Dennis,
Pay for use websites have been around for a while. One of the more
successful is
Ancestry.com.
OneGreatFamily was one of the first sites to include collaborative family
trees. Anyone can add a tree and I would not be surprised to see the Jack
Schitt family in there records. For those who do not know Jack and his
family - think humorous, slightly irregular and no such family.
Like OneWorldTree, Ancestral File, Pedigree Resource File and even to the
new
FamilySearch.org Family Tree - garbage in equals garbage out.
FamilySearch.org (FS) Family Tree just replaced FS NewFamilySearch (NFS).
FS NFS is where indiscriminate merging of similar names killed it.
Unfortunately, much of the junk went into the new FS Family Tree. Garbage in
means garbage out. Just because you have seen something repeated 1,000
times on the internet doe not mean it is right, correct or possible.
I have a lot more respect for data when I see good sources and documentation
of where they got the data. In addition, I like to see honesty. If sources
or data conflict, how is it handled? Is it ignored, covered up or is it
properly documented showing the conflict. This is me. Others like only
polished reports and many somewhere in-between.
What I like to see the documentation, documentation and documentation. Even
if it conflicts with earlier published material. Most people wind up looking
at older material, ignorantly not knowing that corrections and changes have
been made to the older material. Sometimes things like new records, Y-DNA
testing and such has a major impact on the genealogical jig saw puzzle.
I like detailed sources - enough material present for someone to to find it
again and verify it. Too many use only the briefest source descriptions,
often as a semi-hidden and super basic footnotes.
So, OneGreatFamily ... As one notable person once said, Trust but verify!
Another less notable said, Take it all with a grain of salt.
I hope this helps.
John R. Carpenter
La Mesa, CA
Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project
http://carpentercousins.com/carpdna.htm
-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis L. Carpenter
Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2013 5:49 PM
To: carpenter(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: [CARPENTER] OneGreatFamily
I'm curious about the groups general opinion regarding the online genealogy
project OneGreatFamily. I have been avoiding them like a bad itch and I am
considering putting them in the junk mail category. I'm just wondering if
anyone has gotten anything useful from their connections or am I right to
keep them at arms distance?
Dennis L. Carpenter