A friend of mine shared a post on Facebook the other day. She copied the link from TikTok. The video was of one man, dressed in scrubs, watching the video of some other social media influencer. The social media influencer preached on about the benefits of some food or another, and the man in the scrubs pointed at the influencer and nodded his head in an affirmative manner. The idea was obviously that the viewer should assume the guy in scrubs is a doctor, nurse, or some other dietary expert and that he was approving of the influencer’s opinion. The guy in scrubs never said a word.
Anyway, I went down a rabbit hole watching a few of the guy in scrubs videos. There wasn’t one TikTok he posted where he stated who he was, or where and how he gained his expertise. I immediately thought, “Well, I can dress in scrubs as well as the next guy and deceive people if I wanted.”
But that’s just the point right? People everywhere are putting the scam on. You’ve got to fact check everything and everyone. Your news outlets, your social media feeds, your junk mail, and even Uncle Larry sitting at the dinner table need a good fact checking. (Pro tip: keep the fact checks of Grandma to a minimum when you’re all eating together.)
Now some of you experienced genealogical researchers might see this as yet another opportunity for me to spout the wisdom of citing your sources. Unfortunately, I’ll save that topic for another day. No, today I’d like to share a piece of powerful advice J. Mark Lowe shared from a recent seminar with the Mississippi Genealogical Society.
In speaking of newspaper research, Mr. Lowe reminded the group that once upon a time, newspapers used wire services in order to find stories to fill the next edition. As the stories made it from paper to paper, mistakes crept in and soon enough, the story was full of errors. He reminded us what any good researcher needs to remember—fact checking Uncle Larry is paramount to success as a genealogist. But not just Uncle Larry. Any news story you find in historical papers needs some good old evidence to back the story. This is powerful advice to the seasoned and less experienced researcher.
Trust me, I know how it feels to get the reminder. Especially for some of the less experienced members of the group. You spend hours scrolling though digital databases and bound volumes of newspapers looking for any hint, shred of evidence, or mention of your ancestor and when you do, you want to yell “Eureka! I finally found it!”
But then someone tells you to verify it. Go find more evidence. Sure, sometimes the news article is the corroborating piece of evidence. Other times though, it’s just the clue to look in other places for more documentation. The case Mr. Lowe shared with us was a murder story, which meant there would be clues in court records about the vile circumstances of the killing. Murder stories aren’t the only ones you can investigate. Sometimes you might find your ancestor listed in divorce proceedings, liens on property, deeds on crops, and more. In other words, the news story of your ancestor might just be the beginning of the story if you have the patience to go searching for it. Imagine the power in looking for more records after a new story. If the story was of the school dance, could there be a yearbook photo of it or some other school record? If it's the story of an athlete, what local archive holds records on local athletes? There's a lot of potential opportunities to find more records and resources if you ask, "Where did this come from?"
So please remember Mr. Lowe’s advice—fact check your newspaper stories. It’s important. Just as important as fact checking Uncle Larry or anybody else in today’s information rich society. However, since it’s genealogy, this is probably a bit more fun, and definitely more rewarding than watching some guy in scrubs point his finger about some other TikToker’s video.
