Starting your genealogy research in Canada can be done through various resources such as census records, birth, marriage, and death records, vital statistics records, and immigration records. To access these resources, follow these general instructions:
- Start by searching for censuses and other relevant documents like birth, marriage, and death records.
- Use search strategies, sources, and tips to help with your research and create your family tree.
- Consult Canadian genealogical societies and archives for additional resources.
- Explore the world’s largest collection of free family trees, including parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.
- Research vital statistics records and immigration records to help you create your family tree.
- Visit the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) for information on national genealogy records and resources.
- Check out the Genealogie Québec website for information on Quebec’s genealogy and border entry records.
- Explore the Ancestor Hunt website for resources for Canadian family history research.
- Visit the Library and Archives Canada for birth, marriage, and death records.
- Finally, explore Nova Scotia Births, Marriages, and Deaths for more information on family history.
In summary, starting your genealogy research in Canada involves utilizing various resources such as census records, vital statistics records, immigration records, parish registers, transcripts, and other relevant resources. By following these guidelines, you can effectively start your family tree and research your roots in Canada.
| Article | Description | Site |
|---|---|---|
| Genealogy and family history – Library and Archives Canada | Many genealogical societies and other archives hold resources for Canadian family history research. Genealogy and family history, Miscellaneous, Index. Home … | library-archives.canada.ca |
| Canada Genealogy | Guide to Canada ancestry, family history and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records. | familysearch.org |
| 11 Resources and Records for Canadian Genealogy | FamilySearch is a good place to start: From the Search drop-down menu, click on Research Wiki. Next, type Canada into the search box or click North America > … | familytreemagazine.com |
📹 Start Your Genealogy Research Right – Avoid These Common Mistakes!
There are some common mistakes in genealogy research — and these mistakes affect beginners and experienced genealogists …
What Is The Best Genealogy Site For Canada?
Ancestry stands out as the top choice for genealogy research, especially with a Canadian or World subscription, making it user-friendly. If you're curious about your ancestry, check out expert recommendations to select the right platform. Ancestry. ca holds the number one spot as the most visited genealogy website in Canada. For those tracing Canadian roots, Ancestry offers extensive Canadian data, while FamilySearch provides abundant free resources.
Provincial archives, as well as Library and Archives Canada (LAC), are valuable for accessing genealogy materials, many of which are free. The Canadian Genealogy Centre at LAC offers essential records like birth, marriage, and death certificates. A useful resource table outlines various countrywide collections, although not exclusively listed. There are numerous other resources for Canadian genealogy, such as CanGenealogy, Canadian Headstones, and Olive Tree Genealogy, among others.
In total, 14 notable websites are highlighted for researching Canadian ancestry, covering five categories. Birth, marriage, and death records are accessible at provincial archives, emphasizing the availability of free resources. Rootsweb remains significant for online genealogical support through mailing lists and the Ancestry Wiki. Overall, Ancestry. ca leads as Canada’s top genealogical website, followed by myheritage. com, as of October 2024.
Where Can I Find A Family Tree In Edmonton?
If you're interested in exploring your family tree, the Edmonton Public Library (EPL) offers a wealth of resources, including vital records, census data, and passenger and immigration records, all accessible with your library card. Begin your research today! The library’s "Tracing your Family Tree" brochure can guide you through finding these important records. With access to FamilySearch locations in Edmonton, you can receive personalized help and utilize exclusive technology and resources in your genealogical journey.
Dive into your Canadian family history, tracing generations and uncovering their stories. Start by documenting what you already know and sharing that information with relatives, collecting their insights and records. Historical data found at the Provincial Archives of Alberta can reveal critical details about family origins and life events. The library also provides a "Tracing Your Family Tree" educational program to enhance your research skills.
To further assist genealogists, the Edmonton Branch of the Alberta Genealogical Society offers help with family tree completion and access to Ancestry and other online resources. Join the rich community of genealogy enthusiasts in Edmonton!
Where Can I Find A Family Tree In Ontario?
The Ontario Genealogical Society provides a free database called The Ontario Name Index (TONI), featuring over 3 million names, making it an excellent starting point for family history research. Researchers can add their family trees to this platform for effortless discoveries. The Ontario research page consolidates various tools essential for genealogy, with links to free websites covering a spectrum of genealogical topics in Canada. Key resources include primary documents typically located within archives, alongside Canadian genealogy links for broader searches.
The Society features 30 Branches across Ontario and 6 Special Interest Groups, emphasizing diverse backgrounds like British Home Children, Eastern European, and others. Essential records such as birth, marriage, and death certificates, along with census and military records, are vital for tracing ancestors. To begin, individuals are encouraged to gather information from living relatives, utilizing family accounts, old letters, and documents. The Archives of Ontario contains a variety of indexed records available on microfilm to assist genealogical endeavors.
Overall, the Society supports genealogy research with its extensive collections and resources in Ontario’s rich historical context, offering guidance for enthusiasts looking to uncover their roots and build their family trees.
What Is The Most Common Ancestry In Canada?
In Canada, the most prominent ethnic origins are White (69. 8%), South Asian (7. 1%), Indigenous (5%), Chinese (4. 7%), and Black (4. 3%). The term "Canadian" is commonly used to describe citizenship, but many also use it to reflect their ethnicity. According to the 2021 Census, the largest self-identified ethnic group is Canadian, with Continental European ancestry being the most prevalent, comprising 46% of the population. English ancestry is particularly significant, with a historical influx from England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland influencing Canadian culture.
The major panethnic groups include European (52. 5%), North American (22. 9%), Asian (19. 3%), and Indigenous peoples (6. 1%). Notably, Scots-Canadians represent the third largest ancestry group after English and French. More than 200 ethnic groups have been reported, illustrating Canada's rich cultural mosaic. This diversity highlights significant ancestry contributions, emphasizing a varied demographic backdrop in which immigrants have shaped Canadian traditions and customs.
What Is The Cheapest Way To Trace Your Family Tree?
Your local library can be a valuable resource for genealogy research, even if it lacks a dedicated genealogy room. Many libraries provide free access to paid subscription websites. FamilySearch. org is a great free platform to explore your ancestry from home. There are numerous resources available for investigating family histories, with some services being free while others charge significant fees. To assist MoneySavers, a compilation of effective budget-friendly genealogy techniques has been collected.
FamilySearch is highlighted as the most extensive free ancestry search engine. For beginners, a list of the top 12 free genealogy websites is essential, offering tools, guides, and access to vast historical databases. Users can search billions of profiles and documents easily. Starting your family tree is straightforward, focusing first on your immediate family. It's crucial to keep living individuals' information private while using various free resources.
The article outlines practical steps to trace your family for free, such as asking relatives, utilizing online tools, and leveraging existing research while documenting all findings to enrich your family history.
How To Find Canadian Ancestry?
