Sharing Family History

I've wanted to share my research online for some time, but my fear of publishing info that may prove incorrect some day has held me back.  One of my biggest beefs with internet genealogy is the wrong info that gets repeated over and over because folks want to take the easy way out.  Rather than doing their own research to confirm the accuracy of data they find online, they automatically assume that if someone has posted it online, it must be correct.

Unfortunately, if I wait until I'm 100% sure my data is correct before I take my research online, it will never get published.  Human nature means errors occur even in official records such as birth registers, marriage licenses and death certificates.  Some errors are simply mistakes ~ some are intentional misrepresentations of age in order to get married or to enlist in the military ~ some are due to the foggier memories that come with age.  And the list goes on and on.

So this is the year to forge ahead and go online with some of my info in a limited format.  My policies will be to:

• Include detailed information only for persons who have been recorded as deceased in my database.
• Generally exclude living persons in the interest of privacy.  (However, they may appear in photos, or be included in transcripts of commonly available records such as obituaries.)
• Identify my sources while limiting the level of source info revealed (no addresses, telephone numbers, etc.).

I think I'll go into more detail regarding privacy issues and source documentation in future blog postings.  I've got waaaayy to much to say about them and I don't want to turn this posting into a book!! 

Suffice it to say that I'm making progress and I'm "a fixin' to git ready" to share my family history.