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This Miller Genealogy Book Is Totally Worthless

Posted on January 29th, 2008 by webduck

About a decade ago a lady named Shirley contacted me for more information about my husband’s Miller family of Brown County, Illinois. In my previous posts I have mentioned John Whitmore, and his mother was Delilah Miller, so hence the Miller connection. I am not giving out Shirley’s full name because it isn’t necessary.

Through the years of corresponding with Shirley it seemed that she was a bit erratic with her information, and seemed to be more in a hurry to accumulate it rather than make sure it was correct. That said, it will not be a surprise to you that her long-awaited book about Benjamin Miller and his descendants is a total disappointment. To be precise, a $90, 1342-page-plus-index-and-two-typed-addendums worthless book.

It isn’t so much the money (although we can always use an extra $90…who can’t?) but the waste of time and effort on her part. The reason I say this is because for our part in the book, which of course I can be sure of because I have documented the line, this woman has me with three children when in fact we have but one child, a son. She was given every opportunity to get all of this information correct because I sent her all that I had researched so that all she had to do was incorporate it into her own files.

So, if you should ever run across a self-published book entitled “Benjamin Miller of Romney, Virginia and Wayne County, Ohio” (A Record of his Descendants 1732-2007) by Shirley ____ be aware that the information contained in it is unreliable. I wouldn’t pay more than $20 for it on Ebay.

A few years ago I did my own Yates and Allied Families book that I shared with just the immediate family and friends. No doubt there are some mistakes in it, but it was a smaller family file with less of a chance for error. Still, I was like a little genealogical sponge when it came to acquiring new family information, and I don’t think the mistakes I have made compare to this. By making such large mistakes in her book, Shirley tainted everything else and made it suspect. It’s a shame, because this book could have been a lasting legacy of this woman’s 30+ years of work. Now, it is just a hardbound dust catcher for my genealogy library.

Genealogy Tracking: Wilkersons, Whitmores and L. Frank Boyd - Part 2

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Filed under: Genealogy

6 Responses to “This Miller Genealogy Book Is Totally Worthless”

Sue (1 comments.), on January 30th, 2008 at 6:01 p Said:

What a shame all that work for incorrect results! The one good thing about my family is that no one wants to be related to us!! My husband’s family put theirs together a few years ago and I was amazed at how much work went into it. My granddaughter has a keen interest in where she came from and we have worked on several family trees, adding more information each time we do it.

This is a fascinating blog and I will be sure to share it with her at the earliest opportunity.
TorAa (2 comments.), on January 30th, 2008 at 6:01 p Said:

You might be interested in this project:
https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html

TorAa’s last blog post..Wordless Wednesday - Jan 30 - 2008
webduck (59 comments.), on January 30th, 2008 at 6:01 p Said:

Thanks for stopping by Sue. I am very happy to hear that you and your granddaughter have worked on genealogy together. Our grandkids are only 6 and 7 right now, but I hope that they will take an interest in our family lineages too. Please do stop by again.
Alison (26 comments.), on January 31st, 2008 at 6:01 p Said:

Maybe you should Ebay it Webduck! Seriously though, I’ve heard of similar things happening before. Indeed, I’ve had the misfortune of meeting a few myself.

My own favourite was a distant relative who wrote asking me to help, which I did (and do) and once I’d done that never ever replied to another email/letter etc again! Selfish and slapdash I’m afraid.

Alison’s last blog post..The Buccaneers & Aristocrats
webduck (59 comments.), on February 1st, 2008 at 6:01 p Said:

I have had the same thing happen Alison, and it really irks me. Or, I have had emails from people who say they are researching a certain line and ask “for all I have” on the line. Yeah, right. Sometimes, those are people just beginning, and I gently rebuff them, but if it is someone who has a bunch of information already posted on message boards or mailing lists, I just say no. Most times though, I will offer to share in kind.
webduck (59 comments.), on February 1st, 2008 at 6:01 p Said:

Thanks TorAa for the link to the National Geographic Geneographic project. I had heard of it, but maybe some of my readers had not.