Ten things you do in Genealogy that Irks me!
Post On the Negative With Slight Positive side!
Hah - rootdigger! no naming names!
Post On the Negative With Slight Positive side!
Hah - rootdigger! no naming names!
[In order to know where your going; you have to know where you [they] have been]
1. People who make everything so private. So what if they are living. Not even a date or where they are from on the front page list. At least give a surname of a spouse. If you have just a tiny scrap bit of information alone, isolated to go on with your research, it is no help when you run across people like that. Once upon a time back, when I was at midstream I came across a name in my village and county areas of Iowa who had the same year as my Meyer. They even carried the Behrens and a Lichte names. [I was hoping for a Licht name.] I also had followed a Wilhelmina Meyer to Lowden, Iowa who had the background of Yoders. Possibly to it would have helped a search for a Heins/Sander/Meyer tree due to a reference on one line in a church record. I think it was. I thought the whole tree had been on line years before. I was trying to learn hopefully by a couple of quick glances to see the persons original location in Germany, would be all I needed. Imagine how much time - years- I would have saved, if I could have done so/ Instead My search had stopped then, and I suppose I thought I could take it up later. The woman did not give me the password because I was not related. That's like saying you can't have the chickens cause you have no egg. [yes it's grrr. My attitude will take time to heal] [ But, thankfully others are in the same tree!!]2. They have everything about the family in United states, but nothing about where they are from in the old country. Even a hint or suspect location would help. Maybe you could tell us if you have tried to look.
3. They have everything about the family in the 'old country', but nothing much about American descendants. [me arootdigger, I am very guilty] If they all died off, tell me.
4. They have done the work, but don't list good enough sources intenional or unintentional, so you can pick it up yourself to see if they are related without having to start from the very start. [Am I guilty too?]
5. They have an obvious error in location spelling and they fail to supply the real spelling.They are hurting themselves in that omission. How are your future relatives going to pick you out of the web of millions of words and associations, if you have an error in location. I would never have gotten anywhere, if I had not learned it was Oldendorf an der Goehrde, not Oldenburg. Your working on the assumption that everyone is getting a referral to this site by yourself. Ask yourself this: What is the point of the site. Is it to gain current unknowns or simply inform those relatives you already have by exact known connection.
6. No points to myself, but it helps if you use Umlauts. After all, it helps tags get picked up. I did use them on a standard keyboard, but not so much now. I should do it again .
I read that titles in white is not picked up by the crawlers, now I have read that it is. I figure why take a chance and I love light blue and pink anyway?
7. At the message boards they only have one post listed under their name. I am not sure if it is by design or if they quit after that. It makes you wonder if their email will even work. It sure gives no clues to anything about the family. Perhaps they knew everything else?
8. Kind of the same but slightly different. Some fail to say locations and give only name and date, and so you have to further click or even roam all over finding where they came from or the oldest known person of that tree original location and date. [A Bonus would be the youngest] We all have our brick wall people that we hope to find, even by chance clicks. It sure would help if they post those right off visible from the start.
9. Get your password out there, so it is easily found in places you expect. skip the @ button if you want. A button; a link in profile. Don't make me hunt it, I'll probably give up and maybe go back. But my attitude is already negative towards you.
10. Other people who get irked because they assume you have not done your homework and take a post and time to tell you so. I have gotten information in church records that are simple one liners, and I follow up by a quick browse at a few chosen places, which may include posts at forums and message boards just to see the lay of it all, so to speak. So Perhaps it is not doing the homework, but what could you do else in research of American sources once you have checked census and other historical documentation about a isolated orphan name, but if all it takes is one quick question to ask where that person was from, why not. You have to give graciously as good as you get. I have many Irons in the fire that I haven't gotten to yet. And sometimes a post is right there in front of you. Often a census will say Germany or Hannover and that tells you squat. Further more, some people think Hannover kingdom is spelled Hanover. It is my understanding that the city is called Hanover. [ If I am wrong feel free to pinch me] So I to take a little more of my time and investigate their definition of Hanover/ Hannover before I disregard them. If they only knew to at least include some thing to clarify. say city or something so I know it is all over Hannover not one little city. And I won't start on the use of Prussia.
What did I forget?? Oh come on, you have some! Be sure to add some in the comments. I probably agree with them. Or am extremely guilty of them!
I have to remind myself that yes these people could still be my relatives. You can't choose your relatives they say, like you can your friends. However, they can choose to acknowledge you or not?? [This is not as good as it gets - rootdigger!]
As I was told, the data is hard to find as it is, why make it harder for the next one to find it.
