Abraham Lincolm on genealogy
“Genealogist should not trust everything they
find on the internet”
Abraham Lincolm
Sorry folks, I couldn’t stand the temptation.
Recently I commented on a highly questionable statement on an internet forum where I participate . I was told to prove that the statement I questioned wasn’t true. I didn’t reply to this as I understood that this person wasn’t in the “reasoning business”. This is topsy-turvy research. We should always be able to prove that the information we provide is true, and not tell others to disprove it.
Searching many genealogical databases on the internet, we find several errors and a lot of information with no sources attached. We all make mistakes, but some should have been caught by the “editor”. E.g. children born several years after their parents died, women having children in their 60’s and many more.
This makes me think that we (that includes me!) are not always as cautious as we should be when we share information. I am planning to look into the evaluation and citing of sources. I like to think that I have applied proper standards on this, but I am sure I can get better at, and more conscious about it.
You are welcome to follow me in this “study”. If you register your email address (I will not share with anyone), you will receive a notice when I update this blog.
The fine-looking gentleman whose picture accompany this posting is neither Abraham Lincolm nor Abraham Lincoln. It is my G-G-Grandfather Markus Olsen Moldenæs who was born in Molde in 1833 and died in Ålesund in 1929.
Sadly, the people who most need to read this will not do so. Don’t you just love people who believe they can trace their ancestry to Vikings? When I posted about the non-existence of documentation to prove such connections, one person sneered at me because I had evidently never heard of runes……..
I am sorry to say that you are right Judy
I had a distant relative who sent me a 33 page tome tracing to Harold Fairhair. I ran it by another Norwegian relative and an American genealogist friend Both told me he was full of an unmentionable substance in this format. They further said people other than those with royalty or clergy ancestors could not validate before 16th C. The rest was saga.
Nice to hear from you Ed! The oldest Norwegian church books still in existence were started in the 1600’s. There are some fairly reliable documents that may help trace some lineages somewhat beyond the 1600’s. When it comes to the many claims of “Viking descendancy”: I have not yet seen any such genealogies that are supported by reliable sources. I have, however, seen many such genealogies being ripped to pieces by expert genealogists.
It is a known facts that many suchs genealogies are deliberat frauds. Some “Viking genealogies” has been made with honest intentions, but later research has showed that the sources used was fraudulent.