Research Advice

Discovering A Skeleton in the Cupboard

When researching a family tree it is always possible that you will find a few surprises some enlightening but some finds can come as a bit of a shock. We will handle all the information about your ancestors sensitively and confidentially and in particular where there maybe living relatives affected by the finds.

Most Common finds: Criminal in the family, illegitimate child, bigamous marriages, army deserters.

Relying on online data

Whilst the Internet has been an extraordinary aid to genealogical research and has come on in leaps and bounds in the last few years this however is one of its joys and dangers for the researcher. It has the potential to be a source of huge errors and because of its worldwide reach, even just a little bit of incorrect information posted on an accessible website can quickly infect a number of research projects. While plenty of quality Internet sources exist for the genealogical researcher, it is always best to approach any source especially other people’s family trees with a big dose of scepticism. Remember, just because the information is found on the Internet does not make it accurate. There is no proof like source documentation.

Failing to record information

Regardless of the nature of the information you discover, always enter it onto a standard genealogical log this can either be a research diary or an application like family tree maker. The purpose of this is to keep you organized. Many beginners write down information on napkins, scraps of paper, or the backs of envelopes, and then fail to transfer the information to its proper place. Good records also provide something for others to work with after you have passed your research on to them.

Ignoring the siblings of the ancestors you are researching

Do not become too reliant on the direct line and overlook the collateral lines. Researching siblings can provide valuable clues. For example when researching a census, you might find the parents of an ancestor living with one of their other children. Not only will this provide you with the names of the parents, it also places the parents in a location that can then lead to additional information.
Researching sibling lines may also lead to a previously unknown relative who is also doing research on the family. These distant cousins can sometimes provide the big break you've been hoping for.

Ignoring the maiden names of female ancestors

Always record a female’s maiden or birth name in your research not their married names. Even if you are not including female lines (maternal) in your project, you should still record the maiden names. This might provide a valuable clue for future research since some families use the mother’s maiden name as a middle name or even hyphen the surname for the oldest male child. This information could help identify the correct male ancestor when there are two or more possible people found in the records  in the same place and time.

Assuming you are related to a famous person who shares the same surname

It is very tempting for some people with a family name like Churchill or Wellington to assume they must be related to this famous person after all they have the same name. Then, based upon this assumption they start researching from that person, trying to work from the famous person to themselves. This is a very bad approach to researching your family tree. Remember to start with yourself, work backward in time, prove the connection between each generation, and record where the information was found and get the documentation. Then, if you prove the connection to that famous person, you'll really have something to brag about. Do not forget that you owe it to yourself and future generations to leave as an accurate account of your family line as possible.

Skipping a generation

It is very common in many families for three or more generations of male ancestors to have the same name. A situation like this can lead the inexperienced researcher to list a male as the father when he is really the grandfather. In such cases it is very easy to skip a generation. To avoid making this mistake, be careful to record as many dates as accurately as possible and research carefully the facts that are uncovered, such as dates, place names and occupations.

My family name is only spelled one way

We all often have the notion that our names have always been spelled a particular way through the generations. In our own research we have seen the Manly name spelled several different ways: Manley, Mainly or Manlye and even Manlie. If we are searching alphabetically through an index seeking this family name, we have learned to check each of these variations since information can be listed where we least expect it. One of the best exercises for anybody doing family research is to spell the name being researched as many different ways as possible (phonetically). While searching all the variations of a family name will add extra time to research, the results will often pays dividends.

Assumptions based on insufficient evidence

Genealogy is all about proof. Some researchers just assume a link and produce an ancestry tree and hey presto the obligatory family shield!  We do not do this at Find Your Lineage. Research is approached correctly we start with you and work backward, one generation at a time. The key to success is to prove absolutely the link between each generation. Like any good investigator, you must gather all the evidence, scrutinise the evidence in context, and reach a conclusion based upon the corroborating evidence. Reaching a result based upon incomplete evidence will put at risk the correct outcome.  We at Find Your Lineage remember, that no conclusion should be reached until proof is found to substantiate the theory.

Researching the wrong family

Here, the researcher just accepts without documentation the incorrect assumption of a relationship between two people and continues to research from there. We have seen examples where as many as eight or nine generations of research have been done and done very well however it was all done on the wrong family line. What a shame that a considerable amount of time and energy was spent researching someone else’s family tree. We do not advise anybody to  proceed to the next generation of research unless proof of a link between generations has been found.