[TR] Redoing the whole commission plate process [and how people can confuse things]

[Philip Ethier]

On Thu, Jan 8, 2026 at 9:57 AM John Macartney <johnbmacartney at gmx.com>
wrote:

> Please do. I’ve noticed in the past that the person who commendably
> promotes Drive Your Triumph Day each February, has unknowingly got some
> facts about Black (which I now can’t recall) rather back to front. It’s
> this sort of thing that misleads people who really do value Standard Motor
> Company history and it’s hellishly difficult to correct these errors at a
> later date. Maybe I’m being unnecessarily pedantic but it still grieves me
> when well-intended people don’t check their facts.
>

Since my retirement from my day job, I have gotten the genealogy bug.  The
havoc that well-meaning dabblers can cause on the Internet is amazing.

THere is an organization called Find A Grave. People who have found other
people's mistakes elsewhere take these untruths and put them on FG
memorials,  Then other folks think that FG is a credible source and repeat
these errors back into the other databases.

For instance, my late wife was descended from Margaret Gavin (born in
Liverpool of Irish parents) and Angus Weatherhead, her 2nd husband.
Margaret's first husband was Matthew Slattery, reportedly born in Ireland.
Margaret and Matthew were married in Wisconsin, then moved to Minnesota
where they lived with their several children including Helen Slattery.
Matthew died on Christmas Eve 1897.  I have found no record that any of
these people ever lived in Michigan.

Meanwhile there was another Matthew Slattery. Of course, there have been
many people named Mattew Slattery!. THIS one married Caherine Shields in
Michigan.  They had several children, including Helen Slattery.  This
family seems to have stayed in Michigan.

As soon as someone on Ancestry.com (or the like) conflated the two men
named Matthew Slattery, the trouble began.  The tangle of incorrect
associations for not just Matthew Slattery, but for Helen
Slattery, snowballed out of control.  Next thing you know, there was a
conflation of Margaret Gavin and Catherine Shields.


Phil Ethier, West Side, Saint Paul Minnesota, USA
2006 Gulf Stream Conquest Super C, 8.1, white
2011 Cayman 2.9 PDK, white
2021 Ford F-150 3500cc twin turbo, white
1991 Caterham 1700 Super Sprint, not white
2003 Birkin
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