Week Four: Philip Charles Palin

You should not believe everything you read online and I have proof of this.  One day I was researching an ancestor and I came across this reputable site that not only listed this relative of ours and his death but they had a picture of him that I had never seen before.

The picture did not even look like him, and they had his middle name wrong!  

This is the site I found   Find A Grave

I had never met this ancestor so I could not be sure about the picture, so I sent an email to the creators of the memorial that posted the information and the picture. 

This is the first email I sent on 7 October 2015.

First off, I just want to say how much I appreciate wonderful volunteers like yourself that update and share information online.

So regarding the above memorial.  I do have a couple of questions.

 Did you actually see the grave and record the information from the grave or was it from a database?

 The picture that you posted of Sir Philip C Palin - where did you get that from?

I have been researching the Palin Family tree for about 20 years and Philip Palin is in my family tree.  

 All of the documentation that I have for Philip, his middle name is always listed as Charles.  I can send proof of this if you would like.

The creators of the Find a Grave site for Philip sent me back a link and there the middle name was wrong as well. 

 Wikipedia  

I then edited the Wikipedia site and changed Philip’s middle name and listed his brother’s book as a reference. (last line in bottom reference section)

That weird picture was not on the Wikipedia site – and the posters never mentioned where it came from and I wondered if I could find the same picture anywhere else online.

So here is a handy trick that you might not have known before.  If you are using Chrome as your browser, you can right click on any image found online and then select search Google for (similar) image.  Lol and behold the same image came up on another site and attached to another mans name.

So, I then sent another email sending the link to the site that I found the image on

10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles    for

General Sir Philip Christison Bt GBE CB DSO MC ADC BA DL  1947-57

They removed the picture from the Find a Grave website – and three months later, the middle name still stands INCORRECT!!!!  It is amazing to find so many other sites have copied that incorrect information from Wikipedia!

So be careful people!!!!!

For anyone interested in reading the full “Palin Commission Report” it can be found at

http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/yabber_palin.html   or click here

The Palin Commission or Palin Commission of Inquiry or Palin Court of Inquiry was a committee of inquiry sent to the region in May 1920 by the British authorities, to examine the reasons for the Jerusalem riots, which took place between 4 and 7 April 1920. It foresaw increasing problems between the various parties and the administration.

The Commission completed its report on 1 July 1920 at Port Said, and submitted it in August 1920, though it was never published.

You can find Philip Charles Palin in the tree here


UPDATE FEB 22

I am not sure why I never saw the edit tab on the FINDAGRAVE site for Philip Palin before.  So I thought I would try it and change his name.  This morning I got an email confirmation that his name was changed!  Finally!!!!

Greetings,

This is an automated email letting you know that your recent edit for the Philip Charles Palin (1864 - 1937) Find A Grave memorial has been accepted.
Link to updated memorial:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=106918950

Thanks for your input,
Find A Grave