To explore your Canadian ancestry, various records can provide valuable insights, including census, naturalization, immigration, and military records. Start your research by accessing vital statistics records, and review databases for a complete list of available documents. Canadian genealogical resources can be found through local societies or by utilizing national and provincial GenWeb sites, which offer focused information. Confirming your family tree typically begins with personal details about yourself and your direct ancestors.
Many Canadians today have French heritage, and there are specific resources like Généalogie Québec for this lineage. The most useful sites for Canadian genealogy encompass Library and Archives Canada, Nova Scotia Births, Marriages, and Deaths, and others that host millions of records. Explore types of records such as parish registers, birth, marriage, death records, and indexes, as they can all aid in uncovering your family's history and heritage more comprehensively.
How To Find Lost Relatives In Canada?
The Canadian Centre for Information on Missing Adults (CCIMA) serves as a bilingual online resource for families and friends of missing individuals in Canada. It offers information and referrals, guiding users to existing research, including links and databases. If initial searches for ancestors prove unfruitful, expanding the search to siblings and other relatives can yield better results. It’s essential to identify the province of interest when tracing an ancestor's whereabouts in Canada.
For additional genealogical research, one can consult resources like the National Library and Archives of Canada. However, as of May 1, 2023, the Salvation Army in Canada and Bermuda has halted new family tracing inquiries due to increasing privacy laws. The platform not only helps reconnect adopted children with birth families but also assists in finding long-lost relatives and friends. Users can utilize various online databases, including Ancestry.
com, which features immigration, birth, marriage, and death records. Major indexes like census records can help find ancestors, while unclaimed properties and pension plans can be traced through relevant offices. For immediate assistance, filing a missing persons report with local authorities is advised.
How Do I Start Researching My Family History?
To embark on family history research, begin with the basics and a clear plan. Start by creating a family tree that documents names and birth details, focusing first on yourself and known relatives. This guide will help organize your search, directing you to essential resources and archives available online. Key topics include getting started, choosing research locations, and data analysis. Organizing your findings in a systematic way is crucial, and utilizing glossaries can clarify terminology and aid your search.
Recall that genealogy recreates ancestors' lives through the clues they left. This article caters to beginners, guiding you through the initial steps in this expanding hobby. To kick off your journey, gather all available family documents, photographs, and records by consulting relatives for vital information such as birth, marriage, and death certificates. Fill out a pedigree chart to visualize your lineage clearly, and explore scholarly resources to understand the records accessible. With determination and structure, uncover the fascinating narratives of your ancestors' lives and enjoy the rewarding experience of tracing your family history.
What Is The Canadian Genealogy Index?
The Canadian Genealogy Index, covering the 1600s to 1900s, features over two million records pertaining to individuals from Canada and early Alaska, with most records originating between 1600 and the mid-to-late 1900s, although some predate the 1500s. This comprehensive database aids researchers in tracing Irish Canadian ancestry and includes early local censuses from regions like Nova Scotia, Ontario, and PEI. Passenger lists also contribute to manifest indexes, which can be vital in uncovering immigrant arrival details.
The index includes names and key information for over 700, 000 deceased individuals who resided in Canada, providing essential data on births, christenings, and marriages. Furthermore, genealogical resources extended by the Library and Archives Canada, along with support from various genealogical societies, enhance the research experience. The national GenWeb site offers a repository of genealogy records, while provincial and territorial GenWebs focus on regional specifics.
The Ontario Genealogical Society's free database, The Ontario Name Index (TONI), serves as a useful tool for research. Overall, the Canadian Genealogy Index invites individuals to explore the rich cultural heritage of Canada through more than four centuries of genealogical information, offering valuable insights into ancestors' lives and connections across diverse populations.
How Much Does It Cost To Have Someone Research Your Family Tree?
The cost of genealogical services can vary significantly based on factors such as the complexity of the research and the service provider. Professional genealogists typically charge between $30 to $100 per hour, with rates potentially exceeding $200 depending on expertise and location. Companies like AncestryDNA, MyHeritage DNA, and Family Tree DNA offer DNA testing and basic genealogy services, usually costing between $79 to $199. For customized genealogy research, prices may start around $3, 500. In-depth research packages can range from £90 to £375 in the UK.
Hiring a professional genealogist can be a fast option for building a family tree and typically requires 10 to 25 hours of work to achieve meaningful results. While hourly rates average between $65 and $100, using freelance genealogists may cost $40 to $60 per hour. For larger firms, rates can range from $75 to $95 per hour. Overall, the cost of genealogy research fluctuates based on individual project requirements, and one must decide if the investment is justified for their genealogical pursuits. Various options exist to manage budget considerations while exploring one’s family history, and each genealogy project will be unique in its demands and costs.
Does FamilySearch Have Canadian Records?
The FamilySearch Library offers microfilm copies of civil vital records and indexes from various provinces and counties in eastern Canada, with many records accessible online for free at FamilySearch. org. For those interested in researching their Canadian ancestry, free online classes from RootsTech are available to guide users. A useful table at FamilySearch provides links to countrywide records, particularly aiding post-1800 research. Recent additions to Canadian collections include Ontario Tax Assessment Rolls (1834-1899), which support family history research.
Key record collections on Findmypast feature census records from 1851 to 1911, along with vital record indexes. Additionally, Ancestry's Canadian Genealogy Index contains over two million records from the 1600s to the 1900s, covering diverse Canadian regions. Both FamilySearch and Ancestry provide census records, while land records can often precede vital records. For individuals seeking free Canadian genealogy records, essential sites are highlighted for searching vital records and immigration documents.
The FamilySearch Library also holds genealogical material, including dictionaries, particularly for French-origin families. Canadian archives encompass various records, making it essential to examine each province for specific genealogical resources. Accessible records span numerous categories, including births, marriages, deaths, immigration, and census data, ensuring rich avenues for uncovering Canadian ancestry.
📹 The PERFECT Place to Start Finding Your Family Tree (It’s NOT Ancestry)
It’s tempting to start your family history with an Ancestry subscription or a DNA test, but for most people, those aren’t the best …
I’ve been working on my family genealogy for 2 years, the big mistake I made in the beginning was that I didn’t save records that I found that proved relationships. I was in too big of a hurry to build my tree, and now some records that I know exist, I can’t find again. So now I save everything I think may be of value to my research.
My Mom was Irish Catholic. Her grandparents came to New England from Ireland ca 1900-1905. One set of clues that she left behind that I didn’t know existed until she died were a shoebox filled with old mass cards. Every relative that ever died on her side of the family had a mass card and there were around 60 of them. I used information from those that often included obituaries to piece together two additional generations of Irish Ancestors. It turned out that one line consisted of successive generations of immigrants who came to New England to live with a married blood related aunt. That’s four generations of aunts who helped the next generation immigrate here documenting our families slow migration throughout the potato famine and up to the early 20th century ending with my great grandfather arriving on the maiden voyage of the Carpathia. So that turned out to be four generations where my ancestors back in Ireland were mentioned in aunt’s marriage and death records here in the U.S. Mind you I’m not actually descended from any of these aunts directly. Each one was a sister of someone who stayed behind in Ireland and raised a family there that produced a child who would immigrate here. It still goes on today. My second cousin just sponsored her niece who just immigrated here from Galway a couple of years ago and I am in contact with her Mom now who as it turns out lives in the family home that our Irish ancestors lived in during the pre potato famine period and she helped put me in touch with a relative who helped me trace that Irish line back to about 1730.
