Start Your Genealogy Research Right - Avoid These Common Mistakes!

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

Looking for free genealogy sources? Check out these 7 you might be missing! kzbin.info/www/bejne/jYKZdn-qos2hr7M

[@peglegpete6656]

I am 82 years old and my memory has gotten so good I remember things that never happened.

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

That's a good one! I'll have to remember that... if I can!

[@stephfoxwell4620]

Like the BBC.

[@gutsbiker]

I've been working on my family genealogy for 2 years, the big mistake I made in the beginning was that I didn't save records that I found that proved relationships. I was in too big of a hurry to build my tree, and now some records that I know exist, I can't find again. So now I save everything I think may be of value to my research.

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

I've heard this lament more than once! It's like of like when we tell ourselves we don't need to write down our grocery list; "I'll remember what I need to get." Not so much 😀

[@lazygardens]

My mom also saved records that disproved relationships to block off the misleading paths. If John's wife was named Susannah, here are all the ones that could NOT be his wife and why: too young, already married, dead before marriage date, not in the area at marriage date. We're still looking for Susannah, but we know about 20 Susannahs that are not her.

[@rachelosiria7865]

That's happened to me a few times I don't know how I got access to in the first place because apparently they were on sites you're supposed to pay for 🤷🏻‍♀️ somehow I got to access to the complete myheritage yearbook records and I don't know how and I went back to look at them and my access was gone

[@gutsbiker]

@@lazygardens Some people say my G grandfather was adopted. But I've taken the Y - DNA test which proves my paternal heritage all the way to my 4th great paternal grandfather.

[@lazygardens]

@@gutsbiker He may have been adopted by his paternal relatives.

[@dm607]

Couldn't have explained it better Amy. Genealogy for me is researching, verifying, playing detective, getting my hands on copies of original documents and ignoring 90% of online trees. At any given time I could have 9 websites open. My mum always said we had French ancestors, but research and DNA says otherwise!

[@CenterPorchNP]

I found many things that we were told was wrong. I also found family I didn't know I had due to prejudice 4 or 5 generations ago that caused to ancestors to be written out of the family . Imagine the surprise when someone pops up and asks why your ancestor is in their genealogy.

[@geebrewer8186]

I am always happy that with Ancestry, I can have two windows open at a time, one to have the facts page, and one to have on and be working the hints. I can then go back to the facts and verify the hints, or, go into google and search for other genealogy websites that might verify, or have extra info to include. Nothing spells trouble more than having an ancestor who lived his/her entire life in Massachusetts but one "hint" puts them in Kansas. WHAT? Check that out lol

[@dianefarrell2343]

So is DNA accurate??

[@dm607]

@@dianefarrell2343 I think it is Diane. It confirms all my research.

[@nunyabiznez6381]

My Mom was Irish Catholic. Her grandparents came to New England from Ireland ca 1900-1905. One set of clues that she left behind that I didn't know existed until she died were a shoebox filled with old mass cards. Every relative that ever died on her side of the family had a mass card and there were around 60 of them. I used information from those that often included obituaries to piece together two additional generations of Irish Ancestors. It turned out that one line consisted of successive generations of immigrants who came to New England to live with a married blood related aunt. That's four generations of aunts who helped the next generation immigrate here documenting our families slow migration throughout the potato famine and up to the early 20th century ending with my great grandfather arriving on the maiden voyage of the Carpathia. So that turned out to be four generations where my ancestors back in Ireland were mentioned in aunt's marriage and death records here in the U.S. Mind you I'm not actually descended from any of these aunts directly. Each one was a sister of someone who stayed behind in Ireland and raised a family there that produced a child who would immigrate here. It still goes on today. My second cousin just sponsored her niece who just immigrated here from Galway a couple of years ago and I am in contact with her Mom now who as it turns out lives in the family home that our Irish ancestors lived in during the pre potato famine period and she helped put me in touch with a relative who helped me trace that Irish line back to about 1730. All because Mom kept a shoebox filled with mass cards that she didn't think had any genealogical value and thus never bothered to tell me about. She whose profession was writing obituaries for a newspaper didn't think obituaries would help me with my search. So one never knows what kinds of records can help in a search. I certainly had no idea mass cards could be so useful

[@ununuh]

I was finding people erroneously attaching people from my tree to theirs without researching that they were truly their relatives. So I put a bogus person in my tree with a ridiculous name and a note saying they were not a real person, this was only a placeholder. After I time I thought the better of doing this and removed the person. But it turned out to be helpful because since then I have come across trees with that name which indicates that the owner of that tree used my information without doing any research.

