… or even a primary source.
As I am learning more & more each day, Ancestry seems to fall short for many reasons, and it really cuts deep knowing that so much information is being misused & mislead to those thousands looking for their roots. Ancestry is simple a “helping tool” not a “source”.
“What did they do this time?”, you ask.
I was surfing Amazon with my great ninja skills & came across Ancestry’s paperback publication of “The Standlee Name In History”. I, of course, bought the book with no real expectations, but with a little hope that might guide my research on the “Standlee” line of mine.
I was highly disappointed! First off, it was a book mostly in the trends & history of general immigration with a few little “Standlee” facts thrown in along the way…. but their facts don’t match my research. I instantly thought, “Am I wrong? Did I miss a huge step or ancestor in my research?”
The answer of course is, “NO! My research is solid.” Their research however, is lacking in great detail a lot of DETAILS! Say, maybe,… just maybe… there’s an entire “other” Standlee line that was over looked… MY Standlee line!
It started for me with their statement that most Standlee (Standley, Standly, etc.) immigrants were from Germany. “Wait? What? Who’s from Germany? What Standlee is from Germany?” No one in MY Standlee line has ever heard of a “German” connection. So my red flag was thrown & I started really reading & absorbing the details as they followed (or didn’t follow).
Then they made a bold statement that in 1840 only 6 Standlee families resided in Arkansas: 3 in St. Francis County & 3 in Greene County. Umm… however, that is not correct. As you can clearly see below, in 1840 below is three Standlee Households of the many “Standlee” families living in Sugar Loaf, Carroll County, AR. Why didn’t Ancestry count them in their research? (Not helping in making my lineage more justified in their poor attitudes towards genealogy & Ancestry… )
They didn’t even start to count MY Standlee’s until the 1900’s & even then they are missing a few in their stats.
This book made it appear that the Standlee family that Arkansas holds dear to their history & was located in St. Francis & Greene Counties (central Arkansas) were the only Standlee’s to be in state & the only ones worth recognition.
It wasn’t until the end of the book that two things happened: 1 – they started looking at the England-Wales Standlee names in their history & 2- they proved my entire research as valid to the point that there is NO connection with the “central Arkansas Standlees”.
Genesis 1:29
Hunting Dead People 