I have read several news stories recently about Eagle Scout candidate Dane Smith who gathered volunteers to help clear an overgrown section of the new Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park near Washington, D. C. About 90 soldiers from the Tenth Alabama Infantry Regiment camped there and died in an outbreak of disease in the summer of 1861.

Since the first stories appeared, the park has received new information from families of these soldiers and has added to its documentation.

One sentence in The Birmingham News story about this caught my eye last week because the reporter apparently confused the word ANCESTOR with the word DESCENDANT:

Following a story in The News about the cemetery's rebirth, several ancestors, amateur genealogists and historic preservationists contacted park officials with information.

Whoops! The word ANCESTORS would refer to the previous generation family members who died at Bristoe.  It is much more likely that it was their DESCENDANTS who contacted the park officials. Attention to correct vocabulary makes for much better writing.  The sentence should read this way:

Following a story in The News about the cemetery's rebirth, several descendants, amateur genealogists and historic preservationists contacted park officials with information.

Congratulations to sixteen-year-old Dane Smith on a creative and important Eagle Scout project.

Tags: The Birmingham News, word usage

This entry was posted on Friday, January 6th, 2012 at 8:18 pm and is filed under Grammar, word usage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.