extremely
high percentage of these "histories" have many errors. So beware.

Societies will not honor as a source itself, most Family Histories, World Family Tree CDs or IGI generated listings from the LDS files since many come from unproven sources, books that generate listings such as the wonderful Peter Wilson Coldham books, Virkus and other list compilers. In those cases use the sources that each of these people indicated within each of the listings. There are some remarkable works out there. Use them correctly.

Even the LDS Church will not honor their own extended lines since they have been generated by many people who have not proven their work. The great majority of these have been posted by people who know less about the line than you do!!
The IGI print outs are not worth your time.

We have actually seen three different lines merged into one and they still had the wrong immigrant ancestor?

When ever you find material anywhere that does not contain strong sourcing, or none at all, put the material where it belongs, in the waste basket.

Let us work together to show and teach others what genealogy is all about. The pride in knowing we are a part of the lives
of real people who once walked upon this earth and that we share a part of the same blood of our family members who
passed this way before us.

Ryan Jackson
America's First Families

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