Dear George,
"..... from LDS" can be very misleading misleading ...... what, actually, does this mean to you?
From original church or birth record sources filmed by the Church of the LDS that you have studied? Or merely from a family tree or a pedigree chart that other researcher has posted at the LDS web site?
If you have the original birth records from LDS microfilms of the original records, they should state the names of the parents (surely the father, at the least!).
If you are using the information posted by other researchers at the LDS web site, then that information is simply a "clue" or a road sign for you as to where you might actually find your information, but you should never accept that as a fact ..... and you need to do your own research to affirm or to disprove for yourself anything that another researcher has posted.
There is a good deal of hogwash posted by uninformed people on the LDS web site, and you can note the disclaimers wherein the Church warns you that they do not verify any of that information posted by others as to its accuracy or reliability. The research is only as good as the researcher doing it. Do your own!
Maureen
Dear Maureen,
I always use the LDS website first because it is a great starting
place. George had looked at the microfilm for the church in Beverstedt and
found the parents' names listed for the children, but did not give the
parents' births. (Then, one can conclude they were from another village OR
that the records are not complete.)
I would agree that one has to be careful of what is on the LDS site,
but only for those that are put in by individuals. I myself have been misled
once by that information and I am more careful now. HOWEVER, my sister did
centuries of our family history exclusively through the LDS films for the
various locations. This took her many years to do, but it is not at all
impossible. When you look at any one record, you must look at the source.
When it is extracted from the church records directly, you can be
comfortable with that. If an individual entered a record, sometimes it
will give their name and you can contact them. And most of the time, it
will be essentially accurate. It can be, as you say, a clue to pertinent
information. More importantly, one can get vast information by ordering the
film from any village or church. Then you view it at the LDS center. There
are so many microfilms that they have but are not extracted onto the website
search. One can determine what films or books they have by going into the
Family History Library Catalog.
The problem is when the churches, etc. have not allowed the Mormons to
copy their records. I am facing a lot of that problem! I am not Mormon,
but I believe they have provided FAR MORE to genealogy research than any
one other source.
Barbara