Couldn’t have explained it better Amy. Genealogy for me is researching, verifying, playing detective, getting my hands on copies of original documents and ignoring 90% of online trees. At any given time I could have 9 websites open. My mum always said we had French ancestors, but research and DNA says otherwise!
I was finding people erroneously attaching people from my tree to theirs without researching that they were truly their relatives. So I put a bogus person in my tree with a ridiculous name and a note saying they were not a real person, this was only a placeholder. After I time I thought the better of doing this and removed the person. But it turned out to be helpful because since then I have come across trees with that name which indicates that the owner of that tree used my information without doing any research.
I started my family search in 1967 – b.I. (before internet.) I was self-taught. In the beginning, I did not know to record locations of records, something that came back to haunt me later. I told a cousin what I had found, and he said I had everything wrong. (several years later he told me the very same info, which I told him I had already given him said info!) NOW: i try to document EVERYTHING and record source!
Excellent tips. Thanks Amy. I’m currently going back to double check my evidence for the people I put on my tree (siblings of 1x and 2x great-grandparents). My favourite way to research is to search the internet on my iPad and take screen shots of what I find. Then I download them to my laptop and sort them in folders. I can print the images off if I want. I’m still an old fashioned paper girl with binders full of family letters, cards, obituaries, wedding invitations, birth announcements, newspaper clippings, etc.
My partner’s grandmother was Hannah, but always called Nance by her brothers. We have documentary evidence of this, but another family descendant has listed this nickname as being another sibling (who didn’t exist) and so many trees have blindly copied this wrong info. Very frustrating! I try to make a point of NEVER adding anything or anyone new unless I can be absolutely sure and back it up. Also, going back and looking at certificates etc for the umpteenth time almost always reveals something new!
I found this extremely helpful and should be required viewing for anyone using a genealogy site. I very fortunately had very good family records going back 5 generations on both my mother’s and father’s side of the family. A few years ago, I decide to go on one of the sites to see how much further I could go back. I was researching a John Howard that was born in Massachusetts in 1780. I found another person’s tree that matched very closely with mine with all the same names. I was about to connect the tree to mine when I looked at John’s father who was also named John. The person’s whose tree it was had the father John dying in the same town, but 110 years before the son John was born. So, I didn’t attach the tree. It took a lot of digging, but it ended up that the person was right, but they had skipped over 2 generations. There were actually 4 generations and all the first sons were named John Howard. Lesson : Watch the birth and death dates and don’t take them a face value.
I heard a story for years about an ancestor who died young from a parrot bite. When I discovered Find-A-Grave and traced my father’s relatives, there was an uncle of my great aunt whose record contained a newspaper obituary. John was bitten by his pet parrot and the infection took him out in days. He was only 39. But I also learned he was a much liked train engineer of the local narrow gauge railroad.
When I research my family tree I always have my calculator up. That way I can check to be sure the ages of the person I’m researching are correct. For example, I found a marriage record with one of my great + ancestors name but the date would have him married at age 8 if the record pertained to him. An obvious ignore. Also in Ancestry if I look at other trees I check the records they have first to see if they coincide with my records or if they are relevant to the ancestor I am wanting to attach it to.
Oh my goodness – this should be compulsory viewing for anyone considering online family tree research. You have verbalised everything that my fellow researching cousin and I lament about often when we come across so many mixed up trees that contain our ancestors with incorrect spouses, children, dates and places. Then it’s perpetuated by people that practice genealogy by copying everyone else’s trees verbatim, not adding or checking sources or adding all of the hints without checking them 😱 I am saving this to share with every fledgling family tree researcher I come across – thank you for your words of wisdom 🥰
In the late ’70s, My father lived in the Southern Part of Indiana. There he would go to graveyards, court house, churches and interview the older members still around. He took volumes of notes. During this time, I lived in Philadelphia. I would go to the local branch of the National Archives for 2 hours a week. I would scan through the microfilm of the U.S. Census. Looking at these films for Southern Indiana in 1850 to the latest one available. We were researching about 8 names, 4 on each side. If I saw one of those names in the census, I would create a Family Sheet for them. In a couple of years I had over 300 of them. When I ran across the same family in the next census, I would update the old sheet. Then they closed the Philly Branch. I purchased a software package. By the time I had entered all the family sheet data for those that I was sure were related, I still had over 100 that I couldn’t use yet. Since then, I pull out the Promising File every year and see if any more of them not fit into my tree. Maybe 4 each year get promoted. Dad passed on in 1983. I got all his notes. About half of them were not in the tree when I got them. About 75% of them are now. Last week, in reviewing Dad’s notes, I found 2 more families that had given me fits. His notes occupy 8 three ring binders an inch thick. I never through paper notes away. I find things every month that I can’t believe I missed the 10th time I looked at it.
I recently had to rebuild my family tree due to making some of these mistakes…great article! This time I started with newspaper obituaries thinking that these would be the best source for correct names and relationships. I supplemented the obituary names with middle initial/name from gravestone photos when available. Finally, I used maiden names for women. I liked the results in terms of a better foundation for further development.
I am just starting out on my journey, and as i was adopted at 6 weeks it is quite difficult as i do not know who my father was. I do know my mothers name and can trace quite a lot of her family, however your comment about not taking for granted things in other peoples trees is very relevant as they had me down as ‘deceased’ They had taken my first name and my mothers married surname, which are on my birth certificate, even though her husband wasn’t my father, put the two together and found a record for that person who had obviously died! I have always kept my adoptive surname and subsequent married surname, so there is no way anyone could trace me, and as you see i am very much alive and kicking!
Years ago a book of Gwinnett County Families was composed by the Gwinnett Historical Society. We thought this would be a great resource for others ( we, that is my wife and I, had already done a lot of research ). But quickly found numerous errors that we knew to be absolutely contrary to fact. One which we physically went to the Historical Society’s author was that it showed my grandfather’s 2nd wife as the mother of my mother, which was wrong. He did not even marry the 2nd wife till I was already 14. Of course, the book was already out and we could not fix that, but we wanted their records corrected, which they refused. So, I took my mother over there who was known personally by the author and it got corrected. But how many people out there are working off of that misinformation, as well as the errors that we don’t know about.
This article is a must for all researchers, I’ve been at this for twenty-five years and know you are so correct. I made early mistakes and communicated with others to get back on track. There are so many family trees I’ve found linking my family in error they obviously haven’t found you yet. The best part is successfully connecting with legitimate distant cousins and building together.
