I concur with tripleblessed. Trust, but verify, and try to find more than one source for the same information.

A cousin of mine (2nd cousin, once removed) published his research and it wound up on Rootsweb/WorldConnect, where I found it. It had been picked up by several others and copied, with a couple of errors. My great-grandfather was shown married to the wrong woman (a woman with the same name as his first wife’s maiden name but who died much later*) with no mention of his other two wives. My ggf was widowed three times before his death. His third son was listed as his only son with this other woman.

I contacted this cousin to let him know the errors I found and have since put comments with the correct information on all of the trees when I find them, including the death certificate numbers. Unfortunately, the ‘cat’s out of the bag', so to speak, and the errors continue to be copied. I have found recently, though, that my corrections are now also being copied.

I’ve been trying to verify the information published by my cousin, but I currently don’t have the funds to do the necessary travel to the counties of record (nor to pay for confirmed copies – US$10-15 each – of certain documents) to do the research myself.


*That’s another thing to take into account when researching women – after they’re married, most women will be documented (on death certificates in particular) under their spouse’s last name rather than their maiden name.