useful information
Genealogy Top Tips
Some hints before it's too late!
ALWAYS RECORD YOUR SOURCES - you may need to check back and however confident you are that you'll remember where you found something, (I bet you won't!) ALWAYS BACK UP your work frequently and to different places (in case something crashes or is lost). Never rely entirely on an online copy of your tree. Trying to recover hours, days, weeks, months, years, or decades of lost work is heartbreaking.
ALWAYS BACK UP your work frequently and to different places (in case something crashes or is lost). Never rely entirely on an online copy of your tree. Trying to recover hours, days, weeks, months, years, or decades of lost work is heartbreaking.
It's likely to be helpful to record SURNAMES in upper case to distinguish them from given names. "David Morley" is fine: even if it's recorded "Morley, David", you're unlikely to make a mistake as to which is which; but what about "David Francis" and "Francis, David" (which might lose its punctuation)? Bear in mind that some surnames are closely based on given names and, also, that some family surnames have been preserved by using them as given names.
Because DATES are recorded so many different ways, I have found "DD/MMM/YYYY" to be safest: some UK/USA dates can be mixed up: [a] is "1/4/89" the 1st April or January 4th? And [b] is that "/89" meant to be 1989, 1889, 1789, ... ? And don't forget that the British switched calendars in September 1752: 11 days were 'omitted' from the calendar - i.e. the day after 2 September 1752 was 14 September 1752. In addition, in 1752, the year ceased to start on Lady Day (the feast of the Annunciation, 25 March), and began on 1 January, so making 1751 into a short year, running only from 25 March to 31 December.
PICK the BRAINS of family and old family friends while you can... and then don't presume that everything they say is true, even if they believe it themselves – but allow that there may be truth within the info that you're given. If you can persuade them to give you permission to record them reminiscing, you'll also have captured their voice... which might matter, one day.
Treat OTHER PEOPLE'S RESEARCH as a USEFUL GUIDE to where you might look. Rely only on info that is properly backed up with as many sources as possible... and then still allow that it may have been based on a lie! Finding that you relied on something you thought you knew, only to find it's led to generations of a tree that isn't yours, is another heartbreaker! Lots of different online trees may not really be lots of separate sources if they've all copied from each other.
SUPPORT YOUR INFORMATION with as many original sources as possible: parish registers, BMD (birth, marriage, death) certificates, newspapers, service records, school records, trade (or phone) directories, employment records, electoral rolls, ... GRO certs can be bought online and is the cheapest sources
a). *Unless it's birth certs (1837-1918) or death certs (1837- 1957, & possibly 1984-date), for which you can purchase uncertified PDFs (you will have to wait a few days) or "digital copies" (which are available as soon as you pay).
b). GRO serves England & Wales, and ScotlandsPeople is the equivalent source (with added census and parish records) for Scotland. For Northern Ireland, you will need to look for GRONI. The site, Irish Genealogy, is free and carries records (such as they are) for Ireland.
WILLS might be the key to unlock a puzzle, with names and relationships for legatees. There's a government site for probate records (with specified date-ranges; earlier records are kept regionally). It gives free access to the Probate Calendar for England & Wales and offers PDFs for a nominal fee. https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk
A SUBSCRIPTION SITE, with images of relevant documents, might be cheaper than travelling to all the different record offices you need (check which site has which records). Local libraries sometimes have free access to those sites. The big sites sometimes have freebie spells, such as weekends (make sure you untick any auto-renew box! – unless you decide you want to retain your subscription
Remember that a TRANSCRIPTION IS ONLY AS GOOD AS the expertise (and prejudices) of THE TRANSCRIBER. It may be further contaminated by information being recorded mixed up or transposed between different people. Transcribers for websites are supposed to record what they see, not what they think it ought to be. That can also mean that what doesn't seem to appear on one site can be found via another site's transcriptions.
Remember that the INFORMATION on a certificate (or in a census) is ONLY AS RELIABLE AS THE PERSON SUPPLYING OR RECORDING IT: [a] Did they understand the question? [b] Did they really know the answer? [c] Was there any incentive (e.g. social pressure?) to give false information? [d] How much did people care about accuracy? (Was there actually an "accurate" answer???) [e] Did the questioner understand correctly the answer that they received? [f] Had they worded the question properly in the first place?
There are all sorts of reasons why a NAME MAY NOT BE recorded in THE WAY YOU EXPECT: [a] people write what they hear [b] people hear what they expect [c] people weren't always much worried about how names were spelt or [d] had prejudices about how a name should be spelt [e] people decided to use a different name or different version of their name (adding or taking away names, and switching them around, as well as opting for different spellings!). This is true, also, for ages.
Following a "SIDE" LINE MAY LEAD BACK to info on the direct line: [a] a sibling or cousin may be staying with the grandparents you hadn't found; [b] your family's in-laws/cousins may help to differentiate one similarly-named household from another [c] those names may appear as witnesses on marriage certs or as notifiers of births or (more likely) deaths.
NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES can be a fruitful source of information. BMD events were meat and drink to the local newspapers and you can find all kinds of interesting information. Your library membership may give some access to newspaper archives. Welsh Newspapers Online, for Wales, Trove, for Australia, and PapersPast for New Zealand, are free resources and their newspapers occasionally carried information relating to the UK, because of the history of emigration.
COMMON SENSE: does the arithmetic work for dates of birth / marriage / children's births / deaths?
JOIN RELEVANT FORUMS, societies & groups where you'll find willing helpers, and more tips about resources coming on stream, and special offers.
READ THE "ABOUT" SECTION before asking elsewhere. Most sites with databases also have "About" sections that explain the information you will find: where it's from; what any marks and alterations are about; who would have compiled it (and how); why your target might be difficult/impossible to find. It will save you the embarrassment of asking questions for which the answers are "under your nose".
Have you considered writing down YOUR OWN HISTORY? Your own account of growing up in a different era could be gold dust to a future researcher of your tree. In the same way, it's worth trying to make sure that your photos are labelled: future generations may have no idea who those familiar-to-you faces are. And, if you have something that's being handed down to future generations, it might be nice to have a potted history of that person to accompany it.