I like that you are telling family historians this out loud. The best place to start with family history is with you, your grandparents and so forth. I come from two very, very, large families in my area and a lot of family historians have done a lot of work for me. Yes they are very careful how they do it. They have taught me well
I’ve been doing Genealogical research for over 30 years and this is the most valuable article I’ve seen. Sooooo many people make the very mistakes that you are warning people not to make. I’m so happy to see that I am not the only one who sees this. When I go to the articles sponsored by the major websites, they NEVER acknowledge that people make mistakes and that other people just copy them and perpetuate the mistake. I agree about using other people’s Family Trees for reference but I would add that you should make sure you look and see what references they used. If their tree has no references, then it’s most likely that they got their info from someone else and it should be highly scrutinized. Now that my daughter told me about your social media sites, I have to catch up on all your posts. BTW, she saw one of your TikTok posts but when I went to your website, there wasn’t any mention of a TikTok account.
My Dad had told us when my siblings and I were kids that we had a Spanish ancestor who owned all of Florida at one time. After he died I found a family tree that our late grandmother had put together showing three generations of Spanish ancestors from Florida. I was excited to discover it so I could document the ancestor who once owned Florida. He died when I was 16 and it would be a few more years before I would have a chance to go to Florida and find out more. Meanwhile I searched in New England and from what I read about Florida history, no one person, save the king of Spain, could be said to own all of Florida at any time. So the “family history” that I was told, in the form of oral history proved to be false. But… About 20 years ago I found out that one of those Spaniards in my grandmother’s family tree actually did own and control a substantial portion of what was then the colony of La Florida. As it turns out, in 1763, Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain. The British controlled Florida for about 20 years ending in 1783 which included the entire period of the American Revolution. When Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain almost all the Spaniards fled, some to Spain, many to Cuba and others to other parts of New Spain. They left their homes, plantations and businesses behind. That’s a few thousand people. But two or three Spanish families stayed behind and promised to be loyal to the British. One of them were my Spanish ancestors and that one in particular was a very successful businessman who owned several plantations and businesses in and around St.
Thank you. I’ve been telling people this for years, but because I’m not “credentialed” as a professional genealogist, no one listens. The biggest compliment I’ve ever received was from someone who emailed mw with the statement “I can always trust what I find on your tree’. I don’t attach documents to my online trees because much of my research was found prior to the era of armchair genealogy and resulted in documents found in archives and courthouses that have not made it into cyberspace.
In doing research on my father’s side of the family, I inherited a copy of work done by one of his cousins. When I looked on-line, I found many family trees of my ancestors that repeated errors due to common first names. I’ve only found one site that was correct and consistently careful in verifying and documenting the information. I agree with you – other family trees can be good for clues, but should not be taken as necessarily correct.
Thank you sooooo much for making this article! You’ve addressed every concern I’ve had, ever since discovering so many errors in the family trees that my own relatives have constructed. Your excellent article makes me realize I am not alone! I never attach a record to my tree until I’ve cross-referenced several records of the person I am researching and am absolutely certain that the record is indeed relevant.
I have fallen into that trap of “this must be the right records” until I realized that they had a different parent listed in another record which made my tree confused about where I went wrong. I started my tree over then found the error. Now I wait until I find at least 3-4 other records proving that lineage before adding a new person to my tree. I question those people who have 100k+ people on their trees and have only been doing research for 2-3 years, I have been doing research for 40 years and only have 5505 people on my tree.
Ive just started again after many years. Ive found its so easy to get off track. Im going back now and getting documents step by step from newest to oldest generations. One thing I also find helpful is spotting family names you know go through the family especially when you have more than one choice and arent sure which one matches
I have a copy of a geneagogical record which my great aunt put together. She was able to speak to her older relations so her record of dates and names are pretty well accurate. She added little details when available such as this one died in a house fire or that one drowned. She admitted when she was unable to verify births, deaths, or names. I cherish the work that my great aunt did and the fact that she actually traveled to Gorsuch Mills MD from Illinois to verify family information
This is excellent practical common sense advice. When’s tarting out it’s so easy to get carried away in a buzz of excitement by all the hints and information that pops up. Too many folks do just accept everything at face value and end up creating “fantasy” trees rather than “Family” trees! If you’re not careful you may just end up spending hours days weeks and months trying to unravel the confusion. I compare this lack of basic fact checking as the equivalent of those folks who can be seen at historic archeological sites with metal detectors every weekend who dig up important artefacts and mess everything up. Too many folks in the future who undertake the task of researching their own roots may well have a serious tangled mess of data to deal with.
I have been lucky in my job to have developed a logical mindset, and it really helps with genealogy. I joined Ancestry in 2013 and fell into the same traps mentioned here. Now I enjoy the process, but at times, I do get frustrated and have to remind myself to slow down. Thank you so much for your advice. I found the advice about different records particularly helpful.
Love your article. Am going through exactly what your discussion has been about. No sources, sources incorrectly attached, reattachments of known incorrect genealogies by kids going off old but incorrect paper family sheets, etc. Also, people creating based on a desire to not be irrelevant as a family member. Too many opportunities for failure. Thx
Transcriptions all need verifying against the original when possible. I’m using FindMyPast to research here in England, and though I’m sure the transcribers all did their best, they don’t know who these people were or where they came from. They do appreciate submitting error reports for mistranscriptions too, so future researchers can find what they’re looking for. Caveat: they specify error reports are for mistranscriptions only, not for perceived factual errors in originals. That’s not their function.
I’ve been researching since I was 16. It never ceases to amaze how many people want to claim Native ancestry. “My great-great-so-in-so was a chief”, etc. I even was in touch with a cousin who insisted that our great grandmother had NA heritage. When I told her, no, I haven’t found any so far (and I’m about 5 or 6 greats back), she actually got mad at me and was never in contact again! She insisted “you could look at her and see it!” When I told my mom she said she’d never heard such a thing, lol. It’s not to say there isn’t but I haven’t found. Still I see people in queries & message boards stating the chief or princess in their tree.
I ran into the family story situation more than once. I am a firm believer in the grain of truth in family stories adage. A family story said my great great grandfather received a medal for shooting a confederate spy at the battle of Pea Ridge. His widow gave the medal to a state historical society. The state historical society didn’t have any such thing. Fortunately, I found him on the 1890 Veterans Schedule and obtained his unit. I looked at the unit information and he was never at Pea Ridge. He was at Hatchies Bridge. There was no individual medal but the whole unit received a commendation from their general for over running a confederate gun emplacement and capturing four guns.
In my experience it is good practice not to take anything for granted… even records. I find too many genealogists find a record and take it as gospel – when actually it may contain an error. Always try and find as much as can on any given person before starting to make your findings. Also experts can be wrong. But also don’t worry about making mistakes, none of us are perfect, so long as you correct them as you discover them – after all for most people this is a hobby, it is not a academic analysis.
