[Northkeep] history endeavor was populace?

[Marc Carlson]

>From: the Suarez Family <family at suarez-turner.com>
>Okay, you caught me, I'm guilty. I didn't think I had anything to
>contribute since we haven't been able to attend very many things/be >as
>involved as we'd like. So I will ponder what we HAVE seen and done and when
>it happened and send you what I remember as soon as I can.

Okie dokie.  Please remember to send them to me, and not the list.

>See that? A public admission that while I do have doubts about my
>contribution to the History, I will send my remembrance of times and
>places and who attended, etc along anyhow. <shrug> Who knows, maybe I
>will inadvertently confirm something important.

You'd be surprised.

Oral traditiions are a lousy way to do history, since people can forget
things, blend events, reinterpret them so they come out looking better,
things like that. However, if two or more people remember roughly the same
event the same way, this can tell me that the event actually happened in a
general way.  Also, this can tell me who is remembering things more
accurately overall when more things they remember match up with others (or
hopefully the limited documentation that exists).

OTOH, some sorts of events are transmitted quite well orally, such as the
general meaning of events, and those are frequently more important to the
overall history than the individual details.

Marc/Diarmaid

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