BEGINNER GENEALOGY MISTAKES : CAUTIONARY TALES

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This is my list of things that beginning genealogists often do that you’ll probably not find to be useful or even regret. Since I began researching, more than three decades ago, the genealogy world has changed significantly because of the Internet and databases. Also there is an epidemic of scams. Those changes make it easier than ever for people to do their own research. And to be mislead or conned. This list is made up of things I did or someone I know did and was affected by!

1) Posting for family information in hopes of reaching out to others who have already done the work so you won’t have to do it at all or do it alone, thinking you can just believe it and copy it.

It can be nice to have a collaboration but there’s no way to know from the start if the stranger you connected with does quality research, will respect you, or share in a fair way. Be especially aware that con artists and scammers may use your personal information… or even pose as a relative.

Ask yourself why you’d be comfortable virtually yet not want someone to have your home address!

Keep to professional standards! 

And then if you do find a collaborator, you’ll have something to offer.

2) Posting your research on databases or sharing it prematurely because it isn’t solidly backed up with documents. Many a beginner just doesn't know better. Your family stories are precious and can be part of your book but may not be upheld by research.

Rumors and speculation cannot substitute for a clear research path that others can follow and documents.   Don’t accidentally, through ignorance, lead other researchers wrong!

3) Not considering that charts you post may not please those who are not contacted first for permission. You may be well-meaning but they may not be interested or horrified!

Some sites prod you to provide photos, give them voice samples as you record stories to share with anyone in the world, and provide other information that can profile you. Adding live persons on a chart, even as an unnamed silhouette, is NOT protecting their privacy. Keep the research within the immediate family. Ask them first. Explain it to them. 

It’s still ok to print out and 'snailmail.'

3) Not reading the fine print about who owns your research or DNA information. How long is it yours or protected?  What about your copyright? When do you loose control of it? Can it be used by law enforcement? 

This is not just about you! You may die before they’re born but they still deserve to have privacy!

4) Using your full real name for the world to see. 

Choose a handle, moniker, or nickname or an icon to represent you. Unless you're up to no good it's OK.

5) Posting with a database that has no one to complain to if you're violated or is ineffective in helping when you are. There should be a way to have information that has been posted about you or your ancestors - correct or not - taken down because it is wrong or you think it's private. Beware if it’s stated that once you post it’s permanent.

Privacy laws which may vary from country to country.

6) Using an e-mail address for genealogy that you use for business or personal communication. 

Set one up just for research. I store research in a g-mail account that I never use for communication. You can store photos and documents in Blogger (set on private),  in Drive, etc. Since I've never shared that account with others I communicate with, I've received no spam or phishing. Set another up for genealogy communications.

7) Posting a person’s death certificate on a gravestone site even though the years have not gone by in which their privacy would be protected otherwise. No privacy in death either? Just horrible and violating of living persons medical privacy too.  Telling the whole world someone had died of alcoholism, cancer, or perhaps by suicide....  To me, well, to be nice, let's say it's bad karma. 

Graveyards that let people tromp and report are so irresponsible in allowing this to happen. Even people who did not want their death announced in obituaries … who thought of their religion, charities, marriages, and children to be their own business, are quickly violated when their tombstones are photographed and burials reported, especially upsetting when the religious cemetery claims burials are on sacred ground (which you probably paid more for). 

Why obits? It used to be so friends could give their condolences… I think obits are getting to be obsolete. When it the last time you found out a friend died that way? Oh and those prompts to send flowers! Funerals are already overpriced and so are cemeteries. Don't get me started!

8) Publishing for distribution - even to immediate family - in which you do not state references and do not state intellectual property information and do not state the expectations of privacy.  You can do all the right things to do so but in the hands of the wrong relative it all goes onto a database and the Internet. 

I personally use many databases. I do not post my research on any of them. 

C 2025 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot All Rights Reserved

23ANDME DNA TESTS and WARNING ABOUT PRIVACY : DELETE YOUR INFORMATION NOW

CLICK ON THE LABEL 23andme to bring up previous posts that include this topic.