Excellent suggestions, and all spot on. I particularly liked the point about going back later over your research and checking you got everything right. I researched my own family tree over 40 years ago. It was long before the advent of the internet and involved a lot of visits to libraries, churches and graveyards. Recently, I used the internet to check on my research. To my delight, I found that everything checked out – plus I added another two generations, taking me back to the year 1519. And even official records can be wrong, because people lie. Having a child out of wedlock was a sin that could get you excommunicated from church, so people often stated false birth dates for their children to cover up. One last thing – you mention the 1930 Chicago census. How quickly do you release those details in the US? Here in the UK, census details are not released for 100 years.
As a fairly experienced genealogist, I am delighted with the wise words of your article. Full of the most excellent advice, and beautifully delivered, too. You are so right about the need to return to early research to check it. We generally start our own trees with those closest to us and then move on. But when we start we are also inexperienced and it’s so easy to make mistakes at that stage, potentially rendering whole parts of the tree incorrect. You’ve got yourself a new subscriber from the UK 😉
Ive been doing research for about almost 10 years now and on my ancestry page Ive noticed that its really common amongst users from the states to just add random people to their tree which makes a mess. Comparing it to the swedish people who do research people actually seem to do the job of looking into things. Many americans who have “copied” my tree I realized they have no relations whatsoever to the people they are adding since its obvious to me being swedish things dont make sense. I dont know why this is a common thing in the US
Within my first week of startin with genealogy I probably did most mistakes you just mentioned. Attaching a whole line of family from another family tree.. taking things for value withouth checking… loads of mistakes. Took a while to clear things up and delete all the wrong relatives. I still have one mistake in my tree … I suspect I have a brother with the same name as the father in my tree but I need to do more research..not so easy – it ‘s somewhwere around 1633 in southern Germany.
Oh my gosh, I am making a lot of mistakes. I was a bit worried about attaching other family trees to mine but now I can see that I shouldn’t do that. I will watch more of your articles to learn more. I think I will start from scratch with my new database, Roots Magic, and see if I wind up the same place as my Ancestry tree. Thank you for your articles.
Your comments are spot on. It’s a shame that so few people actually search records, either to learn something new or to validate what they think is true. I’ve discovered, sadly, that people are a lot more gullible and lazy than I ever thought. Many people consider Ancestry trees or IGIs at Family Search a “record.” They even cite these! The majority don’t seem to care when mistakes are brought to light, or discrepancies noted. It never occurs to most people that families didn’t just pick up and move around, county-to-county, or state-to-state until well after WW II. If the last name is correct, it must be my family. Don’t get me started!!
Always check and double check your data. I went back in my family tree relatively easy and found a Helena. According to her death certificate and marriage certificate, she should be born in 1719. But I only found a Helena with the same family name, born in 1712. Maybe a small mistake in the archives… But that Helena from 1712 had a very interesting mother that would link me, possibly, to very old nobility. Eager to find out I started to research the mother and everything indicated her noble decent. Who isn’t looking for these branches in the tree? And the further back I went the interesting it became… Until I realized that I made an assumption that might not be true and would have to skip that complete branch. My hope that it had to be the same person almost made me accept the assumption for granted, and it worried me that it might not be true. So I went through the birth books of 1719 and page by page I went back in time. Until I found the Helena from my tree in 1719, so the two Helena’s were NOT the same person! The name of her father looked different and mothers name was not mentioned. I stared at the record in awe, the branch evaporated before my eyes… So I went through the death books from 1719 and page by page back in time, until I discovered that the ‘noble’ Helena had died at the age of six in 1718, so the chance of her being part of my tree was zero. But the name of the father looked similar to the father of Helena from 1719. Research taught me that after the death of their daughter, a new born daughter was given the same first name as her sister.
When I started on my father’s line, I kept going back and back and adding names and thinking it was all going to work out just fine, wow this is great and then I realized it just wasn’t working at all, I had to take it all down and start again, almost two months of wasted time and effort. Also, I really did have buy credits from ScotlandsPeople and really do the research the right way. I was so new to it all, live and learn. My lessons to learn were: to slow down, don’t rely on hints and other peoples trees, spend the money to find primary sources and read and re read any family papers. I started 5 years ago and three months ago I found a lovely memorial to one of my great grand uncles in the family paper archives, doh.
@ 2:15, totally agree, when doing my family tree, the number of other peoples family trees on-line (most seemed to be copy & paste of other trees), linked to a common ancestor in mine by the most flimsy of evidence, a coincidence of a couple of names the same and rough birth year…. Best or worst case was someone having ancestor “Elizabeth”, born to and living with parents X & Y in one census, then living with totally different parents and siblings in the next, based purely on a common name, birth year and place I cannot check their evidence, so I have mine to work with to cross check etc.
I just discovered old notes I made when my mother was in early dementia. I’d forgotten I put them on Ancestry and I just discovered the details of places and names of the house she was evacuated to in 1939 at the start of WW2. Hoping to find her and her carer in the 1939 English registry (similar to a census and used for rations and more), I looked without luck. I put the name of the house and address in a Google search and surprise, there was a photo of the old abandoned house, now part of a golf course! It was near a famous archeology site she waked past every school day where they were digging up an old ship and treasures, just as she told me.
For newbies, always try to view an image of the original record if possible. Sometimes there is additional information that can be extremely helpful going forward. Back when I started, it was mostly microfiche and microfilm, and although not indexed, a lot of images of original records. I still have a microfiche reader, LOL.
I’ve never seen this website before. It just came up in my suggestions. I have been hardcore researching my ancestry for just a few years. I’ve found as far back as 15 generations. I don’t attach a new person, until I’ve proven beyond doubt with records, the validity of ancestry. I figured it extremely early on, to start researching HOW to do research. I usually find that good geaneologists are deplorable at verbal communication. I’d like to thank you for your superior eloquence. I’ll be looking to see what other articles you’ve produced! Edit. Lol, I liked and subscribed just before you suggested it. 👍🥰
A good article to touch on the basics.Although I have learned most of these tips from my own experience it is good to be reminded. Especially going back and reviewing what you already have. My father has told me that my cousins wife has found we are related to William Wallace of Braveheart fame. Examining her info has shown me that she has taken so much for granted with records for John, James and William Wallace all very common names. Another legend in the family is that one ancestor became pregnant to one of the royals while she was a nurse maid in the royal household. Very unlikely. She was found to have a number of court cases for “telling lies” and was actually living in the slums of Brighton at the time.
The craziest thing I’ve come across in my research that reminded me of the importance of verifying that you’re dealing with the correct person, rather than someone with the same name, happened a few years ago. I had recently figured out the identities of my father’s birth parents, and was researching his ancestors. His grandfather and another man had the same name, same date of birth (14 Feb 1877), both were born in Poland/Austria-Hungary, and both emigrated to tiny Washington County, PA, outside of Pittsburgh. I was getting confused because of small inconsistencies, but eventually found an immigration record for the “other” one, whose wife had a different name, and also separate WWI draft registration cards, at different addresses in Washington County. The other one remained in western PA and died a few decades earlier than my great-grandfather, who moved to Philadelphia where my dad was born.
