How to discourage newcomers to Genealogy

Reprinted from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter, 12 November 2012

I received the following email message today. It's sad that anyone would be treated in such a manner. I felt so bad about this person's experience that I decided to republish the email message here although I have edited it slightly and also removed the sender's name and email address in order to protect privacy.

 

Are you guilty of treating newcomers to this sort of shoddy treatment? I am guessing the original message questioning the accuracy of data was probably well intentioned but certainly needed more diplomacy:

“I am very new to genealogy. Not long ago I was contacted about a date error on my Mayflower ancestor's page at ancestry.com. I found it and changed it. It quickly escalated into other criticisms and I quit making the suggested corrections which came several emails a day. This person wanted me to delete everyone from my "list of people" if she didn't know who they were.

Well, I wouldn't do that and this person got a bit huffy about it.

How can anyone make a tree and corrections and additions along the way, when the ancestry police demand removal of everything that doesn't match their tree?

I have a LOT of women with no last names. I wish I knew their names but I don't and don't think I should remove them as a spouse just because I don't have all the information. I also think it's OK to add information that AT THE TIME I believe to be correct.

How does any tree get made if no one is allowed to 'work on it' over time? Is it only permissible to have a tree completed and verified by ... who? ... before it can be put on ancestry.com?”

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