[@LMLewis]

One thing I learned in working with government records at a government agency, is that it matters HOW the information in records were collected. Knowing that tells you how accurate the information is, and who might not be represented.

[@ytcarol]

I heard a story for years about an ancestor who died young from a parrot bite. When I discovered Find-A-Grave and traced my father's relatives, there was an uncle of my great aunt whose record contained a newspaper obituary. John was bitten by his pet parrot and the infection took him out in days. He was only 39. But I also learned he was a much liked train engineer of the local narrow gauge railroad.

[@stuartm6069]

I found this extremely helpful and should be required viewing for anyone using a genealogy site. I very fortunately had very good family records going back 5 generations on both my mother's and father's side of the family. A few years ago, I decide to go on one of the sites to see how much further I could go back. I was researching a John Howard that was born in Massachusetts in 1780. I found another person's tree that matched very closely with mine with all the same names. I was about to connect the tree to mine when I looked at John's father who was also named John. The person's whose tree it was had the father John dying in the same town, but 110 years before the son John was born. So, I didn't attach the tree. It took a lot of digging, but it ended up that the person was right, but they had skipped over 2 generations. There were actually 4 generations and all the first sons were named John Howard. Lesson : Watch the birth and death dates and don't take them a face value.

[@MaryAnn-r1g]

I was researching part of my family one time and they had many sons might have even been 12 and they were all named John the middle name is what made them different

[@johndoylemc]

I started my family search in 1967 - b.I. (before internet.) I was self-taught. In the beginning, I did not know to record locations of records, something that came back to haunt me later. I told a cousin what I had found, and he said I had everything wrong. (several years later he told me the very same info, which I told him I had already given him said info!) NOW: i try to document EVERYTHING and record source!

[@JT1358]

My partner's grandmother was Hannah, but always called Nance by her brothers. We have documentary evidence of this, but another family descendant has listed this nickname as being another sibling (who didn't exist) and so many trees have blindly copied this wrong info. Very frustrating! I try to make a point of NEVER adding anything or anyone new unless I can be absolutely sure and back it up. Also, going back and looking at certificates etc for the umpteenth time almost always reveals something new!

[@rmdodsonbills]

My first tree was very much a product of me taking everything as gospel and wow, it was interesting but it wasn't long before I realized I had a ton of connections that didn't make any sense and other mistakes. On my next attempt I did all kinds of things differently, and one of those was NOT adding stuff to my tree until I was really sure about it, or at least marking it as conjectural until I had some better evidence to back it up. One branch of my wife's tree has a child raised by her grandparents and not good records of which son was her father. I have my best guess in as a placeholder, but I made sure anyone else looking at that record gets a grain of salt to take with it!

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

It's *so* important to review things you already have! Truly amazing what you can find when you look at a document with a fresh set of eyes and/or new info to compare it to.

[@leecox6241]

In England Nancy was a common nickname brothers called their sisters,

[@anneahlert2997]

I had something similar to that. One of my Mom's brothers-in-law was nicknamed "Unca Boo" (because a little girl couldn't say "Uncle Bill" years before). I knew him for many years. After he passed on, I posted it to my tree. Someone (much younger than I am) copied my tree and changed the nickname to another person in the tree, whom I know has NEVER been called that. I messaged them, but I don't think they ever corrected it. Goodness known how many are wrong.

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

An obituary of a relative of mine had her father confused with her uncle. Such as same first name, but different middle name. Or the brothers had reversed first and middle names of each other.

[@annew8365]

Excellent tips. Thanks Amy. I’m currently going back to double check my evidence for the people I put on my tree (siblings of 1x and 2x great-grandparents). My favourite way to research is to search the internet on my iPad and take screen shots of what I find. Then I download them to my laptop and sort them in folders. I can print the images off if I want. I’m still an old fashioned paper girl with binders full of family letters, cards, obituaries, wedding invitations, birth announcements, newspaper clippings, etc.