I often find that people often miss vital information in records. For example, obituaries often give marriage, divorce, and burial dates yet when you look at that person on someone’s tree it is missing yet they had the source listed. So I like to to look at sources myself. Once, by doing so, I found information on a totally different person that proved a family story.
Yes! I already do all those things you said to get things right! I find Ancestry is a place where there’s so many mistakes because I go look for the original records myself and different information. I am in Australia and there are several records on Ancestry for my aunty’s relative and all incorrect as I am the only person who found his convict record and it was under a different name because he changed it but it has he was resentenced under the new name on the record. Only reason I found it as he used his original surname as his middle name on his marriage certificate and I looked under that name instead and all his convictions and transportation records popped up and lead me to his baptism! All the family is running around with the wrong name! But a bit late now!
All great tips, we had an experience with a very common name of William Davis with totally different paths across the continent and boy was it a mess getting those two untangled. Making it worst was we kept getting other people getting them crossed up and trying to latch on to our real line after we got ours correct. For us the lesson was learned and working not 5o make that mistake again.
I was looking through Latter Day Saints records – and found my brother attached to one of my father’s first-cousins. All names and dates were correct! I knew all of the people personally very well!!! I contacted the person who listed the incorrect “info” . they couldn’t tell me where they got the wrong info, but I was able to convince them that I was correct and they deleted the wrong info.
I agree with everything you’ve said. One example: I have a 3x Great Grandfather who is my brick wall, he was born in 1791 according to his Census and death records Others have entered his birth and (parentage) 12 years earlier in 1779 (with no records to prove – just from other Ancestry users) I have a suspicion that he was base-born 20 miles away. I just have to work out how his mother was related to the family living in the area he lived and died in (but wasn’t born in). I’ve been researching my ancestry since 2009 and won’t ever add anything until I have at least two confirmed records as proof positive. An interesting find on my 3x Great Grandfathers parish death register is that there was an ‘alias’ which he also gave to his firstborn son. I have lots of detective work to do.
I’m definitely guilty of doing this and learned the hard way. Some possible family members have same first and last name and were born around similar times. I’m still trying to figure who is related and how. On my paternal grandmother side I didn’t have anything but finally found a break and starting point when I found out the exact city she was born in. I found the department she was born in numerised archives. Then looked through birth records for that year. Not only did I find her birth record I found her parents marriage record on same document as well because they got married the same year. I’ve since went back a few generations and using those archives. Found so much info since my breakthrough. I take my time and enter all info into different people my tree that it pertains too. I also take screenshots. That way when I put it on ancestry I can see it zoomed in too. It’s awesome to find things and I’m making sure it’s accurate. Makes me feel like a detective. I’ve lost a lot of sleep because I’m so much into researching.
When I started doing genealogy, my aunt offered to help. She had been working on it randomly but was recently retired and lived near a genealogy library. She had, also, been to some of the places our family lived and looked for records. Turns our she had collected a few non-family members along the way. But the one I can forgive her for is when she visited the county clerk and she told her a number of family tales that later turned out to be just tales. I mean, the county clerk should know, right? Even as a new researcher I knew you did not collect every person with the same surname. Especially one sentence in a history book that might refer to someone you were related to.
Amy, I have been working on my family genealogy for over 40 years and got stuck with my father’s side as I can trace my roots from Toronto back to Quebec or upper New York State. There was and still is a strong Irish community however trying to contact churches to find records is impossible as many of the churches burned and any records have turned to ash. When I work on my family tree, I look for at least three records that tie into the individual. As we go back there are fewer records, however, the database gets smaller and smaller because there were fewer people back in the 12th and 13th centuries. When I put my records together, I always put a disclaimer. “The information is based on information that I have found and if you wish to see any of the records, contact the author. Thanks for your article.
Sometimes mistakes on records can actually be helpful. My gt-grandfather’s death certificate said his mother was born in Lancaster, NY (outside of Buffalo) when I knew she was born in Ireland. It turned out that she lived in Lancaster after she came to America, and grew up there. I found out who her parents were because of that, as well as her marriage record. She moved to Buffalo after her marriage.
@ 2:36 – 3:36, AMEN~! I chased my Genealogy via paper documentation. Way Back. But then last year I joined MyHeritage and was amazed at the other so-called genealogical records and checked each one meticulously before accepting the name. What a surprise when I received a notice that there were 429 mistakes. My Great-grandfather was listed by another so-called genealogist as being the son of my Great-grandfather…. not as his father. So, be really really careful…especially on this site. The person you are checking against may be correct, but then the 12 generations below might be way off and totally wrong.
If I could respectfully add a couple points. Not only does Ancestry make it easy to add people to your tree, their commercials make it SOUND easy. One ad sticks in my mind. A woman said: “I didn’t know anything about my family history, but I followed the shaky leaves and in a week, I learned I was related to George Washington.” As to your John Johnson example. Even if they found a John Johnson born about the right time in the right country, that may not be the one you’re looking for. Case in point, my 2x GGF Griffith Williams in Schuylkill County, PA. Census records were conflicting. After much research I confirmed that there were two Griffith Williams, both born in Wales in about 1822. One died of a laudanum overdose in 1892, the other (my 2x GGF) died of miners lung in 1896. But as it turns out, I have DNA matches to BOTH. I suspect, but have yet to confirm, that their respective fathers were brothers who followed one of the old naming traditions.
My father was always told by his grandfather that they were related to Aaron Burr though he didn’t know exactly how. His cousin later down the rd did that part of the family history and claimed it wasn’t true. My father for the past 5yrs has been doing our family tree and did find indeed we are first cousins of Aaron burr through his uncle Peter burr.
I am working on the living family members, the problems I run into are so many. My mom passed in 2020, we need to go through the family photos. Unfortunately, not all of the photos are labeled. I have not found anything that proves some of the stories that my father told us. In fact, it seems like they are proven as just stories. I have much more to do. Hopefully I can correct the errors I have made. Once I hit the foreign born, all countries with languages I cannot speak or read, I will leave it for others. I am glad I found your website.
You mentioned Ireland specifically. The common pitfall there is that a large number of pre-1860s vital records were destroyed in a fire during the Irish Civil War. You can’t just take a name and a birth year and select the first baptism you find on Ancestry/etc. (as I’ve found a few people have done) – or the 2nd or 3rd baptism records etc. You have to consider carefully the possibility that the record is either; 1. not online, or 2. doesn’t exist in any form anymore – and an alternative approach is needed. E.g. my 3g-grandfather’s baptism likely burned in the 1922 Four Courts fire, but two of his siblings have surviving baptisms. He lists his place of birth and age on his military record. The parents are also listed in other records: land/deed records, court of Chancery indexes, newspaper clippings.
You also really need to learn sbout the local history for the time period of interest. For example, the place my gt’gt-gt grandfather settled became part of a new county in 1849. The township was divided up, too. So in the census it night seem like he lived in different places, but in reality he never moved.
