Fast food genealogy?

When I was about 24, I met a genealogy researcher once at a Crowe family reunion in Indianapolis.  She was prim, coiffed, white haired lady with a pencil in one hand and a little pad of paper in the other.  She had family history forms in her purse.  She asked a lot of fun questions.  Because, they were about me and my family.

Her research was interesting.  I found myself asking her as many questions as she asked me.  She explained that she traveled all over the state to different libraries and archives digging through old papers.  It took her hours and hours and a bit of money in gas and lodging to do her research. 

With the internet, a shift occurred in the genealogy universe.   I've been doing genealogy research on the internet for 12 years.  I cannot imagine the torture the old ones had to endure in finding their proof material.  They had the patience of Job.  Traveling here to see one scrap of paper and traveling there to see another.  All I have to do is send a few key words through Google and I can find the best documents the world has to offer (well.....almost).

What I do have in common with the old ones is a love of cemeteries.  We'll delve into that another day.....

All the above is just to tell you my thought process when it comes to proving ancestry.  I like PROOF documents.  Those are the printings found at the archives, legal and binding.  Family Bibles are good, too.  I enjoy hear say and family stories.  But, I don't use them as source material.  I use them as clues to where to find the source material.  Here's a great explanation of citing sources.

I will always try to tell you where my information comes from.  You may not care a hill of beans.  But, if other serious genealogists peruse my blog, they will care immensely.