It's happened again
It’s happened again but this time it’s not in a way that I can brush off as being a “newbie” and therefore, almost allowable. This time it’s from a person making a LOT of money out of interested descendants of one of my ancestors. This time, the unchecked, unconfirmed and untrue information is being presented in a huge volume of a book, at a cost of $120 plus postage. This time, the information in that book is being used as “Source Material” on Ancestry.
This time, I’m angry. No, let me rephrase that… I’m very angry. I haven’t bought the book but I have read it at the Society of Australian Genealogists after taking the long trip down on the train to view it. Obviously the person who wrote this book has done a lot of research. There is no disputing that, but, one very important point in that research has not been confirmed by the simple task of buying a death certificate. This time, someone’s great great great grandmother has found herself to be buried in a cemetery that she’s not actually in and being attributed to parents she never met, nor never left as a convict all those years ago.
This time, the person who set themselves up as The Expert on this family is ripping money off people for unsubstantiated claims that simple research could easily establish. This time, every Tom, Dick and Harry on Ancestry or anywhere else is taking it as gospel. I have contacted this person and this person refuses to answer my emails. But of course. When in your ritzy mansion on the foreshores of Sydney looking out at the yacht your “efforts at genealogy” have given you, why would you bother with an old mountain feral and her rantings? No need to. Just keep your nose in the air and your hand on your wallet and all is well in the world of family history research.
Do I sound a little bitter? Maybe, but not for the monetary gain he’s making. I’m angry because a woman’s reputation, and her descendants research on her, is tarnished because of this one simple, LAZY, travesty. Really, if you are going to spend that much money publishing that big a volume, get your facts straight first!!