Most of the “stories” I was told about my family were mostly true. I did waste a few years unable to find my G.Grandmother with a twin of the same age in any census record. She was definitely born a twin but it seems likely that her twin died and a younger child was given the same name. My Great Grandmother was very close to this sister and the family referred to them as “the twins”. I finally identified other branches of the family through a DNA connection.
Ok, so I should have perhaps listen to this first before thinking I was a genius, too fast then getting over excited with the information, followed closly by adding in the information from another familty tree, not looking at the information correctly. Had to start all over again, plus put the person right who I imported from when I found out the correct information. This is so worth the ten and a half minutes of listening. Advice go slow cross reference and check again.
I am going to a few communities soon to search records etc (in Tennessee) and thought : how could I help others that may not be able to travel to those areas and at the same time I am there doing my research, do the same for them? – of course for a small fee to help supplement my own research. How does one become a paid researcher? And look I would not be charging an arm and a leg, I have my own interest and if I am there in front of documents that could help others I would be glad to do so for an agreeable amount… research and history has always been fascinating to me… any comments appreciated – (my journey to research will be starting in Tennessee then go North including West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, (Doylestown to be exact) then to Cambridge Massachusetts – then hopefully to England – Wales, Scotland and end up in Ireland)
Or, as my father always said “never trust anybody, even me”. That is to say: Other researchers make mistakes. Always ruthlessly check other people’s work. I find it amazing how often basic and blatant errors are made. And if you have to rely on their work, say so. If you are guessing, say so. But what is on other trees can also be an absolute gold mine – you just have to do all the necessary panning for yourself. Secular and religious officials make mistakes. They are often interpreting what illiterate people are saying to them. In these circumstances, regional accents are a real barrier to the correct spelling of names, as the official has to go by what they hear: my family name – Moule – appears in many, many forms. Enumerators make mistakes. They fail to record things in the first place, or they record them incorrectly. They mis-transcribe their own notes, they mix things up, they omit things (my unfavourite is when they get as far as filling in child 2’s name but complete the line with child 3’s details & then move on to child 4, or they fill in all the children’s names then go back to the rest of the details, but miss out child 3’s details so child 3 gets child 4’s details, & so on). That is why I love the UK 1911 census the best – it uses the forms that the householder filled in, so removing this horribly error-prone middleman. All that’s left is the householder’s errors… Transcribers for websites make mistakes. All the time…They misread a record or they see what they want to see, and not what is there.
I found my father’s sister who he never heard of. I found a birth and death registration that had too much of a coincidence regarding names and locat I on so sent off for the actual birth certificate from the UK. I confirmed she was my grandparents 1st born and died at 2 months old. My father and his siblings had never heard of her. Maureen Anne is now remembered.
I started 2 days ago and i hunted down my grandma’s cousin who has spent a huge chunk of her life doing ancestry. So now i dont have to hunt down anyone further than my great grandparents on that one line. And it’s complete with photos. I know her, and I’ve seen the family photo book that goes with the family tree. And now i can finally understand the breakdown 🙈😅 And i also hunted down my husband’s dad’s brother’s account on family searched and linked to his so i don’t have to hunt down that info for my kids someday. My mom’s side of the family is going to be a real mystery. And my dad’s paternal side is already proving to be challenging. We are learning that some aunt’s were always referred to as nicknames. 😮💨
I’m halfway through your article and you’ve convinced me that it will be damn near impossible to accurately research my family history. It just sounds incredibly complicated and the likely results so unreliable that it just really doesn’t seem worth it. I would very much like to tackle this, but it just sounds like such a ridiculous process that I’m already throwing up my hands in disbelief. All of the significant members of my family are gone. I have a bunch of things like, for example, very old marriage licenses that I thought would be very helpful. But after listening to you it sounds like they would just lead me down many false paths and I would be VERY likely to end up with NO reliable answers. I really would love to try this but it sounds like it would just end up being more frustration than fascination. The older I get the more everything I was excited about doing now that I’m retired and have more free time ends up with someone telling me it won’t really work. I’m an artist, and have had many inquiries about purchasing prints of some of my work. I got excited about that possibility, but when I spoke to people already trying to do that it sounds like it also would be a waste of time. And my work that depicts some “celebrities” would apparently be illegal to sell, and getting permission to do so would be damn near impossible. So I’ve given up on that, and now after listening to you I can see that my interest in family history is just one more thing that would not really work out either.
Being of Norwegian descent, it is hard to sift through. So many in the same area have the same name. Until 1900, the last name is the father’s first name plus sen or datter plus there is the farm name. It is rare but there are also Last Names, which can be picked up and dropped. I was a part of a ‘list’ when I started this back in 1999 and for a few years and they helped me a lot for part of the family. It has been a tradition to record family stories in the area’s book. There are missing official records that my great great grandmother brought to Dakota Territory – and burned in front of them. Broken English wasn’t clearly understood by the youngest. Most of the stories I grew up hearing were wrong or hard to prove. I have to laugh! But in the 1930s, the CCC looked for people who were adults living in Dakota Territory and they interviewed them. I knew about those interviews and got a copy. That helped a lot in proving/disproving family stories. It has been fascinating!
Thank you so much for this article Amy! 🤗The tip about re-reading your notes is so important! I went through the index of a book I noted down once that led me to source documents at the UK National Archives here in London a year later! This knocked down a massive brick wall that helped me take two lines of my tree back to the 18th century in the Virgin Islands!!!
I only use other people’s online trees for clues. I had a pair of female cousins I could not locate what happened to. Eventually I stumbled upon a family tree that named their husbands. Using that I can find their marriages and their deaths. I hate how the whole time the website was trying to trick me to add the whole family to my family tree. I like hunting down the info myself and I had a past miserable experience where I didn’t make a tree private and not open for editing from outside sources. A person basically took over my tree and filled in everything she had and a lot had no bearing on my family line. I lost that whole tree. It sucked coming back to it and finding it so changed. She was adding records that didn’t make sense. I went to college for library science after working 3 years in a library and teaching note taking and source verification to high school classes and introductory college classes. I just about had a stroke when I tried to correct the tree and she agrued that she was right.
I make my own “tree”. Its actually essay type based on what i find. That way i can explain why an ancestor has 3 birthdays. Fist is a birth declaration. When baptisms happen, family will give another approximation of the birthday. Later when the person dies, a survivor may give a really bad approximation of the birthday. Family will also lie about family because they are embarrassed about real life. Also translators will misspell names. Or take a name assuming it is family. You must translate yourself. Make your own story. Example: my dad said he had two birthdays because he enlisted before he was 18 with a phony birthday. Truth: his father gave a wrong birthday when he was put into foster care. Mt dad was drafted and did something while in the Army to lose a rank. His other birthday was for SSN when his father again gave another date ( he just didn’t know because it was never recorded). Also, essays allow you to describe when multiple wives occur, how someone gassed away, where they were buried and how families migrated.
I was able to go back 400 years on a line. I started out with just the name of my maternal great grandmother. The thing that helped the most was the Tanguay Genealogical Dictionary of the Founding Families in Quebec. I live here and it seems my family never left, ha! Also, Catholics keep fantastic records.
