Golly, I Hope They Aren't Reading

Recently I have had a couple of  experiences where my reaction was, "you've got to be kidding".  And, since I am gonna chat about them, I am really hoping the 2 people involved are not reading, as I don't wanna be mean or condescending.  I can only hope that they did not see my blog URLs in my sig lines of my emails.  SIGHHHH

One of my ongoing projects is to review every digital photo I have taken since 1999.  Yaaaa. Whew,  makes me tired too!  LOL.  I started at the oldest photo and am working forward, deciding, do I really want it, or should I delete it.  If it is a keeper, is it something that should be linked to my data base, used on one of the blogs, or even, put on Find A Grave.  I do a few at a time, usually later in the evening.

It was at Find A Grave that my first encounter of a weird kind happened.  I was charging around the site, adding a few memorials and photos when I discovered that someone had made an entry for a 3rd great grandfather of mine.  The information included a death place that did not agree with what I have, and it included a burial place, as in the name of a cemetery!

Well, I have done substantial research on this line, including looking at cemetery books, in fact, I believe I have been in this cemetery.  If this 3rd was buried here, it sure would be a surprise.  Having done enough research in my day, I also realize that there are surprises out there, just waiting to show me that I can always learn something new.

So, I contacted the submitter of the memorial and asked, sweetly, mmmm, what is the source of your information for putting this memorial online?  His answer came a short time later.

His answer:  Rootsweb.com.

Now, I love Rootsweb.com, but, gotta say, that answer surprised me.  You know what happened next - - I surfed right over to Rootsweb.com, typed in the name of that 3rd great and started looking.   My guess, correct too, was that it came off a WorldConnect family tree.  Yepper, after a few false leads, I found the family tree, stating the place of death and that cemetery as a place of burial.

SOOO, next, I want to contact the owner of this family tree.  I shoot off an email to this party, and got the second surprise.  I had to fill out one of those VERY annoying "you gotta fill out this form to become an approved emailer or your email will not go through" messages.  I have not seen one of those in a few years, was actually surprised that any one uses them any more.  Several years ago this was all the rage and caused me such rage that I actually decided to NEVER fill them in.  My theory was if you put info on the internet, like at Rootsweb, then, you should have an email addy that goes directly to you and will not make me jump through hoops or fill in forms.  I just don't get that ying yang attitude.  This WorldConnect family tree has over 68,000 entries.  I just have to wonder how many other researchers would love to contact this person?  And, they all have to go through the hoops, errr forms??

I am just curious enough about this death place and cemetery data that I filled out that stinking form, and am waiting to see if I am approved, am I good enough??  LOL

Meantime, I have some advice, my opinion, which you just know I am going to share, whether or not you want to hear it:

1. Someone else's WorldConnect family tree entry is NOT what you should use to base a memorial at Find A Grave on. 
2. Get a web based email addy, like gmail, yahoo, hotmail.  Don't expect others researching your family to fill out those horrid forms to get permission to chat with you.  Use it for just that one purpose, keep your form protected email addy for everything else in your life.

Oh, golly, I hope they aren't reading. 

*Email clipart thanks to allfreeclipart.com and camera clip art from freeclipartnow.com

Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

.