I've been helping the librarian at my children's school do some
curriculum development on research and evaluating sources for
3-6 graders. It has kind of brought me back to basics in
thinking about how to evaluate what we find on the internet. I
think we need to closely evaluate the genealogy sources we find
on the net. And maybe some of these basic principles will help.
So here is a little of my librarian slant: Basically you can ask
yourself: Who, What, Where, When and Why. 1)Who. Ask yourself
who is the author? Does he/she give credentials or tell why
his/her experience qualifies him/her to write (or compile) the
information? 2)What. What is the content? Is it reliable? (This
is a major one for genealogists.) Have you found other sources
that confirm the information? Are there books or magazines that
agree with this site's facts? 3)Where. Where did you find the
information? What is the authority of the source? What is the
domain of the website (.com, .org .edu) Is that domain
appropriate to the information