Parmenter Madness Update

Update! I finally found the email I sent to one of the people who wrote this book. I filed it under Hyde because I was sending him Hyde data. Now, I can contact him to find out if my work matches up with his!

It pays to keep looking through your files.

Every so often I have a conversation with another genealogist or family historian about "old/outdated/neglected" Web pages that are found by using Google. I remember having this discussion with Dan Lynch when his book about Google first came out. He seemed surprised when I asked him about what was to be done when people stop writing Web pages. Here's an example of what I meant:

Recently, I visited one of these that used to have information on it. This is the index or home page.


Parmenter Family Association

When you examine this page, you see right away that it is not being supported. BUT, then you notice that there must have been data on it at one time. Instead of removing all of the information and "retiring" the family Web site, the author had chose to leave his dead links. There is no useful data on this page. He left his name and his photo on the page along with one of those annoying music playing applets.

I found that the Webmaster has a Facebook page. He has not responded to my friend request. This same person is still posting to a Genealogy forum message board at Genealogy.com

I used the Internet Archive Wayback Machine but still had no luck in finding any information.

You get the feeling that the old ways of using the Web for genealogy are slowly disappearing. I am not a fan of such message boards or family pages because the information is often not reliable.

What are we to do about such dinosaur sites? Isn't keeping this page up on the Web confusing for people seeking free information?