Need to Verify Information

Has blogger changed or has it been that long since I've posted ... anything?



I have found out my grandmother was not born with the name McMinn. Yet other than a newspaper clipping from Ancestry, the person that pointed me in this direction and a census form, I've yet to find anything else.

I like Ancestry.com but it needs to be taken exactly for what it is... users enter information. Over the years this information can be, bit by bit, changed. Hhhmm.. akin to an exersize a teacher had us do when we were younger. It had nothing to do with geneaology but it was meant to show how when something is passed from person to person the meaning, words, small things change which make the end result drastically different.

She whispered a phrase in the ear of the first person. Each in turn repeated in secretive whispers to the person on down the line. When the phrase finally reached the last person in line they told the teacher and the class what the teacher's original message was.. as the child was told the information.

"Wash, wash, wash, wash, wash."

The teacher was in tears laughing.. well maybe not but I seem to remember that so I will include the laughing part in my tale. (See how things change?) We repeat stories dependent upon our memories. Genealogy is very much the same and often has the same outcome. It can come out totally wrong.

Oh, yes.. and what was that original statement the teacher made so we may pass it to each in the class?

"Washington's wash maid washed Washington's wash."

With this in mind I've connected people in my ancestry line but they are only there until such time as I've been able to research them. As such, any entries in mine should be considered suspect unless otherwise stated.