Re: Unknown Maiden Name [WAS how-to ruin a perfectly good FGS]
- From: singhals <singhals@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 09:44:57 -0700 (PDT)
Laurie wrote:
It's easy to let people know what convention you're using. Several
years ago I started using this convention for unknown maiden names:
______ (Smith)
lanenelson1@xxxxxxx
<sigh> I guess all the messages about using a standard "convention"
to display unknown or missing maiden names in a database has fallen
on deaf ears (or maybe blind eyes?).
You are the one who's deaf and blind, not to mention extremely RUDE.
This works for me and the people I share data with; if it doesn't
work for you, too bad. I'm NOT going to have lots of women with
nothing but first names (and mostly the same first names) to wade
through at the beginning of my database, just to please you.
The thing is, it's not _just_ to please Joan (or me). If I am using
an object called a "pipe" to sip my frozen daiquiri, you're going to
think it's peculiar of me. If I call that object a "straw" it won't
seem at all peculiar. OTOH, if I use a "straw" rather than a "pipe"
or "pipette" to perform certain lab operations it's going to seem
odd.
Standardization of vocabulary is necessary for clear communication.
So long as everyone you know understands what "the Y" is, you're
good; as soon as someone thinks it's an athletic club for young men
or women, things could lose meaning rapidly.
No matter how carefully and thoroughly you explain to people in
notes, arrows, asterisks, etc. how YOU have listed the names...
people don't always read it, people don't always understand it even
if they read it--let's see--is that (Smith) after the underscore a
possible maiden name? A married name? Was that the first or
second husband's surname?
Also, not all software programs are going to IMPORT your notes and
arrows and symbols and diagrams the way YOU intended them to show,
or display your information in the fields you intended for them.
I really don't care how other programs import my notes, etc. I don't
plan to change programs, and others don't need to import my data.
They can retype it if it's a problem for them.
So long as they READ the notes that tells them what you've done, and
so long as they repeat that info, I'm with you here. I'm under no
obligation to make things easy to steal.
And next thing you know you find YOUR data on the Internet
(submitted by the person you shared it with) and they have displayed
the names in a manner you didn't intend and the meaning has become
something other than what you intended. How do you think so many
Lnu, Mnu, Unk and other "surnames" ended up in online databases?
The answer--because they were shared by someone who KNEW what they
meant when they used them--with someone who did NOT.
If my data is on the Internet and people don't understand it, that's
their problem. Remember, people aren't supposed to be copying data
No, it'll become YOUR problem if they assign the misunderstood
information to you. YOU will lose credibility because THEY did
something stupid. Your call of course but I'd think most of us
would be opposed to that.
blindly without researching it for themselves. I do copy other
people's data for the auxiliary families that I haven't had time to
research yet, but their data is nothing but a CLUE for me. That's
what my data is supposed to be for them. Maybe you're the one who
has missed the point.
I've just been trying to explain to my brother, who suddenly took an
interest in genealogy and claims that in 4 months he traced one line
back to the 1500's in Scotland, that copying a lot of people's data
from the Internet isn't "research," that other people's data is
Oops -- technically, it IS research. It's just not original
research. He prefers to do derivative research, you prefer to do
original research.
nothing but a CLUE for further research and is probably full of
errors. Maybe you need to learn that lesson yourself.
I'm disgusted with watching you berate everybody who doesn't agree
with you. Maybe it's time for you to take a rest.
Glass huts and parties?
Cheryl
singhals <singhals@xxxxxxxxx>
.
- Prev by Date: Fwd: Choosing a father 1810
- Next by Date: Re: Subject lines for a thread [was Unknown Maiden Name [WAS how-to ruin a perfectly good FGS]]
- Previous by thread: Re: Unknown Maiden Name [WAS how-to ruin a perfectly good FGS]
- Next by thread: Re: Subject lines for a thread
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
