Correction(s), v.1
One of the best things about doing genealogy, IMHO, is that it’s both a solitary and communal hobby.
Doing research and building a family tree — those are the kinds of things a person can do with just the company of their laptop and a cozy cup of coffee.
But the nature of family history is that it is shared with your family! And your relations are going to have information about your ancestors that you don’t have yet. Maybe it’s information you could never learn from typical solitary research. Sometimes, that information might conflict with stuff you thought you already knew.
Which brings me to today’s correction.
In a post titled The century of the 19th published August 18, 2020, I wrote:
Alice Betticks
[…]
This family belonged to a Southern Baptist church; they also attended tent revivals and similar events hosted by other Protestant organizations in their area. They were also teetotalers — that is, they strictly refrained from drinking alcohol. It’s a sure bet that they supported the temperance movement.
This is actually incorrect!
One of Alice’s great-granddaughters informed me that her family was Methodist. It was her in-laws who were Southern Baptist. Alice’s son Buck Longenecker married Belva May Hall in Arkansas in 1932 — and he joined his wife’s family’s Southern Baptist church at that time.
However, it turns out that this does not negate the possibility that Alice’s family may have been teetotalers or supporters of the temperance movement. You see, even though modern Methodists are allowed to have alcoholic drinks in moderation, in the early 20th century the Methodist Episcopal Church was a major supporter of Prohibition. In fact, several prominent Methodist women were founding members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, a group that was majorly influential in both the temperance movement and its sister movement, suffrage for women.
So, why bother with publishing corrections?
First, I think it’s important for genealogists to acknowledge mistakes and be open to corrections. New information can change our conclusions, and that’s OK! It’s normal to have to say, “Oops, I was wrong,” sometimes.
Also, I want to encourage anyone reading this to feel comfortable about contacting me. If you think something I wrote isn’t quite in line with what you know, it’s totally fine to say so! Our shared family history will be stronger if we work together to get it right.