Avoiding common Rookie mistakes.
Perhaps if I tell you a few of mine, it will save you from repeating the blunder of the past...
By Karen S Meyer
Live information relies on accurate memories. It still has be to substantiated by data.
I was frustrated. I was 27 when I first started doing Family History. I interviewed my Grandmothers and took notes. My grandmothers had both given me some sketchy information, but it wasn't backed up by any data at all. I was young and didn't think I needed any of that because I had their word. They were alive and actually giving me information. Wasn't that better than all that paper work? Um....nope. They were also in their 60s and had already started forgetting more than they could remember. Some of the data I later found matched their stories, other data did NOT match their stories. Women did not used to share recipes, tell jokes or reveal their true age. So that was a problem. Especially when she told her third husband she was five years younger. Like no one would ever find out....;)
Brick wall because of mis-spelling
I had reached a brick wall in 1981 on my mother's line. Right at her Grandfather, my Great Grandfather, everything stopped. I couldn't find them in any census. I was tired of driving for an hour (some people drove a lot further!), getting to the L A Temple Library only to find out that they didn't have my roll of microfiche from Salt Lake yet. It would be another 3 weeks. When I did finally get it, it was the wrong William Collins. Finally, I found them in 2012. (A computer at your finger tips is so much more gratifying that long drives and empty hands). Here is what happened.
Look how many times it was misspelled. I was never taught about Sound ex. When you click that button, it looks for misspellings and alternate spellings.
BROAD VERSUS EXACT - Slide the button below in Ancestry.
So to cure a dead end - broaden your horizon and see if you can find them by addressing some incorrect indexing or spelling errors. Census takers didn't start reading back the names they wrote down until 1890, so anytime before that, they just wrote what they heard. The way I found it was by saying it with a Texas drawl. Seriously, it comes out Callins......not Collins.
Bingo - I was right!
EXACT? NO - GIVE IT PLUS OR MINUS 2-5 YEARS
Also do not click the box above that says exact. Sometimes either because they were not of age when they married, or were drafted, they did not tell the truth about their ages, so clicking exact will limit your results and you may miss something.
If you are stuck, find the common denominator of Genealogy. What is the one fact that you are sure of. The town might be wrong, the county might be wrong. If you are 100% certain of the state, just put that. If you are not certain of the state, put United States. Thank Heavens, the WR Callins (Collins) 1900 Census even though it was indexed incorrectly happened to put them exactly where a family story was. The worst storm in the history of the United States where we lost over 10,000 people in Galveston, Texas in 1900. They were living on that island. To get to know their plight better, I studied what they endured. My heart goes out to them and someday, when I meet my Grandfather and Great Grandfather, I'll be able to show empathy for their suffering.
LYMAN HAWLEY FITCH - Thanksgiving
I hit a dead end in my first husband's line. Going through his mother's pictures, I saw the words, died 1923 on Thanksgiving. However, the date she had for Thanksgiving was November 22, 1923 and there were no records which correlated with that anywhere. I said a prayer and was immediately was impressed to locate a calendar and find out if that was the actual date for Thanksgiving.
I found a wonderful article on a fellow genealogist's site - I hope you read it. The Olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.com has great ideas and articles. You should follow them! They have refreshing outlooks which help to ease the burden of learning a new craft.
I hope these hints have helped you. We would love it if you try some of our research tools that have made life easier for us!
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