23andMe has gone bankrupt and your personal privacy and that of your children - relatives - is at risk. This could effect 15 million people. Since the company is up for sale, it's reasonable to think that your DNA is what would make it interesting to a buyer...

NPR ORG : HOW TO DELETE YOUR 23ANDME GENETIC INFORMATION
Steps to delete are at the link above.

Excerpt: Bonta also provided this advice for destroying your test sample and revoking permission for genetic data to be used for research :

If you previously opted to have your saliva sample and DNA stored by 23andMe, but want to change that preference, you can do so from your account settings page, under "Preferences."

If you previously consented to 23andMe and third-party researchers to use your genetic data and sample for research, you may withdraw consent from the account settings page, under "Research and Product Consents."

WILL YOUR DNA BE USED TO MAKE BIOWEAPON THAT CAN KILL YOU or THE PEOPLE OF YOUR ETHNICITY

MSN - DAILY MAIL - HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE WARNS DNA BIOWEAPONS 

A frightening and important thing to know.  Your DNA submitted for medical testing or genealogy might end up being used against you.

Excerpt: The congressman said the development of the weapons is worrisome given the popularity of DNA testing services, where people willingly share their genetic mapping with businesses to gain insight on their genealogy and health.

'You can't have a discussion about this without talking about privacy and protection of commercial data because of expectations of privacy have degraded over the last 20 years.' the Democratic lawmaker said.

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1950 CENSUS! BABY BOOMERS and SPECIAL INFANT BABY COUNT!

BABY BOOMERS! 

ANYONE BORN BETWEEN 1946 and 1964 is considered to be a BABY BOOMER!  

Since the enumerators were out there collecting information that would present a statistical body of information, a snapshot of the United States on April 1, 1950, what about all those babies born between January 1, 1950, and March 31, 1950?

IMPORTANT UPDATE: On APRIL 2nd, I WENT INTO THE NARA SITE AGAIN and LEARNED THAT THE INFANT CARDS HAD BEEN THROWN AWAY AT SOME TIME BACK IN THE DAY and so we will not be able to find them anywhere on the NARA site. I apologize for my misleading you with the original post as below.  However, I spent an hour on the site myself and then went back to the earliest mention of these cards and printed out the explanatory essay about the cards from the site thinking I just needed a break. Later, relaxing, I read the print out. That the cards WOULD NOT BE PART OF THE RELEASE OF THE 1950 CENSUS was on page 4 of 5 about them and blended into a paragraph.  That should have been the first thing NARA mentioned about the cards on the top of page 1. They are of course, part of the history of the census, and were used all those years ago for a statistical analysis, which can be interesting for other reasons.

The explaination for why they were thrown out is given this way:  The census bureau was checking these cards against REGISTERED BIRTHS IN EACH STATE.  As such they were looking to find out how many babies in a three month sample were born and not registered for birth in the first place.  Apparently, there was a good chance that a baby born in the 1950's despite the emphasis on VITAL RECORD KEEPING, was never registered by its parents. Therefore, if you know or suspect or wonder if your ancestor may have had a baby in 1950, the first thing you might do is check to see if the birth was registered; the baby still might have been born, been unregistered, and then died before April 1, 1950. Also there is a remark that some babies born in 1949 (my guess is December 1949) were also missed.

So those of us who have experienced difficulties in our research because we could not find any evidence of a birth via vital records or church baptismal records further back in history, perhaps because a certain county or state did not require it, must be a bit surprised by this.  There are many people alive who had to apply for a birth certificate later in life; These are titled as "Delayed" in county archives.

 
According to the NARA essay, some babies (called live births) were missed in 1950 because the baby had been born but died, or because the baby was born in a rural area, or because the baby moved with its family.

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A SPECIAL INFANT CARD WAS FILLED OUT!

