Monday, February 12, 2007

Goodbye Lee - we will miss you!

Lee Anders, the owner of the very best genealogy website name (www.geneaholic.com), has decided to stop posting on her "A Matter of Life and Death" blog. Her goodbye message was titled "Goodbye, Cruel World."

Lee's stated reasons for leaving are:

"... I will learn as I research my own family, and then someday, I’ll turn pro. I really believed I could do this. But then I subscribed to the APG mailing list. Big mistake that was, or maybe it just saved me from making one. I can’t seriously believe that someone needs a license to practice genealogy. I can’t get behind the idea that someone should have an advanced degree before they can be considered capable of crawling through snake infested grass to find an overturned and long forgotten stone. I can’t stand beside a group of people who would rather fight for the right to be included rather than fight for the right of ALL to see the papers of their ancestors. Well, quite frankly, I am too disappointed and upset to make much sense right now, but the bottom line is, I just can’t see myself being one of them."


I am very sorry to see Lee depart the world of genea-blogging. She has been a wonderful correspondent and commenter with me. I understand the time sacrifice required to be a blogger. I hope that she will continue her genealogy research - at her own pace and own principles and standards - and has lots of fun and satisfaction in doing it, and tells us about it somehow, sometime, in her own way.

I have watched the APG list discussion about education, licensing and professionalism, but have not participated in it. Many views have been expressed there, including the ones Lee describes. There are reasons for advocating such measures, and there has been disagreement with many of them. It is an ongoing open debate without rancor (as far as I can tell) - an excellent example of rational people discussing a difficult topic. It is a debate that needs to be held, and in the open where professional and non-pro genealogists alike can be heard.

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