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Show ASLEEP. ON THE JOB By W. M. Ever ton The following editorial by W. M. Everton, Logan, is one of a scries of articles and editorials edi-torials which will appear on the church page weekly. In submitting the articles, Mr. Everton explains that he has been called on a genealogy miision for the h. D. 8. church which takes all his time. And, as a missionary project, he will submit an editorial or a genealogical news story of a general nature each week. We believe that a large number of the Herald readers will enjoy the articles. Listening to the clerk read the li.st of names in Cache Stake Conference Con-ference last Sunday, I wondered how man gave any consideration to the men and women for whom they voted. How many were really real-ly listening to what the clerk said? If the clerk had "read" from his li.st, "It is proposed to move Mount Logan to the west side of the valley. val-ley. All ih favor of this proposition proposi-tion please manifest by the uplifted uplift-ed hand. Those opposed may manifest man-ifest by the same sign," how many would have voted in favor of moving mov-ing the mountain? I think there were enough people awake and alert to keep things going straight so there is nothing to worry about. But when these Saints who would vote to m6ve Mount Logan get to working in genealogy there is no one to keep awake and alert and prevent them from making a lot of troublesome errors. We have in mind a number of biographical books published in Utah that are not at all reliable. We know they are full of errors yet they are being be-ing copied by those who are seeking seek-ing genealogical i nfor m a t i i o n. Many genealogical records that are not printed are being copied by relatives and the careless mistake mis-take is being handed down to the later generation as an established fact. We had a request, this week, for help in locating the ancestry of a great grandmother who was born in "McNairy County, "Tenn., in 1785." This she had copied from the family record. The fact is there was no McNairy county until 1823 and the land where this county now is, was opened for settlement after a treaty with the Indians in 1819. In later life the lady had resided re-sided in McNairy county and some family genealogist had concluded without investigation that she was born there. A favorite occupation of the sleepy ones is finding wives for male relatives. They find a record of a man among their supposed relatives who married a Mary Smith. A hunt is instituted to find who this Mary Smith is. Of course they find the wrong one and her parents and brothers and sisters and enter them all in the family record. It' is quite likely that the error may go on without being detected. de-tected. It often happens, however, howev-er, that they choose a girl who is ten years too young or thirty years too old to be the mother of this man's children and then some is apt to notice it. The excuse that is truthful statement of fact, "I usually given for such error is a didn't think." I think it is a serious matter when failure to think causes an error to be made in a genealogical record. It requires such an immense im-mense amount of work to re-check a record that often it is not done. And the wrong woman is sealed to the wrong man and what is worse, the man is not sealed to his real wife and to his own children. chil-dren. There are many persons who, because of old age, education or physical makeup, are unable to concentrate on a genealogical problem, prob-lem, think it through and reach a conclusion as to what is true and what is false. They should not do genealogical research. |