And this isn't all. There were actually three forms to potentially be filled out. The government wanted to know how many live births the woman had*** From the questions, we can tell that the United States government wanted to know how that child was being supported. The UNITED STATES CENSUS BUREAU web site, previously linked to, has this PDF file with all three and the instructions. UNITED STATES CENSUS BUREAU SPECIAL BABY COUNT 1950

Full information about the parents including the mother's maiden name, the name of the hospital where the child was born, and the child's father's occupation, including what industry he worked in Sexism alert! The education of the mother was asked but NOT HER EMPLOYMENT.  

WHAT ABOUT A WOMAN WHO GAVE BIRTH TO A CHILD THAT SHE GAVE UP FOR ADOPTION? (My question, not theirs!)

****Let's just say that it's my guess that most women who did so, perhaps before they were married to the person they were married to in 1950, would not put that child down on this form.  It's my guess that a typical American at the time was both far more trusting of the government than people today are and would be more cooperative but also have a far greater sense of their right to personal and medical privacy. Further adoptions were Closed if they were legal.

I can't wait to find a child that was stolen from a family!  (UPDATE: This census will not help.)

UPDATE March 25, 2022 : The question was only be asked of women who are married or who have been married and are separated or divorced....

Click on the tab  Genealogy Help - 1950 Census to bring up the series!

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THIS INFORMATION COULD HAVE BEEN BE VALUABLE TO GENEALOGIST and ANYONE INTERESTED IN THE HISTORY OF WOMEN!

C 2022 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

BLACKSTONE BOUGHT ANCESTRY FOR NEAR FIVE BILLION DOLLARS : HOW PRIVATE IS YOUR DNA ?

LATIMES WHAT MIGHT Blackstone DO WITH ANCESTY'S DNA DATA 

The PAPER version of this article which appeared in the LA Times on April 13, 20121 by David Lazarus was called  "What Might Blackstone Do With Ancestry's DNA Data?"  On line, where it is showing up in Spanish, it is called  "Why Would A Company Invest Millions To Buy Ancestry, If It Is Not Interested In The DNA Data Of Its Users?"

Excerpt: He and other bioethicists were quick to note that existing federal medical privacu laws do not apply to genealogy sites.  These companies are basically free to do whatever they want with people's genetic data.

"A lot of these sites are bait and hoax," Caplan said.  "They offer interesting content, but what they're really looking for is your DNA."

So take the industry's genetic privacy guarantees with a grain of salt.  These companies operate largely in the shadows and their activities are limited almost exclusively by an honor system."

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But nearly every expert spoke with cited  the partnership  announced in 2018 between Ancestry rival 23andme and pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline.

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This is a very important article and if you have allowed your DNA to be submitted to ANY genealogy site, I agree with the journalist who wrote the article.  You have no protection and no company spends billions for data they are not going to use.

REMEMBER THAT GENEALOGY DOES NOT DEPEND ON YOUR DNA. Genealogy depends on DOCUMENTS.

ARE DNA TESTING COMPANIES GOING TO GO BUST? SEEMS THE DNA TESTING BOOM IS OVER

YAHOO FINANCE : ONCE HOT DNA TESTING article by Daniel Roberts

Excerpt: It isn't just 23andme. DNA tests went boom in 2018 with the number of consumers who had bought one doubling to 25 million, now sales have gone bust.

MIT Technology Review estimates that the largest DNA test players sold just 4 million to 6 million DNA tests in 2019, an industry growth rate of 20 %, the slowest year for the industry ever.

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I have never done my DNA and to my knowledge, neither has anyone in my family.  These companies and their owners have gotten rich, but the aspect of privacy invasion and your data no longer being yours (after about 20 years but currently for the use of law enforcement) is also in my opinion an aspect of the decline in interest.  Further while DNA can help you if you're truly blocked, sometimes it's impatience or amateur genealogy that's the issue.  Currently I have a friend who is stuck due to a common name and reportage of birth place different on three different census in the 1800's.  I told her I've seen death certificates from the 1940's and before in which children do not know their mother's maiden name.