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

Sounds like a good system!

[@squirehobbs6754]

This video is a must for all researchers, I've been at this for twenty-five years and know you are so correct. I made early mistakes and communicated with others to get back on track. There are so many family trees I've found linking my family in error they obviously haven't found you yet. The best part is successfully connecting with legitimate distant cousins and building together.

[@Firearcher4]

Even original records have mistakes in them and some are often hard to spot. Spelling mistakes are common but sometimes the wrong parent's name is placed on a birth record in a church register. Census records are filled with errors too. I have about 50 years of genealogical research.

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

Yes! Just because it's written doesn't mean it's correct. Evaluation is key.

[@elainemilligan9086]

If you look at my husband's birth certificate you would think that his dad was born in a different year. It has him the wrong age. His birthday is one day from his sons.

[@Firearcher4]

@Olivia K It is one aspect of it yes. You can have 2 churches side by side, one with a German speaking pastor and the other English. William McLean in the English will be Wilhelm McLean in the German, or Friedrich Schmidt a German man, suddenly becomes Frederick Smith in the English. If you find , and I have on occasion, a minister who makes the distinction between the cultures you have a person dedicated to accuracy. Finding out who the informant was on a death certificate is a factor as a child should be more accurate when giving info on a parent than a total stranger. Having said that, a number of children report incorrect facts on a death certificate about their parent.

[@janrogers8352]

Back in the day when many people were illiterate they wouldn't have been able to correct spellings. Add to that the fact that the person speaking could have a strong accent compared to the one recording the information, so if they misheard the name, they would write what they thought was being said and errors also creep in when the names aren't commonly used ones for that area.

[@sycamore1955]

Ages at death are often wrong because the person registering the death has only an approximation of their birth year. My cousin told me my father was a certain age, but it was wrong and I know as I have a copy of his birth certificate.

[@anneirenej]

Omg thank you. My mother who compiled a lot of the family ties in our families.. she believed you had to check and recheck. You need to verify every name on the census. She found several families with similar names. People are too trusting of those websites.

[@traceybradshaw]

Oh my goodness - this should be compulsory viewing for anyone considering online family tree research. You have verbalised everything that my fellow researching cousin and I lament about often when we come across so many mixed up trees that contain our ancestors with incorrect spouses, children, dates and places. Then it’s perpetuated by people that practice genealogy by copying everyone else’s trees verbatim, not adding or checking sources or adding all of the hints without checking them 😱 I am saving this to share with every fledgling family tree researcher I come across - thank you for your words of wisdom 🥰

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

Thank you so much for your kind words!

[@mr50sagain55]

I recently had to rebuild my family tree due to making some of these mistakes…great video! This time I started with newspaper obituaries thinking that these would be the best source for correct names and relationships. I supplemented the obituary names with middle initial/name from gravestone photos when available. Finally, I used maiden names for women. I liked the results in terms of a better foundation for further development.

[@eleriloki6275]

When I research my family tree I always have my calculator up. That way I can check to be sure the ages of the person I'm researching are correct. For example, I found a marriage record with one of my great + ancestors name but the date would have him married at age 8 if the record pertained to him. An obvious ignore. Also in Ancestry if I look at other trees I check the records they have first to see if they coincide with my records or if they are relevant to the ancestor I am wanting to attach it to.

[@janrogers8352]

I had the same thing happen to me on ancestry. A couple married when she was 8 giving birth to her first child at 9. No records listed and only one source - they had copied someone else's incorrect information without bothering to make basic checks.

[@johndoylemc]

I had a cousin tell me we were related to Alexander Hamilton. I was happy about the "info" until I tried to confirm it. The problem I had, after checking out competent research, was he had us descending from one of Hamilton's sons who died before he had any children!

