The growth of Internet genealogy has yielded greater access vital records, public records and resources making it easier than before for information to be accessed and shared by genealogical hobbyists. Forums, discussion groups, and message board communities have also given access to millions of people who would otherwise not have access to other researchers within a given field of interest.  The internet has also given rise to other new sources of information that appear one day and fade the next, most often times as reliable as they are permanent.

In the matter of Orra E. Monnette, there has been some discussion on the legitimacy of his research among internet sites.  Between 1911 and his death in 1936, Orra E. Monnette undertook two major genealogical projects.  The first, The Monnet Family Genealogy was published in limited quantities (350 copies) in 1911.  This work was the followed by the multi-volume First Settlers of Ye Plantations of Piscataway and Woodbridge, Olde East New Jersey which allowed Orra to focus on his Hull family line. For the purpose of my research and this site, my research has exclusively been focused on The Monnet Family Genealogy, therefore I can not speak to the merits of the Piscataway books.

Several web sites operated by genealogy "authorities" have placed Orra's works on a suspicious list, based upon a 1976 article in The American Genealogist  (by George E. McCracken) which stated that "the following are so unreliable that nothing they say should be accepted without clear and unmistakable verification: Gustave Anjou, Charles H. Browning, C. A. Hoppin, Orra E. Monnette, Horatio Gates Somerby, Frederick A. Virkus and John S. Wurts."  It should noted that according to the current co-publisher of The American Genealogist, David L. Greene, CG, FASG, Mc Cracken's comments on Orra Monnette's research were made without elaboration, and were based upon an October 1958 article by The American Genealogist's founder and publisher Donald Lines Jacobus. 

None of the internet based " authors" using this quote, nor the sites on which the material is published, provides any substantial documentation to back up the statement.  Nor do they show the relationship between McCracken's 1976 article and its source, which happens to have been written by the founding publisher of the periodical in which McCracken himself was publishing within.   The articles also do not speak to which book (The Monnet Family Genealogy or First Settlers of Ye Plantations of Piscataway and Woodbridge, Olde East New Jersey) that they are referring to, either separately or collectively, making impossible to know if it is the body of the entire work of Orra E. Monnette or a specific work (or part thereof) that lies at the root of their complaint.  

The irony is that the web based do-gooders have a legitimate concern: the ease with which genealogy can be fabricated by people who simply want names in their family trees instead instead of facts.  However their failure to back this statement taints their work and their sites -- they become what the rail against; their information becomes another link in the chain of genealogy misinformation mill.  Instead of creating "fraudulent genealogies", they are tearing people's characters apart in the name of what they feel is "good" genealogy.  

It is troubling to note is that only one of the internet authors, Donna Pzrecha on genealogy.com,  was willing to reconsider their inclusion of Orra in their lists. The scholarly American Genealogist is unwilling to address the issue; its current publisher, David L. Greene refuses to reexamine his works, instead allowing his "personal" disappointments with Orra's work to color his "professional" opinion.  One site, America's First Families, has ignored all attempts to open a dialogue on their accusations making this researcher extremely suspicious of the legitimacy of their organization.

My association with Orra Monnette’s works began thirty years ago.  In that time, I used his work as a baseline, then I went out into the field and verified his work.  Good research begins with a sound and solid foundation:

• I have visited all of the county seats in Ohio where Orra Monnette did his original research and I can tell you that his books quote "chapter and verse" what public records are relevant to the family.  Orra also does an outstanding job at telling people where these public records can be found.  
• I have visited the cemeteries where Monnett family members are buried, and the maps, inscriptions and grave locations match what Orra has written. I have also followed Orra's maps to the sites of early Monnett family settlements in Pickaway County to verify the site of the Abraham & Ann Hilleary Monnett farmstead, and again found the site faithful to his maps.
• I have visited the Los Angeles Public Library (Main Library, Downtown Los Angeles) where all of Orra’s private papers are on file.  Orra Monnette kept records of every conversation, every letter and every step of research – I know this because I have reviewed it.  Even when the librarians assured me that everything that is worth knowing about his works are in his published books, I continued to dig through volumes of onionskin (an odd "bluish" color) correspondence and questionnaires.  As far as The Monnet Family Genealogy is concerned, the portions regarding the Monnet, Monnett, and Monnette family in North America tie back to solid facts and documents, which are documented and referenced in Orra's original notes.  
• I have also spent twenty years researching the whereabouts of the descendents of Abraham and Catherine Monnett and the information in the book has been verified by family members who have shared their photos, maps, family traditions – many of which never knew the genealogy existed and what they have shared matches the book.  
• I have also written to several of the "authors" who have published against Orra and have found that not one of them knew the man or his real life accomplishments - both in public life (Orra was Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles Public Library System from 1916 to his death in 1936) or in private as one of the founders of the Bank of America, Los Angeles. I also have very sound reason to believe that what they know about character of Orra Monnette is based upon the conjured image of the man that they themselves have had a hand at creating.  They portray him as a fraud because its easier to do so then it is to review the source material.

If Orra's works are guilty of anything, it would be his use of  a heavy handed Edwardian prose style of writing.  Several sections of the book Monnet Family Genealogy are very floral - filled with over stuffed sentences written for an audience that had time to sit back and read.  Today this all seems very fussy. Orra  was also very proud of his family's accomplishments, so he did "toot" his own horn, and often, giving one the impression that someone should be bellowing "Lo, a Monnett approaches!"  whenever another tale of "the valiant pioneers" was begun.  But fraudulent tactics and outright lies?  As far as the Monnet Family Genealogy is concerned, the answer is no.  

Skepticism is good, as is the sharing of information.  However the passing of generalities as accepted facts is dangerous course of action to take no matter where one is within the chain of misinformation or what one's credentials pretend to be.