What Advice Would You Give to a New Researcher?

[Susan - s3js]

What do you wish you knew when you first started out? Or what piece of advice would you give yourself if you were new to family history/genealogy - family history is generally more geared to the hobbyist (who is encouraged to use genealogical standards and methods, but not required to do so), while genealogy is the more academic, scientific methods-based pursuit of data. Your journey into the past can, of course, be both - the best of all worlds!

My advice would be to do your history and geography lesson first. Find a county formation map series for the areas you research. Why? I started this journey in earnest in the early 1990s when my Aunt Pat shared my Grandpa's Bible with me. Some of the names were so beautiful and they belonged to people I had never met but peppered Daddy's and Aunt Pat's stories. I had always been interested and dabbled in family history, but now I was hooked.

I began hunting for Thomas Jefferson Wood, my great grandfather, in Nevada County, Arkansas (pronounced nuh-vay-duh, not neh-vaa-duh) where the Bible said he and more than half of Grandpa's 20 siblings were born. I searched for many long years. I could find him and wife Janie with their kids in the 1880 census on. They married in 1871 and all the names were right so I knew it was the right family. The Internet was new, so the inquiry boards were new and active but did not yet have lots of information, although they would explode upon the scene soon. I discovered the forums on Ancestry and Genealogy.com. Both were inexpensive then but growing. Then I discovered USGenWeb and it changed my research life.

I was exploring the ARGenWeb (Arkansas is AR) site and discovered the county formation chart there. I discovered my great grandfather was not born in Nevada but in Ouachita County. Nevada County was formed partially from Ouachita County in 1871. Thomas Jefferson Wood lived in the same place, the county lines and names simply changed around him. Once I knew that it took one afternoon at the Tulsa Public Library Genealogy Branch viewing microfilm to find who my 2X great grandparents were and have copies of the records naming Thomas's siblings. It was an amazing day, but I wasted so many years looking in the wrong records, growing ever more frustrated.

From this point on, I have always done the geography and some local history first. It has saved countless hours of research and frustration.

 

[tanteva]

Talk to those who still are alive & ask them about family stories. And take notes. Ask for photos & ask them about the people & places on the photos.

If possible, visit the places that you find in your research. It helps to understand what they went through.

And: double check everything! Its so easy to find other people's research online, but I can't count all the time I've found that the information is wrong.

 

[Susan - s3js]

Talk to those who still are alive & ask them about family stories. And take notes. Ask for photos & ask them about the people & places on the photos.

If possible, visit the places that you find in your research. It helps to understand what they went through.

And: double check everything! Its so easy to find other people's research online, but I can't count all the time I've found that the information is wrong.

Outstanding advice, Eva! It's a bitter pill to swallow if you've added all of someone else's research to your olny to have to remove it! It's easier on paper, but not by much, than in a computer program. Keep them separate until you've followed Eva's wise advice and checked them yourself!

 

[Lynn Grieveson]

If you are OK with the idea and can afford it, try DNA esp Ancestry DNA (wait for sales).

My actual family tree is VERY VERY different from my 'paper' family tree. It is fascinating.

Prepare for shocks though (eg I had to tell my mother and aunt that their grandfather wasn't actually their grandfather ... fortunately I was able to identify their actual 'bio' family and they weren't upset, just interested).

And my DH had a whole heap of Maori cousins he knew nothing about.

 

[tanteva]

I made a test at FTDNA. Also convinced my uncle to do it (my father had passed already). Thanks to this, we managed to figure out who my grandfather's father was.

 

[LSlycord]

Such excellent advice. I think that I would tell people that the world changes...sometimes lines go dry...but that doesn't mean that they will stay that way. The changes that have been made through the internet instead of the microfilm and search engines make everything go so much faster. Certainly, a strong yes, to Eva's advice to ask questions of all of the family that you have living. On my mom's maternal side, I feel like I knew all of those people intimately. Of course I did...Mom and Grandma and I spent every Sunday afternoon together and I would frequently pull out the pictures. Then, Mom and I spent lots of time together in my adult years...and again, I was always grabbing photos. Occasionally, I run into something that I don't know and wish I could ask, but not often.

But my biggest piece of advice...document what you know. Someone may want that info someday. I'm working on that now!

 

[Susan - s3js]

If you are OK with the idea and can afford it, try DNA esp Ancestry DNA (wait for sales).

My actual family tree is VERY VERY different from my 'paper' family tree. It is fascinating.

Prepare for shocks though (eg I had to tell my mother and aunt that their grandfather wasn't actually their grandfather ... fortunately I was able to identify their actual 'bio' family and they weren't upset, just interested).

And my DH had a whole heap of Maori cousins he knew nothing about.

Wow! How interesting is that? I would imagine tracing Maori lineage has some of the same hurdles as tracing Native American heritage, yes? Those surprises are fun but sometimes you really don't want to tell the truth, huh? Still, it's the black sheep that sometimes lead you to a treasure trove! Great advice, Lynn.

 

[Susan - s3js]

I made a test at FTDNA. Also convinced my uncle to do it (my father had passed already). Thanks to this, we managed to figure out who my grandfather's father was.

Science can be so wonderful! That's wonderful, Eva!

 

[Susan - s3js]

Such excellent advice. I think that I would tell people that the world changes...sometimes lines go dry...but that doesn't mean that they will stay that way. The changes that have been made through the internet instead of the microfilm and search engines make everything go so much faster. Certainly, a strong yes, to Eva's advice to ask questions of all of the family that you have living. On my mom's maternal side, I feel like I knew all of those people intimately. Of course I did...Mom and Grandma and I spent every Sunday afternoon together and I would frequently pull out the pictures. Then, Mom and I spent lots of time together in my adult years...and again, I was always grabbing photos. Occasionally, I run into something that I don't know and wish I could ask, but not often.

But my biggest piece of advice...document what you know. Someone may want that info someday. I'm working on that now!

Amen, preach that, Sister! The rule of thumb in genealogy is DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT. Like history, genealogy without documentation is mythology. Make sure you have a source citation for each item, you'll be very glad you did!