[@dutchman7623]

I was asked by a cousin to bring the family tree of my aunt 'up to date'. Read: we have a little bit of data, please check it and complete it. His father and my mother were brother and sister, so my aunt was only a 'in law' part of me. But I started and had very simply checked all data and went further back in time. Until I recognized family names and first names that were 'familiar'. One ancestor family of my aunt looked the same as I had seen before when researching my father, but there were mismatches. Same names, same time, same village... Couldn't find any mistake in my fathers tree, nor in my aunts. But going one generation back in both trees, brought to light that the fathers of both families were brothers and named their kids almost the same, and the same as the generation above them. The two brothers named their kids after their own brothers and sisters! Very confusing because now I had three couples with kids with the same first and last name. My father and my aunt were related already in 1620 to 1650! It was a very nice puzzle to get everyone in their correct position.

[@ameliafroehlich2577]

Sometimes I check other trees when I'm having trouble with mine. Several times they have no records at all. They just attach someone else's tree. I hope that makes sense. It drives me crazy.

[@dutchman7623]

@@ameliafroehlich2577 It gives so much more satisfaction when you can illustrate your research is done correctly. And many records contain details like 'god-mothers or god-fathers' or witnesses that bring you further.

[@macbirt56]

I've been doing Genealogical research for over 30 years and this is the most valuable video I've seen. Sooooo many people make the very mistakes that you are warning people not to make. I'm so happy to see that I am not the only one who sees this. When I go to the videos sponsored by the major websites, they NEVER acknowledge that people make mistakes and that other people just copy them and perpetuate the mistake. I agree about using other people's Family Trees for reference but I would add that you should make sure you look and see what references they used. If their tree has no references, then it's most likely that they got their info from someone else and it should be highly scrutinized. Now that my daughter told me about your social media sites, I have to catch up on all your posts. BTW, she saw one of your TikTok posts but when I went to your website, there wasn't any mention of a TikTok account.

[@qashqai124]

In the late '70s, My father lived in the Southern Part of Indiana. There he would go to graveyards, court house, churches and interview the older members still around. He took volumes of notes. During this time, I lived in Philadelphia. I would go to the local branch of the National Archives for 2 hours a week. I would scan through the microfilm of the U.S. Census. Looking at these films for Southern Indiana in 1850 to the latest one available. We were researching about 8 names, 4 on each side. If I saw one of those names in the census, I would create a Family Sheet for them. In a couple of years I had over 300 of them. When I ran across the same family in the next census, I would update the old sheet. Then they closed the Philly Branch. I purchased a software package. By the time I had entered all the family sheet data for those that I was sure were related, I still had over 100 that I couldn't use yet. Since then, I pull out the Promising File every year and see if any more of them not fit into my tree. Maybe 4 each year get promoted. Dad passed on in 1983. I got all his notes. About half of them were not in the tree when I got them. About 75% of them are now. Last week, in reviewing Dad's notes, I found 2 more families that had given me fits. His notes occupy 8 three ring binders an inch thick. I never through paper notes away. I find things every month that I can't believe I missed the 10th time I looked at it.

[@carolwong5949]

I have been researching my Indiana family on and off since I was 20. I found information about one of my ancestors who was a guard in the Civil War. He had to be outside on top of the train car that held Confederate soldiers. I wrote the National Archives for information. I got a reply that his wife has applied for a pension bases on his service but the stuff in his file was not important. I replied that I still wanted copies of it and Oh my! What a treasure trove! Letters from him to his wife, from his wife, from his neighbors and learned that he kept catching pneumonia, was sent the hospital to recover and then they put him back on top of the train again, pneumonia again. This happened about three times, he spent a good deal of the war recovering from pneumonia. Anyway, there were a lot of interesting details and he eventually returned and was never again in good health.

[@patriciasinclair3210]

I am just starting out on my journey, and as i was adopted at 6 weeks it is quite difficult as i do not know who my father was. I do know my mothers name and can trace quite a lot of her family, however your comment about not taking for granted things in other peoples trees is very relevant as they had me down as 'deceased' They had taken my first name and my mothers married surname , which are on my birth certificate , even though her husband wasn't my father , put the two together and found a record for that person who had obviously died! I have always kept my adoptive surname and subsequent married surname, so there is no way anyone could trace me, and as you see i am very much alive and kicking!

