Now that the New FamilySearch (NFS) site is becoming available across the country (see current locations), large amounts of submitted data will become available at our fingertips.  The challenge will be in how and when to combine data sources into a record for a single individual.  When those records don't have good sources, how do you decide?  Good question!  In looking at our family data, I have seen several cases where researchers link children to grandparents instead of parents (particularly when children are named after family members) and the gender of individuals are listed incorrectly even though the individual with the correct gender is readily available from other sources.  Priority needs to go to "primary sources" such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc., rather than "secondary sources" such as journals or other opinions which rely on someone's memory of the facts.  Don't draw conclusions when your research is incomplete.

Here is an "interesting" news item on evaluating the validity of sources (this isn't a problem unique to genealogy) as reported in Successful Farming magazine:

AFTER digging to a depth of 10 yards last year, New York scientists found traces of copper wire 100 years old. This showed their ancestors already had a phone network more than a century ago.

NOT to be outdone by New Yorkers, California scientists dug down 20 yards in their state. A Los Angeles Times headline announced: ‘California archaeologists find 200-year-old copper wire — sign of an advanced high-tech network 100 years before New York.’

A WEEK later, the Ames Tribune in Iowa reported: ‘After digging 300 yards down in cornfields near here, self-taught archaeologist Ole Johnson reports finding nothing. Johnson concludes that 300 years ago, Iowa had already gone wireless.