Sustainable Genealogy: Separating Fact from Fiction in Family Legends
by Richard Hite
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"There are a lot of textbooks that describe how to find your ancestors; this new one by Richard Hite clarifies how not to. In short, Sustainable Genealogy explains how to avoid the traps many family historians can fall into. Whether it's a proud family legend, a venerable publication or the claims of an Internet family tree, the unsubstantiated genealogical source is like a house of sticks before the Big Bad Wolf -- it won't stand up. As Mr. Hite demonstrates in this collection of case show more studies, many are the 'oral traditions that have fallen by the wayside under the lens of careful research in primary sources and more recently, DNA testing'" -- Back cover. show lessTags
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Interesting, but all based on his own genealogy research. Some things could apply or thought processes.
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91 works; 9 members
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3 Works 90 Members
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Sustainable Genealogy: Separating Fact from Fiction in Family Legends
- Original title
- Sustainable Genealogy: Separating Fact from Fiction in Family Legends
- Original publication date
- 2013-09-15
- People/Characters
- Jost Hite
- Dedication
- In Memoriam
Jessie Rebecca (Bagley) Hite (1900-1985)
Melba (Grogan) Williams (1909-1987)
My first sources of oral history
John C. Rosser, Jr. (1933-2001)
My first instructor in genealogy - First words
- Foreword
Genealogists today arel living in some interesting times. We have a wealth of new tools and toys to play with, making our research easier and quicker. With the internet accessible in every home and local libra... (show all)ry, family historians now can access sources that would have been dificult to locate before and network and compare notes with other genealogists around the world who are working on the same families.
Introduction
It was August of 1979. My father, John L. Hite, and I, having just begun research on our family genealogy two months earlier, were attending a reunion of a prominent Hite family in Virginia's Shenandoah Va... (show all)lley - a family we had no idea if we were related to or not. The reunion event we were most anticipating was the Family History Roundtable that was scheduled for a Saturday afternoon. It was at that event that I first learned how badly flawed oral history could be - and also how much passion revelations of these flaws could generate.
Chapter I - Recurring Patterns in Oral History
Anyone who develops an intereset in genealogy is always told "Talk to Grandma". "Talk to Grandpa." "Find out what they know." Sound advice, no doubt. After all, Grandma an... (show all)d Grandpa (or whoever the oldest living family members are) usually knew some of the people one is interested in and they remember some events that happened in previous years. But, after talking to these people, it's never a good idea to just blindly accept what they said and use that as a starting point. Instead, one should go to other sources such as vital statistics, census records, church records, and whatever else is available to verify what these people said. Then one should proceed from there. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)I would like to believe that some of the other discoveries I have made about her ancestors - people like Edward and Unity Harris (even though Unity was certainly not a Native American), the Revolutionary War soldier George Martin and his wife Mary (Bailey) Martin and some others that have not been mentioned in this work - would make up for that. None of those people were as prominent as the Carter relatives of Robert E. Lee but they were, in my opinion, no less interesting.
- Blurbers
- Jones Jr., Henry Z.
- Original language
- English US
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- 64
- Popularity
- 487,403
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
