tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post3328654899351739557..comments2024-03-21T19:08:05.737-07:00Comments on Genealogy's Star: Does it all boil down to accuracy?James Tannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02989059644120454647noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-18688241149123883752013-09-24T19:17:28.893-07:002013-09-24T19:17:28.893-07:00Thanks so much for your comment. You express this ...Thanks so much for your comment. You express this issue much better than I could have done. James Tannerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02989059644120454647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-32957906605237304732013-09-24T16:02:14.451-07:002013-09-24T16:02:14.451-07:00James, I read both of your columns with interest. ...James, I read both of your columns with interest. I have been working on my family's history since I was a young lady, and I have tried to do good, solid work on my tree (backing up as much as I can, gathering suspicious data and trying to prove it one way or the other, drawing the kids of the family in, collecting the family stories, and generally trying to catalogue all of those nameless photos and trying to figure out who they are). I've given a few speeches, been hired a few times to gather data, and even volunteer for some genealogy organizations, and many, many people have encouraged me to become a "professional" genealogist or join an organization such as APG. <br /><br />But...there are two pieces of the argument to become a "professional" that really hold me back. 1-is I can't be 100% sure of everything in my tree being pristinely accurate. I'd probably say its 75%, 10% in need of documentation, and 15% family story that we're still unraveling. It seems like the air of the professionals around me is that their work is better than my own, even though I would be willing to bet that their accuracy ratio isn't much better than my own. <br /><br />2-is that I have seen how the "professionals" act around one another, and I can't say that I want to be a part of their group. With all the elitism, arguing, and what I would generally call undignified behavior turns my head away from them. <br /><br />I like the idea of a professional credential, in order to be able to tell what's the "gold standard" in the field and give me some way of judging qualifications when hiring someone. In nursing, the field I most often interact with, it is said that the certifications that a nurse can get give their employers an idea of their level of professionalism. I could easily see that same idea being used in genealogy, with a standard set of credentials rather than forcing folks to become licensed. A genealogy credential should be permanent, like MD for doctors - you keep it as long as you earned it, not because you pay some association for the right to use their name. <br /><br />If the "professionals" are really worried about their dwindling numbers, I think that would be the model I pursue, and go to some retreat for a week, hammer out the terms, and be done. This endless arguing is what turns me, and I'm sure other people, off from pursuing it.Crafting in Yoohoovillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08223824425648008880noreply@blogger.com