I’ve only just started and I know it’s silly to concentrate only on my last name as it’s only one branch but I’m at an impasse only 5-6 generations back. My name comes from pre German unification Prussia and I can only go back to a male ancestor born in the 1830s. It’s so frustrating that I’m struggling there as I’d like to find where the name originated yet I can go back up to 9 generations in England to people born in the 17th century.
I have found so many times, people don’t look at their family pedigree skeptically. I have found so many examples of where people had sons/daughters listed born in say 1830s yet, had parents listed that were born in 1910? How does that even happen? Just looking at it people should know that isn’t possible. I think that covers two of your points, going too fast and not reviewing what you have already input. And you are so right about talking to family while they are still alive. Photos are INVALUABLE IMO. I wish I had photos of my grandparents, and great grandma who was still alive into my teens.
Your articles are incredibly helpful, and I cannot thank you enough. The difficulty I find is when a record is in Index form – particularly British Civil records. For example, Civil Marriage Records. I find that it’s extremely difficult to navigate beyond just the name of the person listed in the Index. There is no reference to the spouse or even family. Do you have any tips, or perhaps you may even have a article on the subject? It would be wonderful to know how to progress beyond just the one record. Thank you so much again! ~ Heather
I ran into this when I saw a record of my great grandmother on another tree. They had the wrong person. I figured it out once I did further erase arch. I found that the wrong woman had a different birthdate and death date and was buried somewhere else. I tried to help the other tree’s owner, but I never heard back. Oh well. At least I know I have the right one.
I have one for ya! My mother-in-law claimed her husband’s family was related to the first queen Elizabeth of England, and also Robin Hood. ( the Earl of Loxley) I have no idea if it’s true. But sadly I know of 4 generations including my husban and 13 year old grandson who were named Loxley. It’s a really tough name to grow into.
My grandmother was a walking encyclopedia. One thing we all remembered and laughed about was her reminder that she wasn’t 100% German– there was a young orphan girl from France a hundred years ago who was adopted and married into the family by the name of “Teatumble.” Alas, when I started doing my search I didn’t find any Teatumblers. But after a second look and an open mind, I came across a woman who was born in France by the name of “DeTemple.” My ancestors were from Saarland, Germany near the French border. Bingo.
My favorite example of what NOT to do is “pick one”. There were two Eliases in the county one born 1804 the other 1806 or so. One of them MUST be the direct line ancestor back to a RevWar veteran. So my dad’s cousin “picked one” for entry into DAR. So the “official” record now archived by DAR is 50% chance of being wrong. Sadly, there were probably multiple ways through various other relatives/lines that would have made a more accurate connection.
Funny you mention Brigham Young. I stumbled upon a discovery. One of my ancestors remarried late in life to Brigham’s younger brother John. I simply noted the husband as an in law and didn’t think much of it at the time. Only a long time later did it dawn on me that it was that John Young so Brigham is an in law although not a blood relation.
I had a situation in researching my Willis ancestors. I repeatedly came across trees showing one 16th century purported ancestor being married to a “Jane Henmarsh”. So, I accepted it. Years later I came across material researched by a gentleman who knew ehat he was doing. He lamented the continuing saga of the Willis-Henmarsh, and prvided documentation of the fact that the couple had died childless. I removed them from my tree. I left a note on my tree to others basically saying, “Be not deceived!” and providing documentation. As I came across the two in ither trees, I messaged the tree owner, mostly to no avail. The misinformation persists to this very day. sigh
I had to delete an entire branch of my father’s side because I couldn’t reconcile 1 person’s birth date and parentage. Then on my mother’s side, it brought me back pretty much to the same branch in a different way because both families lived in the same county in NJ for many generations. On Ancestry, you can link other’s trees, verify before you do. Most of the time the ones with the most citations are accurate but sometimes they aren’t, and like this article says you can get it wrong if you just blindly accept it.
One thing I can say about doing family tree research is that you shouldn’t be afraid to turn to dna testing. If you think you’ve exhausted your leads, as happened with me. DNA testing might help. In my case that was a Y DNA test. It is passed down from father to son, largely unchanged from one generation to the next (mutations do happen sometimes). I had hit that proverbial brick wall in my search, once I got to the Revolutionary War. Families began getting mixed together and birth and death dates not matching up. I made contact with one of my YDNA matches, who was kind enough to send me some documentation that tied my problem area in my tree to the next generation. Now I have a tree that goes all the way back to Europe, when we first came to the States. Now if we still didn’t have another mystery on our hands about our true origins, I’d be thrilled.
My mom’s family always had a rumor about her mother’s aunt being married to David Belasco’s brother and that that line was Jewish. Well, the brother did not exist. After many years I discovered it was partially true. She’d married a relative of David’s and yes, her married name was Belasco. She was actually quite a well known stage actress in London. And yes, we have a long lineage of Ashkenazi Jewery.
I tend for facility to do that copy/paste from others (we have a part of the family where other have been doing the genealogy). But for the part where nobody has record, i will go search directly in the records and look at year after year until i find the truth. My last find was for an ancestor whose mother was listed coming from a village with her age but i couldn’t find her. In the end the age was wrong (it was wrong for all her documents; always changing), the name was written differently (common occurrence). Another ancestor did change her first name and took the female part of the name of her deceased twin(who was a boy)/
My family mostly talked in hushed tones and whispers about our past. Mostly poor, no real famous people, or not much that was “interesting” like most people hope for. Come to find out…they were right. It’s still interesting and I’m enjoying this new hobby. I have the same last name as one of the most scientists of all time. He was an only child whose father died before he was born. He had no children. The LENGTHS people go to in order to attach themselves to this person are nauseating. Sometimes you’re just poor, normal, loving people who’ve sort of just moved along on the wave of time. Thanks for the article, great tips!!
The biggest mistake is most people asssume that they are related to someone famous, if both happen to share the same surname. My surname is Snell (not very common in my country, South Africa) and you would not believe how many people ask me if I am related to Richard Snell (a South African cricket player and he is no relation at all). My Uncle Rory has it worse, as he and Richard both share the same initial in telephone directories. Fans often call him and ask to speak to Richard. 😄
Hello, I started my research a long time ago with pauses. I started using the Gedcom software years ago, but now I am more comfortable with Gramps and/or Family Tree Builder, I registered in MyHeritage, Geneanet, and Familysearch, but… I am not sure which could be better for me, or if I need to triplicate the effort publishing my family tree on all those sites, and how to share it through my blog. Also, those software confuses me because even though they are similar, they have few differences, especially talking about Spanish and Latin American names (I am Mexican). But, again, another but, I am confused about which can be the best way to build my family tree: 1) just mine as an individual project and the rest of the genealogy making one project by family as a unit. Or 2) build a big family tree including all parenthoods in the same project. What could you suggest to me?, because right now I have a mess on paper and digitalized and uploaded. Please, help.