"Many heroic exploits and chivalrous adventures are related to me which exist only in the regions of fancy. With me the world has taken great liberties, and yet I have been but a common man." ....Daniel Boone

About Genealogy On The Internet

First, a word of advice --- DO NOT TRUST IT.

Don't trust ANY of it -- and that includes the genealogy on the website you are looking at right now. I make every attempt to post only what I feel is accurate but I do not recommend that you take the information you find on this website and rely on it without doing your own verification of it through first-hand resources.

It saddens me a great deal but the reality of the matter is that many of the people these days who call themselves "researchers" are nothing more than what I call "Copy-pasters" or "Statistic collectors." Those are people who cruise the internet, see something they like and grab it. It's very easy to do - just highlight and hit copy. That's all it takes. Then those people go to other websites, sometimes dozens or even hundreds of them, and republish it - most of the time, adding their own names to it and claiming it as their own. Did they take time to investigate the information at all and see if it was correct? Of course not. They merely "collect" material -- some of which has already been copied and pasted many times over. Often if you go all the way back to the beginning of the publication of that information (and believe me, that can often be a very long trip to take), there was not one iota of truth to it to start with... but there it is now .... all over the place -- and there are too many people who think because they have seen it everywhere, it must be true. It has already become a huge snowball rolling downhill at breakneck speed.

These snowball errors have consequences you may not have ever thought about. A good example of this is the man who did "a little" so-called research into his wife's ancestry. As soon as he found the name of her great grandfather, he stopped right there and assumed, "here he is!" What he found told him that this man served in the Civil War, so, knowing where this man's grave was located, he sent off to the government for a Civil War headstone. It arrived and he stored it in his basement for a few years, eventually having it installed at the gravesite. Here's the problem with all that. Names are shared by many people -- people who even lived in the same section of a state at the same time. In this case this "researcher" had stumbled onto someone who had the same name as his wife's great grandfather, a man who served honorably in the Civil War --- the trouble is, he was NOT his wife's great grandfather. He was a man who just happened to have the same name - a man who is buried on the other side of the state. The wife's great grandfather never served in the Civil War at all. But now he has a Civil War headstone at his grave -- complete with incorrect dates and identifying information on his non-existant service. I am sure this ancestor would be horrified to know that he appears to be getting credit for the military service of another person .... and I am sure the deceased "researcher" would have never wanted to do anything to cause a falsehood to be perpetuated down through coming generations, but that is what he has done. Think of future generations who see this stone and have no reason to think for a minute that it is a history that does not belong to the man whose grave it is. The "researcher" who had the stone installed has since passed away and now noone knows what to do about this huge blunder. We can't take it upon ourselves to just go to the cemetery and take that stone down, can we?

Most true researchers have completely stopped sharing their work online. I have done that myself to a great extent and I am currently considering yanking my site from the internet altogether. This has happened because of all the unscrupulous people who steal the hard work of others and republish it in their own names. Therefore most of what we will be left with online comes from the "Copy-pasters" and is nothing more than the same old inaccuracies repeated over and over.

Most compilations of family histories these days are full of errors and myths because it has become so easy to perpetuate errors and myths via the internet. It is not just the family researcher sitting at home in front of a computer that is affected by this phenomenon. There are far too many books being written that are carrying these mistakes forward. I can tell you of any number of books published in recent years about Daniel Boone that are FULL of myths, unfounded rumors, untruths and just plain old sensationalisms thrown in to sell books and make money off the name of a famous historical figure. Some of these authors have even managed to convince great numbers of readers that they are trustworthy writers -- and there are far too many people who believe that if they read it in a book, it has to be true.

