Last updated 14 Mar 2010
Your Rambo genealogical contributions are very much appreciated, now and by future generations.
The best way to send me large amounts of Rambo material is on a CD as a backup of your files.
You will be given credit for your contributions via footnotes. Please accord the same courtesy by citing your sources.
Changes to Beverly's book pre-dating 1850 should be accompanied by photocopies of the original source proofs.
Living descendants do not appear on the web to prevent identity theft and invasion of privacy.
BEWARE. There is a lot of genealogical garbage out there. One expert says 1/2 of all genealogy on the web is WRONG.
If you care about the disposition of your genealogical materials, PROVIDE FOR THEM IN YOUR WILL. Otherwise you can kiss them goodbye. Nearly all of Beverly's Rambo materials have been willfully destroyed by her heirs despite Beverly's written and spoken requests, acknowledged by those same heirs.
The second edition of The Rambo Family Tree is filled with material contributed by literally hundreds of Rambo cousins.
THANKS. Your help is appreciated. As this effort continues toward a 3rd edition in 2016, photocopies of early Bible records and other "primary source" information is NEEDED. Please follow this link for explanations and addresses.
DEFINITELY DO send corrections and additions that have come from your personal research into original, hand-written sources - even if you did not document the sources. If possible, send me a copy of the original document.
After publication, Rambo source materials will be donated to an appropriate repository such as the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, so anything you send will be housed permanently where other researchers will appreciate your work for generations to come.
The very best way to send your computerized genealogy to me is as a backup on CD.
The professional guideline for backups is extremely simple: Whenever you have changed enough information in your genealogy files that it would be painful to re-create those changes, you NEED to make a backup IMMEDIATELY. With the advent of CDs and FlashDrives, those backups are cheap and convenient, so don't procrastinate or postpone,
DO IT NOW.
If you have not learned how to make a backup, then you especially really, really need to do it now.
Several of my correspondants have apologized that they were unable to send information because they experienced a computer failure and LOST ALL of their computerized genealogy. They were traumatized and disheartened and faced the daunting task of re-typing EVERYTHING from scratch.
STOP reading . . .
and really think . . .
about re-typing EVERYTHING.
SCARY isn't it?
Here is a wonderful suggestion regarding backups and GEDCOMs:
Make a CD copy of ALL your computerized genealogical data and mail me a copy. You will have an off-site backup. An off-site backup protects you from loss due to fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane, & tornado. I am not a commercial entity, but merely a single individual. I promise that I will not profit from your information in any way. I like to be helpful, and I am interested in whatever Rambo information you are willing to send me. Those backups you send will be stored in Kansas and Illinois until 2015 because I travel endlessly and will not be in Kansas or Illinois often. Similarly, retrieving your backup from me won't be quick, but consider the benefits of a slow retrieval compared to re-typing everything.
Besides being hooked on genealogy, I am a computer professional, so I KNOW that YOU NEED to make that backup and you are strongly encouraged to do so every time that retyping all your changes would be painful. (FlashDrives are cheap and convenient for frequent backups.) My mailing address is:
Ron Beatty
P.O. Box 598
Hem;stead, TX 77445
To recap, the plan is simple:
copy ALL your genealogical files to a CD,
make a copy of that CD,
send me a copy of the CD via regular U.S. Postal mail.
You MUST back up your files, and this is a wonderfully easy way to send me a copy of your Rambo information for the forthcoming 3rd edition of The Rambo Family Tree (circa 2016). (You can add family pictures to the CD if there is room.)
Cite your sources. Every conscientious author, and especially genealogists, should thoroughly document the sources of their information. If you think source citations unnecessary or inconvenient, please follow this link to read a few well chosen words about source citations from another genealogist. Sometimes your sources are unknown, so give "unknown" as your source. If you can make a guess as to the sources, please document the guess as a guess. Even a guess like "probably from a website" or "from a book at the library" is better than no source at all.
Cousins frequently send me conflicting information. Sometimes the conflict is a typo, sometimes it is a guess, and sometimes one source contradicts another. The only way to find the truth is by examining the original documents.
