How many of you know that it takes up to seven years to digest swallowed gum? Or how about that shaving facial hair makes it grow back thicker and darker? Did you know that storing batteries in the refrigerator makes them last longer? I knew all these things, until I found out that I was being lied to. I believed these things because I heard them from someone I trusted, but I never considered that they might have been lied to also.
None of the above urban myths are true. Nope, not a word. How do I know? Well, I couldn’t exactly check my notes on these matters. I don’t remember where I first heard these things, probably from my mom, or a school teacher, when I was a child. When you’re ten, who is more trustworthy than Mom or Miss Norwood? Nobody, that’s who! Teachers and mothers don’t lie, unless they have been lied to.
In order to verify what I thought I knew. I had to do the research all over again. I went to snopes.com and they told me it was okay to use my nose-hair trimmer. (Hey, I know its gross, but when you get to a certain age, it happens.) I didn’t have to pluck them one at a time with tweezers anymore. I knew that Barbara Mikkleson over at Snopes wasn’t lying, because she told me where she got the information. I could check with the doctors and read the newspaper articles myself if I suspected her facts were not quite straight.
Here’s what this has to do with genealogy. You may trust Ancestry.com, Family Search, and RootsWeb. They are trustworthy, reputable, and authoritative. If Ancestry tells you that Aunt Myrtle’s father was John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, it must be true, right? But you have to consider, did someone lie to Ancestry.com? Perhaps so. And that doesn’t mean the person who lied to Ancestry is bad. Probably someone lied to them as well. Spurgeon wisely said, “A lie can go around the world, before the truth can get its boots on.”1 I can tell you that lies will travel all over the internet barefooted before the truth wakes up.
But we can stop the lies in their tracks by citing the sources we use. By citing our sources, we tell others, not just where we got our information, but also share a little about our analysis and research habits. Others will know that we are trustworthy, organized, and thorough. If a lying source does try to sneak into our genealogy research, it is naked and exposed for all to see. It won’t be able to hide in the shadows. Truth will have time to put on its boots and kick some lying source butt.
So the next time someone tells you to put your batteries on ice, just smile and tell them you prefer to keep them in the desk drawer, but I still wouldn’t advise swallowing your gum. It’s just not natural.
1Many have attributed this quote to Mark Twain, however; even the site twainquotes.com (http://www.twainquotes.com/Lies.html) contends that this is not a Twain quote, but is actually from the famous London preacher, Charles Spurgeon. I could not locate the precise sermon or writing of Spurgeon that contains the quote, but others attribute it to him as well (see Charles Spurgeon.” BrainyQuote.com. Xplore Inc, 2012. 25 April. 2012. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/charlesspu105835.html).
Sources:
Barbara Mikkelson, Urban Legends Reference Pages, http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/oldwives.asp, copyrighted 1995-2012.
Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence Explained, Baltimore, MD, Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007
I adored this post – humorous and informative. My sister is working on our family’s genealogy and recently uncovered census information that classified my grandmother and great-grandmother as “negroes”- neither of them were!lol
Oh my! I hope the census taker wasn’t trying to start a vicious misinformation campaign. See Lisa Mason’s post about generating rumors at:
http://socialmediasun.com/social-media-rumors/
Lack of sources leads to rejections in my line of work, and genealogical research is akin to journalism. So I say you make excellent points!
Yes, citing your sources really separates the professionals from the wannabes.
Great post and a really fun read. It is so hard to find reliable information on the Internet and it is always important to know where the best (reliable) sources are.
Thanks, Shawn. I glad you found it fun. That’s what I was going for–fun, but with a point.
I’ve found some of the most recent changes made by online publishers to actually be very helpful! It provides an excellent way of showing were we got our information and how we drew our conclusions. I actually like showing my sources.
Yeah, Lisa. I’ve seen a lot of websites recently that have a “citation” button right on the site. When you click it, it copies a ready-made citation that you can paste into your writing. How could it get any easier?
Fantastic post. This really is good information. And you’re right; most often people aren’t intentionally lying. They just don’t take the time for the proper research and fact-checking.
I appreciate you taking time to comment, Lisa. You really can’t trust the family trees you find on internet genealogy sites anymore. The stories about finding really bad information has become all too common.
I agree. Great article! I never knew that quote wasn’t from Mark Twain. Makes me now want to make sure I double-check my quotes there.
Yeah, that surprised me too. I went to the Twain quotes site to verify it and when it said it was Spurgeon, I figured I had better google Spurgeon. I couldn’t find it on the main Spurgeon quote site, but I did find other sites attributing it to him.
Citing your sources is a requirement if you want to become a credible, well-read writer. No one enjoys being lied to or mislead, even if it is unintentional. One crucial job of a writer is to inform his readers . . . not misinform or mislead. Great post!
Thanks, Amanda! I wrote this with my tongue firmly in my cheek, but it is a real problem in genealogy, particularly, that many people take unsourced information as gospel. It is usually not maliciously falsified, but simply established from sloppy and incomplete research.
This is an excellent reminder of the importance of citing sources, unless it is clear that what we are writing is based solely on our own opinion and experience.
Thanks, Rebecca. I really appreciate comments from a writer of your caliber.