The postings from Hackstaple on "NEW":
http://www.rootschat.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=15916.0 reminded me of something I saw, when I first started looking for genealogy data on the Internet.
On one of the sites I found a "cautionary tale", summarised here:
This man decided to research his family tree. He was convinced that there must be a folder somewhere with all his details in it, so "researching" just meant finding this folder "
He wrote, phoned and visited countless records offices, agencies, etc and met with blank looks everywhere.
One day, on leaving a records office, he met a lady carrying a big thick folder, with her family research. "Where did you find it ?" he asked her, excitedly !
When he finally manged to explain to her what he meant, she said
"I didn't
FIND it anywhere. Thirty years ago I started off with one sheet of paper. Over the years I found a certificate here, a detail there, and so on, and now, thirty years on, I have this big thick folder.
And that's what you have to do, too ! "
I would love to find this article again. Unfortunately I wasn't as organised then, and didn't immediately note down interesting sites, so if anybody else has seen this article, please let me know where !
Thanks,
Bob