[@audreyg50]

I like that you are telling family historians this out loud. The best place to start with family history is with you, your grandparents and so forth. I come from two very, very, large families in my area and a lot of family historians have done a lot of work for me. Yes they are very careful how they do it. They have taught me well

[@chalktalkwithshari4173]

Don’t forget about family Bibles. People used to be diligent about recording births, deaths, and marriages (sometimes along with newspaper clippings and programs).

[@sandramoore8903]

Thank you, I do this all the time. I can't seem to stay on task, always jumping from one thing to another. Many times finding myself looking at the same records more than once.

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

Sometimes it takes looking at a record more than once!

[@1nghost]

I am highly distractible and read old newspapers, obituaries, those County books that were popular for awhile. As long as I am not looking for a specific human, I have found so many hints on people; one of the positive traits of distractibility.

[@dallasarnold8615]

Years ago a book of Gwinnett County Families was composed by the Gwinnett Historical Society. We thought this would be a great resource for others ( we, that is my wife and I, had already done a lot of research ). But quickly found numerous errors that we knew to be absolutely contrary to fact. One which we physically went to the Historical Society's author was that it showed my grandfather's 2nd wife as the mother of my mother, which was wrong. He did not even marry the 2nd wife till I was already 14. Of course, the book was already out and we could not fix that, but we wanted their records corrected, which they refused. So, I took my mother over there who was known personally by the author and it got corrected. But how many people out there are working off of that misinformation, as well as the errors that we don't know about.

[@matthewdavies2057]

I had a similar situation. An adopted cousin who believes she took her adopted father's name and DNA. No kidding.

[@melaniecarver5719]

​@@matthewdavies2057 Wow! That's new one. By what sorcery was this supposed to happen?

[@matthewdavies2057]

@@melaniecarver5719 She bumped her head?

[@MaryAnn-r1g]

Gwin, Gwynn, Guinn so many other spellings I've done a lot of research but in the 1850s ran into an issue of connecting from one side to the other in Arkansas from Tennessee from North Carolina Orange county I believe it has been a long time since I've worked on it but have found a lot of very interesting stuff always wondered if Gwinnett is connected to my family history I believe it was

[@garybishop9966]

Thank you! I have made all of the mistakes that you mention. I can't aford to keep giving money to the big genealogy sites so the free sites that you lead me to give me hope. You have reinvigorated my hunt and my hope to defete the dead ends that I have reached. You are truly a blessing.!!!

[@lizhaydon2250]

I never rely on someone else's family tree. I've usually tried to verify with multiple documents. Some of the grave or obituary records not only have the child, but their spouses or grandchildren as the deceased person's child. Obits as I've said are not always correct. Great video and tips.

[@jenniferdoyle9493]

Thank you sooooo much for making this video! You've addressed every concern I've had, ever since discovering so many errors in the family trees that my own relatives have constructed. Your excellent video makes me realize I am not alone! I never attach a record to my tree until I've cross-referenced several records of the person I am researching and am absolutely certain that the record is indeed relevant.

[@cgeorge6591]

“Attaching a Family Tree can really mess things up”. Ever since Family Search allowed people to change my tree which we spent 45 years on has made it very difficult to keep things straight. Most times now I just throw up my hands and say “Forget It.”

[@barbarapugh9775]

I know just how you feel.

[@nickmiller76]

One of my absolute golden rules is that I will never ever put my family tree anywhere where other people can modify it.

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

The FamilySearch family tree can be frustrating, for sure!

[@elainemilligan9086]

I have also had the same problem. A question of where I think too people are father and son and others think they are brothers. Their headstones are beside each other with wives in a field where cattle are. Where three of them died within 3 weeks of each other.

[@user-pn3ly6sl1e]

That must be so frustrating. I may have i wittingly messed up something on someone else's tree when I first started online. Now I don't touch anyone else's stuff. We have all our data on Family Tree Maker. No one can access it but our immediate family. Eventually, we may post a public tree, but no one will ever get to mess with our original work.

