Today I spent some time on the Ancestry Genealogy databases at the Family History Center in Los Angeles, which carried this at no charge, so long as you use it on premisis.
I did something I have never done before: I checked to see if anyone had posted a family tree on some of the lines I'm working on that have lead to brick walls.
I found a LOT of information, but almost none of it was proofed. This means that people were posting what they "knew" or without a tie to a source. So people were posting what they were told or had in their memories or based on things they have at home - such as Wedding Invitations or Funeral cards, or maybe information written in the Family Bible.
I did find some interesting information which needs to be proofed. To do that, I will take a marriage date that was listed and look for a document on microfilm or from an city, state, or county, archive to see if for myself.
The best of all the family trees I found was totally based on census. This person included all the terrible mispellings from the census.
I also found several people who had posted on the same trees that were missing a lot of information, but if these people had contacted each other, they might have been able to fill in the blanks, and decide among themselves who was going to proof information and correct all the assumptions.
What was it they used to say about assumptions? They make an as* of you and me!
