ROOTS & BRANCHES

 By now Eric “Rick” Bender of New Mexico should be the proverbial “man who needs no introduction” to the readership of “Roots & Branches.”

But of course there are always new readers so suffice to say that Bender has been a bit of a muse to your “Roots & Branches” columnist with many good comments on the weekly installments as well as thought-provoking outtakes from his own research.

Earlier this month, Bender took aim at FamilySearch’s attempt to bring together every person there ever was into one family tree … which they (unsurprisingly) call “Family Tree.”

Bender says he’s been in and out of using Family Tree over the years. When he hopped back on recently, there were his parents … shown as John Bender and Martha Glass.

“Yes. Seems dear old Dad married Martha Glass. Gosh, I remember Mom and she sure wasn’t Martha Glass! Just who is Martha Glass anyway? And why is Martha Glass showing up in my tree?” Bender questioned. “Who does this stuff?  An algorithm? A contributor? Russian disinformation?”

This has been the rap on Family Tree from its outset: Its information is only as good as the people contributing it (and some of that is based on people seeing hints given by FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, etc., and choosing not to verify those hints!).

For a sincere and savvy genealogist such as Bender, finding wrong information added to people who are his ancestors—let alone actual wrong ancestors!—is a frustrating experience.

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Bender also had something say about my column that debated the merits of the “chosen family” concept.

While I did label the column a “musing” on who counts as family, I guess I should have put one of those “DANGER: Philosophizing Ahead!” signs on it to drill the point home.

After scratching his head awhile, Bender asked, “Is this ‘chosen family’ different from, ‘You can choose your friends but not your family?’ Do we simply convert those friendships to, say, extended family?”

Basically, he hit the nail on the head on what I was trying to express, perhaps not so successfully.

Bender said his own family history is filled with contributions from more distant relatives and he also talked about friends such as his late buddy “Old Pete” and wonders if the concept of mentoring has something do with all this. “He was a long-term, late-life cohort, who shared the same basic values I have,” Bender said.

 “It seems to me that this chosen family is important to the individual rather than the family; the chosen family is part of an individual’s biography rather than actually part of the family biography,” Bender said.

 Bender’s final statement was this: “Stop making me think so much.”

Sorry, Rick … never going to happen, and in part that’s your own fault!