[@sunryse111]

Excellent suggestions, and all spot on. I particularly liked the point about going back later over your research and checking you got everything right. I researched my own family tree over 40 years ago. It was long before the advent of the internet and involved a lot of visits to libraries, churches and graveyards. Recently, I used the internet to check on my research. To my delight, I found that everything checked out - plus I added another two generations, taking me back to the year 1519. And even official records can be wrong, because people lie. Having a child out of wedlock was a sin that could get you excommunicated from church, so people often stated false birth dates for their children to cover up. One last thing - you mention the 1930 Chicago census. How quickly do you release those details in the US? Here in the UK, census details are not released for 100 years.

[@Gio_Vanni6143]

Census records are released 72 years from the start of the decade recorded. The censuses are recorded beginning on April 1st. The 1950 United States census will be released April 2022.

[@rapunzelz5520]

Very good reminders. The best discipline I try to instill in myself is to temper my excitement when I think I've hit the jackpot. It is SOOOOO EASY to jump to conclusions and go crazy. And SOOOO PAINFUL if you find out down the line that you made a mistake. Slow and steady wins the race.

[@bellelove7396]

I can attest to the going back to your notes sometimes we forget about. My grandmother provided a wealth of information so those notes are truly invaluable.

[@ksbrook1430]

In doing research on my father's side of the family, I inherited a copy of work done by one of his cousins. When I looked on-line, I found many family trees of my ancestors that repeated errors due to common first names. I've only found one site that was correct and consistently careful in verifying and documenting the information. I agree with you - other family trees can be good for clues, but should not be taken as necessarily correct.

[@joanwood9480]

I have a copy of a geneagogical record which my great aunt put together. She was able to speak to her older relations so her record of dates and names are pretty well accurate. She added little details when available such as this one died in a house fire or that one drowned. She admitted when she was unable to verify births, deaths, or names. I cherish the work that my great aunt did and the fact that she actually traveled to Gorsuch Mills MD from Illinois to verify family information

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

What a treasure!

[@fabianmckenna8197]

​@@AmyJohnsonCrow My French father translated into English a document detailing our French and Belgian ancestry written by my great grandmother. Only found it when he passed away which makes that sidd of the family tree a lot easier to deal with as French certificates are held in the individual towns or cities of birth etc. Interestingly enough, the French birth certificate has details of the marriage entered as well as the death details so everything comes on one sheet. First of all I had to send off a request to his French birthplace for a certified copy of the birth certificate which also contained his marriage and send that off to the French Embassy in London along with his death certificate to have it transcribed and translated into French. On return of all those documents, they were then forwarded back to his place of birth to update their records .

[@behunin1963]

Love your video. Am going through exactly what your discussion has been about. No sources, sources incorrectly attached, reattachments of known incorrect genealogies by kids going off old but incorrect paper family sheets, etc. Also, people creating based on a desire to not be irrelevant as a family member. Too many opportunities for failure. Thx

[@anonfornow359]

Ive just started again after many years. Ive found its so easy to get off track. Im going back now and getting documents step by step from newest to oldest generations. One thing I also find helpful is spotting family names you know go through the family especially when you have more than one choice and arent sure which one matches

[@kathrynsterk1545]

WOW!! Everyone working on their family history needs to watch this video....outstanding.

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

Thank you , Kathryn! I appreciate that.

[@sharontabor7718]

Thank you. I've been telling people this for years, but because I'm not "credentialed" as a professional genealogist, no one listens. The biggest compliment I've ever received was from someone who emailed mw with the statement "I can always trust what I find on your tree'. I don't attach documents to my online trees because much of my research was found prior to the era of armchair genealogy and resulted in documents found in archives and courthouses that have not made it into cyberspace.

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

Having someone say they can trust what they find in your tree is a high compliment, indeed!

[@nickmiller76]

A lot of my documents are not available online. I scan them and attach them to my trees that way.

[@Andrew.Andrzej.L]

we like very much how calmly you speak and what knowledge you have, great video

[@tdutahdebate]

I have fallen into that trap of "this must be the right records" until I realized that they had a different parent listed in another record which made my tree confused about where I went wrong. I started my tree over then found the error. Now I wait until I find at least 3-4 other records proving that lineage before adding a new person to my tree. I question those people who have 100k+ people on their trees and have only been doing research for 2-3 years, I have been doing research for 40 years and only have 5505 people on my tree.

