google.com, pub-4503055424083402, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 MY COUNTRYLANE: I am so bummed

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01 September 2008

I am so bummed

Right now I am confirming what I suspected last night. Somehow the sources for my genealogy files have gotten screwed up. I go into a name like for Big Mama. I have a 1920 census listed as one of the sources for her birthday. It is showing up as a 1920 census from NC with the page as from the Pungo District. The Pungo part and page number are correct; the actual source is not.

I know you can't appreciate this, not being a genealogist. But I hover between crying and saying "you can fix this, it's just going to take a while." Right now crying is winning. This is over 30 years work that includes 10,882 different individuals. Most individuals have 5 or more sources. I am devastated.

Last night I was looking at a woman who was born in 1846, the wife of an early ancestor. The source: Mom and Dad's marriage certificate, page 100. Not by any stretch of one's imagination can you ever get much more than a few lines of data from anyone's marriage certificate. When I go in to check how many items are reference by that one source I get 479. There should be only about 10 or less.

Right now I just can't think straight, so I thought I'd vent or share by writing. Forgive me for putting this out there, knowing you would probably think genealogy a waste of time on any good day, and certainly would show no understanding of my loss. But thanks for listening anyway.