Free Family History Mini-Class : Lesson 6

 

A few minutes here will give you the tools to 

root out untrustworthy information online. 

No course would be complete without a visit to the library for a guided tour, and these mini-classes are no exception.  And no skiving off – this is important stuff for your research, especially when it comes to things like social history that helps put your family's lives into context.  

The mini-class’s library is the World Wide Web, which can be a problem: how do you know if the information on a website is reliable?  Answer: be PROMPT.  Look at the site’s

Presentation

Relevance

Objectivity

Method

Provenance

Timeliness

This will help you evaluate the reliability of information you find online.  After all, anyone can set up a website and fill it with whatever they like.  Even double-checking with another website can’t ensure accuracy, as many sites copy and paste from each other.  For instance, looking up Wikipedia is quick and easy, but it’s riddled with stuff that’s inaccurate or just plain nonsense.

So ask yourself: 

• Is the website well laid-out?  Even if it is, that’s no guarantee of truthfulness, but it’s a good start. Glaring spelling and grammar mistakes are a red flag, though.

• Is the information relevant to my research?  Skim read the material to determine if it’s detailed enough for your needs, or perhaps too detailed if you just want a summary of the topic.

• Is the author/organisation behind the site impartial and fair?  Or do they have a specific axe to grind? Make sure their credentials, if they have any, are genuine, and perhaps do some research on the author.

• How was the information gathered?  Was it just copied from Wikipedia, or is there some proper research behind it?  Genuine studies will show their sources and methods.

• Is it a trustworthy source?  If there’s a link that tells you “About” the website, use that to learn more about the source of the information. Find out if the author is an acknowledged expert on the subject.  You might want to contact them for more details, especially if the information is about your ancestors.

• Is the information up to date?  Checking the date on a news story, article or blog post is important.  You don’t want to be caught out by obsolete data.  If you can't see a date anywhere on the website, consider finding an alternative source of information.

This handout goes into more detail about PROMPT.

Put as much thought and homework into your online information sources as you would your online purchases. 

In a future mini-class visit to the library, I’ll share some of the best free online reference sources for family historians.

Next week's class focuses on birth,

marriage, death & census records