Person talk:Mary Rocket (1)

From Mary Rockwood (2): Resolving questions [13 December 2010]

I removed the comment "Ancestral file (AFN: 84KL-0R) Listed as Patience Fisher's mother as well as Ruth Wight AFN: FBQQ-GT)" from this page.

[Warning: frustrated rant starting.]

So, lets give the father both wives because we don't know which worthless source is right (if either one)? I removed his son's marriage from the father's page since, in reality, he did not marry both.

Reminds me of those genealogy forums where one persons posts fact A, and somebody responds saying, "Well, my data shows fact B." He said, she said.

This type of problem needs to be resolved by searching for primary sources. Particularly, in Massachusetts, where keeping of vital records was mandated by law starting in the mid-1600s, there is a high chance of finding a vital record for this person. Sure enough, the Vital Records of Wrentham and Medfield show two pertinent facts: one, Ruth Wight didn't marry Samuel Fisher until 1740 and Patience was born in 1725 to Samuel and Mary. So the identification of her mother is resolved twice over.

Alternately, a simple Internet search of books.google.com would find the Fisher Genealogy which would show the same thing, and further, it tells us that the Samuel Fisher who married Ruth Wight is Patience's brother, not her father.

It is frustrating that people have so little sense of how unreliable AFNs are. And that people can't be bothered, before posting data that could misled others, to follow up enough to find any one of the mentioned facts that would have helped them resolve this question. These facts were, after all, easily accessible, so it is only a matter of caring. --Jrich 11:07, 13 December 2010 (EST)