Last month I was the guest of honor at a BBQ hosted by my 91-year-old cousin, Glenna, in Placentia, CA. It was my sad duty to tell her that she died in 1994 and is moldering in a grave in Michigan. I soothed the message by telling her she is the best-looking cadaver I've ever seen.
What?
Shortly before driving from Washington down to Placentia to genealogize with Glenna, I was on Ancestry.com where I discovered a pedigree chart that informed me of Glenna's demise.
No one does very much genealogy without making a mistake here and there, and I've certainly made a few; but this one was a doozy. The person who posted it said he will resurrect Glenna. I hope he already has because Glenna is a vibrant and delightful old gal. Hope she won't mind me saying that. At 91 she is an arbiter in the Mormon Church's extraction program. Volunteers extract government documents, such as censuses. Each record is extracted twice, by different extractors. A computer compares each extraction. If there is any, even minor, discrepancy, the records are forwarded to arbiters who decide which, if either, was accurate.
Hope you enjoy this jovial reminder that genealogy is like walking on ice. We must have evidence to support our conclusions, and just like ice on a lake or pond, they need to be strong enough to bear the weight of our conclusions.
Terry
No comments:
Post a Comment