It’s 9 p.m., the children are in bed, it is quiet and you sit down at your computer. Instead of web surfing you go to your Family Tree on Family Search. Through the work of diligent relatives, your family tree fan chart may resemble a healthy Thanksgiving turkey. It is a satisfying feeling, but you know there must be more. Although a novice, you’re willing to help the cause. But where do you begin?
“You don’t start your work at the end of your line,” said Karen Clifford, a professional genealogist and lecturer in her Tuesday morning workshop at the BYU Family History and Genealogy Conference. “That is a common impulse among novices. An experienced genealogist does an inspection first.”
If you didn’t do the work to create that tree on Family Search or any of the other major genealogy search engines, don’t assume it is correct - in fact your work may have errors!
“Users in every field of study are cautioned about erroneous internet information, but in the field of family history, how do beginners sort fact from fiction? Clifford says. She suggests that an inspection should be the first order of business. Earlier researchers, however skilled and diligent may have made mistakes. Newer evidence may confirm or disprove entries, but you won’t know until you check for accuracy. As Clifford’s workshop title says, “If It Isn’t Accurate How Can You Judge It?”
You will likely find a lot of truth in that online pedigree information and if you are fortunate, your relatives will have provided reliable sources to back their claims. Unfortunately, too often, the information on these trees does not include sources. Nevertheless, at the very least, the trees you find will provide you with a set of clues to follow.
Sorting this out sounds time consuming but it can be handled a bit at a time. Current genealogy search engines like FamilySearch, Ancestry.com and MyHeritage make the process easier by scanning and noting potential errors and potential sources that may guide you to correct answers for the obvious errors.
Clifford says that in checking for accuracy, slow down, take a moment and consider the following:
- Beware of information without a source attached.
- Check dates and locations for consistency - a task that isn’t as hard as it sounds. Some errors are obvious. For example, if a child is born a year after the mother’s death, an error is obvious. Perhaps it is as simple as a typographical error - a switched number, (1943 instead of 1934). Finding a death record, birth certificate, or similar source will help clear up the problem.
- Any date that starts with about, between, before, etc. s a clue that the researcher did not have hard evidence of the actual date.
- A date or place surrounded by a less than or greater than sign < or > is a clue that the location is hypothesized and hasn’t been not verified.
- A date or place left blank indicates that a source cited did not provide information.
Clifford further offered suggestions for looking up and keeping track of information as you ferret out the errors. Other workshops at the conference will help you find and get to know your ancestors.
Read More from the 2015 BYU Genealogy Conference
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