Because I said so!

My recent excursion into the Forscutt family reminded me of a problem that I run into every now and then - circularity. The biggest example concerned my grandfather, Joseph Matthews, an early photographer. My research into his life had come up with some interesting happenings, but the story needed a bit more evidence. In the mid 1990s some of his work appeared in a published collection of old photographs and there was a short biography of him that confirmed my research. I was over the moon. Then I thought about sources. It seemed likely that the author of this book had got his information from my cousin who in turn had got it from me. No wonder it confirmed my research!

I came up against a similar (though less serious) issue with the Forscutts. There is a website (www.foskett-genealogy.co.uk) that contains a wealth of information about the Fosketts (and alternative spellings) gathered by a researcher who has been active for as long as I had. It appears to confirm information that I obtained from my great aunt who had corresponded with another researcher for many years. I exchanged e-mails with the author of the Foskett site and learned that she had obtained much of her information from the same researcher that my aunt had corresponded with. This left me wondering whether the information I got from my aunt was her own personal knowledge or a second hand version of someone else's research. I need to subject the information she gave me to a more critical analysis - what can she have known from personal experience and family stories?

The good news is that the Foskett web site takes the family back further and is better documented than my existing version. I always knew I had to check the information I had received via my aunt - at least I now have a more extensive set of signposts!