[@StrawberryFieldsNIR]

I think some of those newbies just add any suggestion made by Ancestry, without verifying and proving the connection - I probably reject about half of Ancestry's suggestions. You are right though, always try to get another two or three other sources to verify, and bear in mind, even 'official' records can have mistakes, I will say particularly death records where the informant mis-remembers or does not know, but has a guess at the information.

[@knockshinnoch1950]

This is excellent practical common sense advice. When's tarting out it's so easy to get carried away in a buzz of excitement by all the hints and information that pops up. Too many folks do just accept everything at face value and end up creating "fantasy" trees rather than "Family" trees! If you're not careful you may just end up spending hours days weeks and months trying to unravel the confusion. I compare this lack of basic fact checking as the equivalent of those folks who can be seen at historic archeological sites with metal detectors every weekend who dig up important artefacts and mess everything up. Too many folks in the future who undertake the task of researching their own roots may well have a serious tangled mess of data to deal with.

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

Thanks for the kind words -- glad you enjoyed the video! You're so right about "fantasy" trees. Some of the sites make it almost too easy to just attach things.

[@wuverrabbit]

But sometimes "fantasy" as i've created with random hunches "could they be?" actually following the trails of others lead me back to the fantasy i created. And thankfully, i also had 2 DNA distant matches to it too.

[@cathyhawes6921]

This was very helpful, I am trying to keep my curiosity intact! I have a cousin who has endlessly merged family trees on a genealogy website to the extent that our great grandmother has 107 siblings!!!! Clearly ludicrous.

[@samanthabloggins1775]

Im 69 i started my famly tree when i was in grade 7 here in Canada!! And i am still not finished it takes a long time and a lot of work and research!!

[@jonathanmarkhobson8156]

I have been lucky in my job to have developed a logical mindset, and it really helps with genealogy. I joined Ancestry in 2013 and fell into the same traps mentioned here. Now I enjoy the process, but at times, I do get frustrated and have to remind myself to slow down. Thank you so much for your advice. I found the advice about different records particularly helpful.

[@CenterPorchNP]

I've been doing the research for a little over the decade. And have had to make corrections quite a few times as new information comes in.

[@denisewhite8373]

Oh my gosh, I am making a lot of mistakes. I was a bit worried about attaching other family trees to mine but now I can see that I shouldn't do that. I will watch more of your videos to learn more. I think I will start from scratch with my new database, Roots Magic, and see if I wind up the same place as my Ancestry tree. Thank you for your videos.

[@lindaeasley5606]

I find it helpful to have ancestors who repeated given names ,surnames as middle names. It makes it easier to find a link to your line. This is was the pattern on my dad's male line

[@Irresistible_Light]

I absolutely love this video! You said everything that I am always preaching about to other family members that want to research but they are not really researching. I am so glad that you made this video!!!

[@spfisterer3651]

Within my first week of startin with genealogy I probably did most mistakes you just mentioned. Attaching a whole line of family from another family tree.. taking things for value withouth checking... loads of mistakes. Took a while to clear things up and delete all the wrong relatives. I still have one mistake in my tree ... I suspect I have a brother with the same name as the father in my tree but I need to do more research..not so easy - it 's somewhwere around 1633 in southern Germany.

[@rebeccak-d8561]

Really good tips! Thank you!

[@webrarian]

As a fairly experienced genealogist, I am delighted with the wise words of your video. Full of the most excellent advice, and beautifully delivered, too. You are so right about the need to return to early research to check it. We generally start our own trees with those closest to us and then move on. But when we start we are also inexperienced and it's so easy to make mistakes at that stage, potentially rendering whole parts of the tree incorrect. You've got yourself a new subscriber from the UK ;-)

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

Thank you! I appreciate your kind words.

[@andyw.3048]

Such a helpful video for beginners! On time I found a line going back as far as the 16th century, but apparently there is one generation or two missing, during the 30 year war in 17th century Germany. It frustrates me to this day, because I have no clue how to find these rare records!

