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ABOUT 'CAREFULLY DOCUMENTED FAMILY HISTORIES'
Copyright 2007-2013 by Ancestry Register LLC and Terry J. Booth
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All reproduction or reuse is prohibited, in whole or in part, without written permission of the author and Ancestry Register LLC.
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Just as the 3 most important factors in valuing real estate are 'location. location and location', the 3 most important factors in determing the value of any Family History are 'citations, citations, citations'. AncestryRegister.com not only totally accepts this view, but embodies it by only accepting and posting family histories that can carefully document all the important people, stories and relationships they contain.
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Unfortunately, what is a strength in one environment can often prove a weakness in another. While a great many people consider family histories as synonymous with pedigrees, there is clearly a less than direct link between the two needs for several reasons. The first is that, as with all histories, there are a great many events and relationships that merit mention and discussion even if they lack conclusive proof, and which in turn can lead to other interesting events and relationships once they are recognized. The second is that the vast majority of families are interested not just in proven pedigrees that allow them to join prestigious groups, but in all the interesting people, stories and relationships that can help explain their probable (as opposed to their proven) origins and history.
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In one thing, however, genealogies and histories will always remain united. Regardless of whether it is a pedigree or a history, neither discipline is prepared to recognize an event or person or relationship unless it can be documented and supported by contemporary evidence, and unless that evidence is presented and cited in a way that others can independently review and accept it - or perhaps suggest an alternate interpretation.
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Professional genealogists and historians expect that all citations in their professional publications and correspondence be to original primary sources. Unfortunately, a great many family historians have neither the time nor resources to match them, and often may instead need to rely on quality secondary sources for their information. 'AR's' view is that there is no great harm in relying on quality secondary sources so long as 1) they are always cited, and 2) such secondary sources do in turn cite the original primary sources they used. As evidence of the value of quality secondary sources - and of the great historical insight they can provide - the reader is invited to visit Leo van de Pas' quality genealogics.org website, which relies primarily on quality secondary sources for its information. But EVERY entry contains a quality source citation, and it would be near impossible to create such a massive quality database of persons and relationships were secondary sources to be rejected.
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