Beverly Nelson Rambo was a fine genealogist and confirmed much of the information she published. She did make a few isolated mistakes, but for the most part, her information is correct. Consequently, most undocumented corrections to The Rambo Family Tree will be ignored. If you want to change anything pre-dating 1850 that Beverly published, you'll have to send a copy of the hand-written original source document that supports your change. My permanent mailing address is:
Ron Beatty
P.O. Box 598
Hempstead, TX 77445
The Rambo Family Tree already contains information transcribed from dozens of other genealogies which are listed in the ENDNOTES.TXT file on this website. If most of your information came from a book, it would be better to send pages photocopied from the original book instead of your transcription. (When I make the transcription, typos are my fault.)
Please consider that it is impossible to tell the difference between typos and corrections. If you have made corrections to the material in a published book, be sure to make a special note of that with each correction. If there is no note, it is a typo.
Be assured that the information will be appreciated no matter how you decide to send it.
Feel free to e-mail me, but it may be months before I can reply.
In general you will see NOTHING about living people in the Rambo Family Tree or on the website because it is UNETHICAL to publish anything about living individuals without their express permission.
Any information you send about living people will be recorded for posterity, but it will not appear in the book.
After first considering the risks of identity theft and invasion of privacy, tell me if you DO want your personal information (such as biography, date of birth, children, etc.) printed in the book and/or posted on the web.
The exception is that I have placed names of living contributors into the text or the ENDNOTES.TXT file.
You will be given credit for your contributions in footnotes, sometimes directly in the text and other times in endnotes.
When you send material, it would be helpful to specify the attribution you would like. Beverly cited individuals as follows:
Beatty, Ron, Shawnee Mission, KS 66201, family research
Motter, Gloria, family research
On the web, the city address is deleted and may be replaced with an e-mail address.
Of course this means that there are names (but not addresses) of contributors in the ENDNOTES.TXT file. If you do not want your name to appear on the web as a contributor, tell me. If you'd like your e-mail address to appear, tell me. If you want a different wording for your attribution, please send your desired wording.
There is a lot of genealogical garbage on the web and in books. You might have been thrilled to learn that you are descended from Madalene Bauerin or Gunnar Mattson Rambo, but in fact those are both disproved, published, unsubstantiated rumors. For years people have published speculation and rumors without citing their sources of information.
I sent my (erroneous, undocumented) best guesses to cousins when I first started - over 20 years ago. Nearly everyone does this to some degree when they begin this fascinating hobby. When you don't know any better, you are naive. Anyone who continues this practice after being told the importance of documentation is ignorant, stupid, lazy, or unprincipled.
ALWAYS cite your sources. Sometimes your sources will be "Aunt Verla's research" or "unknown" or "personal knowledge" or even "my best guess." Those are OK, and are much better than nothing because those "lame" sources do not mislead others into thinking that you have seen proofs that they haven't, proofs that don't exist.
The most important page on this site is the one discussing genealogical evidence. Please read that page.
It is a special treat to receive a well-documented, well-footnoted genealogy.
It is very disappointing to receive a genealogy with no source attribution whatsoever.
It is especially galling to receive an flawed transcription of Beverly's material from an e-correspondant who doesn't even have the decency to attribute the information to Beverly. (And, yes, people have sent me information copied verbatim from my very own website - and became irate when I told them this was not helpful.)
Several people have expressed interest in seeing more pictures included in the book, and I have placed one on the web, a 1792 Bible record. If you provide me with a URL, I'll happily link to your pictures.
Click the "back arrow" on your browser or click here to return to the Rambo genealogy home page.
Pages of personal interest: Ron Beatty's home page, the Rambo genealogy, Bankston genealogy, the Dorsey Overturff family, cousin Jean's Schenck and Hegeman genealogy, Eric's RPM coins, and Eve's Garden Organic Bed and Breakfast, a wonderful, eclectic, artistic papercrete alternative living learning mecca in Marathon, Texas.