Hand-tools verses Power-tools





While searching online trees and Family Search Tree, it can be very frustrating at the amount of errors and inadequate and incomplete information contained therein.  Many trees are messy with numerous submissions and changes on the most basic of fields; such as an ancestors name or place of birth. 

About ten years ago, I copied my grandmother’s typewritten and handwritten legal sized pedigree and family group sheets.  Just recently, I re-analyzed these records and realized how much time it took her to type in each name and source.  As I thought about the information she had collected and added to these papers, I realized she “paid” for long distance calls, sent letters and requests through the United States postal system, and traveled to search books and films.   There was no internet, email, databases, or personal family history software programs to generate these forms for my grandmother.

Just as previous researchers, my grandmother did the best she could with what she had.

Previous generations had typewriters, pen and paper.   They had snail mail, microfilms, microfiche, etc.  There were no data bases, but rather time-consuming films and books to look through, page by page. 

Today, we have greater capabilities.  We have such powerful equipment with computers and computer programs.  We have software that searches, analyzes, combines, matches, and organizes our information.  We can carry digital images and look at those images whenever we want.

Today, we have greater resources.  We can search for original documents, in indexes, and in online newspapers.  We have access to databases and the ability to search those databases in seconds.  We can adjust our searches to be either specific or vague.  We can locate and find records in a matter of sitting for just a few moments in front of a computer screen!   We can copy items and share our copies, for free.  We can make requests through email and receive responses immediately or the following day. 

We have a greater responsibility.  Our responsibility is to source, document, correct, analyze, search, and RE-search.  We have power tools at our fingertips whereas previous generations had hand tools.

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