Our Dilemma: How to stop the propagation of the incorrect date and …
In 2023, our volunteers corrected Wikipedia. However, our inquiry to encyclopedia.com about the procedure to correct their publication has had no reply. In addition to several incorrect references to Moses Yale Beach’s birthdate being published throughout history, the wrong date appears on two historic markers about him in our community.
How can 1) the propagation of the incorrect date by well-intentioned students and scouts be stopped, and 2) the errors on our community markers be corrected? Sadly, the 2024 historic marker and database entry prepared by a Wallingford Troop 5 Eagle Scout and the 2015 plaque in Moses Yale Beach School bear the wrong date. Ironically, the 2024 Heritage Marker was installed at the gravesite in a ceremony with Center Street Cemetery and Wallingford Historical Society representatives’ involvement.
Search. Do you see what we see? The discrepancy was documented and visible before the installation of the 2024 marker. We recently shared the story of the date error as a lesson about primary sources in The Check Minus with Moses Yale Beach Elementary School students.
About Our Book
“The Check Minus” is a classic lesson in Journalism 101. That is, check your facts and sources, and then double-check them before your articles, books and blogs are published or posted! Use primary sources when possible.
The children’s book, derived from Two True Wallingford Stories, is one of the pieces of content created by WPAA-TV Community Media Center volunteers within the Wallingford project — Moses Yale Beach Revealed. One not-so-young reader was reminded of this basic rule of journalism as reinforced in a famous rejoinder in 1950s late-night TV, Sergeant Joe Friday of Dragnet: Just the facts, Ma’am. But this journalist’s story suggests that ‘facts’ from secondary, reliable sources can be incorrect.
The story centers around fictional AP journalist Youssef Fam, the young protagonist, who is researching Moses Y. Beach for an elementary school project (while attending Moses Y. Beach Elementary School, named after the Wallingford native, born on January 15, 1800). Most of his classmates researched Mr. Beach using the town’s library encyclopedias. By happenstance, Youssef used multiple sources and included a primary source.
Youssef was staying with relatives in an apartment near the Center Street Cemetery. From an apartment window, he saw objects that reminded him of mosques in his homeland, Morocco. He decided to walk among these obelisks in his neighborhood to feel less homesick. In the story, he returns to the cemetery at night accompanied by his two cousins. On a mission of redemption, they assist him as he etched with charcoal from the grandest obelisk onto a large piece of brown butcher paper from his uncle’s shop, the gravesite inscription. What Youssef captured was “Born in Wallingford January 15, 1800 — Died July 19, 1868”.
When his elementary school teacher handed back the students’ biography assignments, there was a big red CHECK MINUS at the top. Youssef felt disheartened and discouraged looking at the big circle around the date of Moses Y. Beach’s birth. Youssef tried to explain to his teacher that he hadn’t made a mistake. She told him all the other students researching Moses Y. Beach found the correct birthdate – January 7 – in the local library’s encyclopedias. “Why didn’t you go to the library?” she asked him.
“I did!” Youssef replied. “But … I already had the dates. “How could that be?” the teacher asked. “I found a better source,” he answered. “Better than the encyclopedia?” she asked. And therein lies the twist in the story, which continues to this day.
In the nonfiction section of “The Check Minus” book, readers will find several nuggets of information about Moses Yale Beach: a brief biographical sketch and a timeline of key dates in his life. There is also a glossary and an explanation as to why this story could not take place today, when even elementary school students have access to smartphones. And most importantly, it tells the story of the printing and reprinting of an incorrect birthdate in encyclopedias, including the few that are still in publication today.
Notes: WPAA-TV is an #America250CT Affiliate committed to sharing ‘evolutionary’ stories and Doing History in the public Interest. This blog includes some content contributions by intern Scott Hayes. The notes below are from students participating in The Check Minus Story time. The book was read by Moses Yale Beach School para-professional and WPAA-TV Board Member Ben Negron.
Related story in Patch.com: https://patch.com/connecticut/wallingford/better-encyclopedia-accuracy-wallingford-historic-markers-nodx