Colleen,
I know exactly what you mean...
I started my Stedman study just trying to document one family.
However, the "literature" on the family was all over the place with
screwball interpretations. So I started just documenting every
factoid I could find so I could start to put families together. After
10+ years I still have factoids I cannot resolve!
When I started to web Publish, people would find my site and give me
whole lines from their research. Originally, I would take those lines
and just append them to the data that I had, but now I put those
lines in their own database then prune twigs that have nothing to do
with my Stedman story, and then re-work and re-check all of the data
so that it is my format and to my standards. And then I merge it
into my main database if it connects to people already there.
Single name studies grow much larger than a family database.
Other "genuine" large databases might document the families of a
community. In the Berkshire Atheneum there is a large multivolume
(15-20 volumes) set of the families of Blandford, Massachusetts. If
that were made into a database, it would be 10s of 1000s of names.
Today, you would probably want to tie those families into their
ancestors and their descendants who left the town.
On person on this list has a monster database of everyone in the US
who had a type of occupation. Think how large a database you might
have of just doctors of the 19th century...
john.
At 11:49 PM 4/23/2006, Dove wrote:
I don't have anywhere near the number of names as some of those who
have posted. But, I do take what I find on the web, in the library
etc.
I am conducting a one name study. I research my own line
meticulously; but not all the other lines. Yes, if I go to Salt Lake
City or my local archives, I take all the surname I am researching and
add them to my database.
But, my website homepage clearly states that everything should be
taken as a hint on where to look for information (I list all my
sources) and nothing should be taken at face value. I do not
guarantee the information and appreciate any clarifications or
corrections. Even well known genealogy books have errors in them.
And some errors are merely the way different people read the old
handwriting or the foreign language in old handwriting. LOL
Colleen
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