27 August 2011

What Are You Trusting to Memory?

The great thing about re-reading material or records is that one realizes how easy it is to remember things incorrectly. Are you making a research  decision (particularly online late at night, or while researching in those last minutes in a library) based upon what you "think" a record says? Relying on our memory can be a big mistake.

We often realize that great-grandma might not have remembered things correctly when the census taker arrived. Can we expect her great-grandchild to be any better?

1 comment:

  1. So true. I'm amazed at how unreliable my memory is. I must review my research notes more often.

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