This blog post is going to discuss ten common mistakes in genealogy. Many budding genealogists make these common mistakes and learn from trial and error. Hopefully this list will assist in your search and help you have a smooth start. Lets start:
1. Maiden/Married Name Placement
This one is a big one. One of the biggest mistakes I see when searching through Family Tree on sites like Ancestry and MyHeritage is placing a married last name where the maiden name should be placed for women. Always place the maiden name in the last name section when building your tree or leave it blank if unknown. There are several reasons for this. When sites like ancestry populate potential documents they will base the information off what you have put in the ancestors profile. If you have Mary Smith listed as Mary Johnson (under her married name) you will get hints for Mary Johnson's and most likely will not be able to find her family line or make it harder to find. Leaving the last name blank will populate any documents that match a Mary who's married name is Johnson giving you census records, vital records, wills etc with potential maiden names. From there you can triangulate location and dates to narrow down the potential relationship.
2. Assuming One Date is Correct
This is another big one. Dates can be tricky with genealogy especially when you go further back passed the 1920's. Birth Certificates weren't always required by law. In fact they only started becoming common in the 1920's with people applying for Delayed Birth Certificates in 1936 when Social Security Numbers began to be issued. Before this practice birth dates were recorded by some counties, doctors, churches, family bibles, and sometimes recorded in census records. Death Certificates and Census records could be off by a couple years (not uncommon) as Death Certificates are given by a secondary party to the person who passed so if they (wife, child etc) didn't actually have a date available they may have given a date to fit their age. Also census records have a tendency to be incorrect to Vital Records because these records are recorded by people that went door to door. It's human to hear a name or date wrong and list it in error. So keep an open mind, triangulate people, dates, locations, and widdle it down from there.
3. Assuming One Way of Name Spelling
This one goes along with number two. Names were spelled phonetically by enumerators and other's who wrote out records. You can have very different variations on name spelling (first and last), you also have the common case of people going by their middle names in census records. So if you have an ancestor named Katherine Mary Brown don't discount name variations like Catherine Browne, or Mary Brown if other relations and dates correlate. The other reason is for name change purposes. There are a lot of immigrants that change their last names to more Americanized surnames. Some records could be under their original surname and other's like their death certificates under their changed name.
(Below is an example of a mistaken name. The family last name is Lorbiecki but the enumerator spelled it Lubetzky)
4. Jumping to Conclusions
This ties in with 2 and 3 jumping to conclusions is the quickest way to hit brick walls in your search. Coming to the conclusion that there is only one variation of spelling or only a specific date that fits excludes so many potential clues and answers to your search. Keep an open mind and always ask questions and try to find more. There are going to be cases where you hit the end of a paper trail but there will be many more where you learn you are just looking in the wrong place, wrong time, or under the wrong person.
5. Becoming Deterred by Brick Walls
Becoming deterred by brick walls. It's going to happen. You are going to research the heck out of someone and that's it you will hit a big brick wall you can't pass. Don't give up. Take a step back and work on another branch and come back to it. There are several reasons why a person could become a brick wall, variations in how name is spelt, migration, records not being uploaded yet etc. One way to help break your brick wall is contacting local Historical Societies where they lived for information. Don't give up on those who give you headaches.
6. Relying on Others Trees as a Source
With today's Genealogy websites there is a huge selection of personally built family trees to look through and while these are great tools to find information a big mistake new genealogists make is assuming they are correct adding people to their trees and not confirming the sources are accurate. You maybe adding information to your tree by not confirming the information is true that will lead you in the wrong direction. Always look at the sources first it will save you having to delete complete branches and hours of work.
7. Not Citing Sources or Attaching Documents
This goes along with number six. Always cite your sources its really easy when you attach information to your profiles. The information box will ask for a citation and I always recommend filling it in. Also if you have a personal document upload it to the profile it belongs too. This will help you when you come back to work on that specific person or branch. It also helps keep others working on their trees information correct. To cite information include the name of the source, date it was created, who it was created by and the page (if a book, journal, or article) the information was found on, if a website include the link.
8. Ruling Out Oral History
Oral history is important, stories and names of people long passed are passed down through oral history, and while variations to the stories can change over time they can give you clues and a base of information to work from. Native American heritage is mainly based around oral history, their stories and history passed down generation.
9. Using Dates that Don't Make Sense
This one is self evident but I see it all of the time in self made trees. People are added to trees because they populate with a similar name however they are only 9 years old when they give birth to their first child or they are dead 20 years before their supposed child is born. Sometimes this is just a mistake in Data Entry but thats why its so important to check dates. A variation of 5 years is forgivable and it happens all of the time a 10+ year gap needs to be researched further.
10. Using App's like We're Related as a Source
This is a big one also. These are fun apps no doubt and they sometimes have validity but with anything else do your due diligence to confirm the validity of the tree. Apps like We're Related use other trees which can have and most likely do have mistakes in them. Always fact check and check citations and documents to make sure they are accurate before adding to your tree.
I hope these helpful hints further you on your ancestral journey. If you have ideas for future blogs some other tips and tricks share in the comments below and don't forget to subscribe to my blog.