Daniel Boone seems to be extremely popular these days. Sometimes it seems like everyone who is doing any kind of search for their ancestry is desperately trying to connect themselves to him in one manner or another. I shake my head in despair at it on almost a daily basis because my income-job puts me in a position to see it everyday. One well-known writer called this 'Boone syndrome,' the current "great American sport." It has gotten rediculous. Daniel Boone would have to have lived seventeen lifetimes to have been "a friend," "a close connection," "a relative," "a neighbor ," etc., etc., etc. to the vast numbers of people that today claim he was such to their ancestor. Most often it just didn't happen, Folks. Daniel Boone got around, its true .... but certainly not to the extent that people are claiming. He was just one human being. He did not have a "connection" to every person who passed his way during his life's journey. Do you? Would you claim a connection to the man or woman you said hello to the other day as you walked down the street? Another thing I see all the time is people who think if there was even one person named BOONE anywhere in their family's background, they are related to Daniel Boone. Not necessarily so. There were many Boone families in America at the same time Daniel's family was here who were not related to his family in any way. There are many many Boones who have no family connection to Daniel Boone.

It is this writer's opinion that it would be much better to concentrate on 4 or 5, maybe even 6 or 7, generations, get it right and then try to get to know those people as much as you can. Forget about trying to go back as far as you can or collecting the most names and dates, or connecting yourself to some famous person. Our connection to ancestors hundreds and hundreds of years ago has very little significance anyway and can't you be proud of your ancestors who, like the majority, never became famous? Try to put it into perspective. Do you, yourself, feel any connection to the hundreds, if not thousands, of descendants that may be yours 5 or 6 hundred years from now? Probably not. And by the same token our ancestors from that far back would feel little, if any, connection to us.

We have reached a point where we all need to start doing everything we can to stop the perpetuation of false data, the many unfounded rumors, factless 'facts,' and maybe most all, the spread of what is becoming known as "almost laughable internet genealogy." And, especially in the case of Daniel Boone, don't trust those books! Today it seems that too many people who, for one reason or another, consider themselves authors, want to write another book about Daniel Boone. Why I wonder. Could it be because so many people are making an extreme effort to claim a family connection to him? Many current authors are mainly interested in making money off their books afterall - so they flock to the subject that they think will sell books. Daniel Boone's name has been used countless times to sell books and it does sell books. Unfortunately the average reader doesn't have the expertise to discern what parts of those books are true and what is rumor, myth, fabrication and / or just sensationalist junk thrown in to cover all the areas (adventure, degradation of heroes, sex) which the publishers think sells books. So what happens? Those people read the book and then they become part of the snowball effect - they believe what they read and they pass it along.

It is wonderful to have genuine resources at our fingertips -- census records, original court records, library resources, pension files, scanned original documents, etc. - and this is where the internet can be a marvelous aid. These records give us a place to look for the true facts about those we want to know more about. Let's keep adding those to the internet, as long as they are not violating family privacy. Then let's go to THOSE places to do our research and forget about all the "junk" that is all over the internet. I guess it comes down to "do your own work." At least then you will have something worthwhile that you can feel good about.

I can't conclude this little rant without saying a little something on the subject of "family privacy." None of us, not one single one of us, should assume that it is ok to publish family information online that includes the name of any person who has been dead less than 75 to 100 years. You are most likely not the only relative your great grandparents had. You can bet there are many more out there that may even have a much closer connection to that person than you have. Therefore you should not assume that its ok for you to publish that family's information in any public place. You may say 'it's all public record anyway so why not?' .... Well, there is a HUGE difference between the ability to travel to a courthouse or library and look something up and having anyone on the face of the planet be able to know anything they want to know about you or your family with just a few clicks on a keyboard! Even if it is what you consider harmless information about yourself, would you want it plastered across a giant billboard along every highway in the world? Of course you wouldn't. Something on the internet reaches far more people than billboards do. Look into your ancestry if you have that desire. Share it with your immediate family if you like, but don't take it upon yourself to share it with the world -- just remember, those people are the loved ones of others -- not just a name and a date. You can tell yourself that you are doing it to help other researchers. Not so. If you want to help other researchers, go to the source and spend a few hours (or days or weeks) copying some original records from a hundred or so years ago and share those online to give people a place to look for information on their families. Remember that you are not the only person who has internet skills - if someone's children or grandchildren wanted their life history posted on the internet, I would bet you a bundle that they could put it there themselves.

My favorite thought on this subject is If you care enough to look for your family, then care enough to protect them. Don't invade the privacy of families by posting information about them on the world wide web. That is not your right or mine.

Go ahead and copy and paste this page (intact - without modifications) anywhere you like.