[@greebo6549]

@ 2:15 , totally agree, when doing my family tree, the number of other peoples family trees on-line (most seemed to be copy & paste of other trees), linked to a common ancestor in mine by the most flimsy of evidence, a coincidence of a couple of names the same and rough birth year…. Best or worst case was someone having ancestor “Elizabeth”, born to and living with parents X & Y in one census, then living with totally different parents and siblings in the next, based purely on a common name, birth year and place I cannot check their evidence, so I have mine to work with to cross check etc.

[@johnmackay996]

Very good advice. I've seen each of these while building my tree. You also reminded me to go back to my original goal of entering and verifying my grandfather's well researched hand-written notes before running down the Ancestry Hints rabbit hole.

[@fabianmckenna8197]

I use Ancestry to pick up hints before checking them out on Scotlandspeople.gov where I can find the actual certificates. Don't alway need to download/pay for them as just the fact that it exists in the search results is often enough unless you actually require the names and dates. Not really that expensive and can all be done online.

[@stevenm.9458]

Great advice. Thank you! One of the reasons I keep my tree private - because I know I have some mistakes and I don’t want that mistake reproducing.

[@jude4381]

Thank you and so true!

[@barbaramoignard6082]

This is excellent advice. On Ancestry I have found my father and his parents tagged on to a stranger's family tree. They seem to have made the assumption that only one person of my grandfather's name could have moved from Ireland to England. I've found similar mistakes with other family members.

[@isabelleblanchet3694]

In some places, people have added siblings that don't exist to my grand-mother. My grand-mother is 95 and when I showed her that she said "That's bullshit, if my mother had had more children I think I would know."

[@StrawberryFieldsNIR]

Unless maybe they were still births or died very young, then never spoken about?

[@CalifgalCindy1]

All great tips, we had an experience with a very common name of William Davis with totally different paths across the continent and boy was it a mess getting those two untangled. Making it worst was we kept getting other people getting them crossed up and trying to latch on to our real line after we got ours correct. For us the lesson was learned and working not 5o make that mistake again.

[@jeff0125]

The craziest thing I've come across in my research that reminded me of the importance of verifying that you're dealing with the correct person, rather than someone with the same name, happened a few years ago. I had recently figured out the identities of my father's birth parents, and was researching his ancestors. His grandfather and another man had the same name, same date of birth (14 Feb 1877), both were born in Poland/Austria-Hungary, and both emigrated to tiny Washington County, PA, outside of Pittsburgh. I was getting confused because of small inconsistencies, but eventually found an immigration record for the "other" one, whose wife had a different name, and also separate WWI draft registration cards, at different addresses in Washington County. The other one remained in western PA and died a few decades earlier than my great-grandfather, who moved to Philadelphia where my dad was born.

[@nikkita1688]

I'm living this. Thought I found the ww1 card of a ggg father and saw he tried to be exempt from the draft, but wasn't the right guy. Still searching....

[@robertpearson8798]

On my Mom’s side of the family we were always told that we were somehow related to Henry Ford. After researching for a few years I discovered that we were related to a Henry Ford, but not THE Henry Ford😆

[@nunyabiznez6381]

My Dad had told us when my siblings and I were kids that we had a Spanish ancestor who owned all of Florida at one time. After he died I found a family tree that our late grandmother had put together showing three generations of Spanish ancestors from Florida. I was excited to discover it so I could document the ancestor who once owned Florida. He died when I was 16 and it would be a few more years before I would have a chance to go to Florida and find out more. Meanwhile I searched in New England and from what I read about Florida history, no one person, save the king of Spain, could be said to own all of Florida at any time. So the "family history" that I was told, in the form of oral history proved to be false. But... About 20 years ago I found out that one of those Spaniards in my grandmother's family tree actually did own and control a substantial portion of what was then the colony of La Florida. As it turns out, in 1763, Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain. The British controlled Florida for about 20 years ending in 1783 which included the entire period of the American Revolution. When Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain almost all the Spaniards fled, some to Spain, many to Cuba and others to other parts of New Spain. They left their homes, plantations and businesses behind. That's a few thousand people. But two or three Spanish families stayed behind and promised to be loyal to the British. One of them were my Spanish ancestors and that one in particular was a very successful businessman who owned several plantations and businesses in and around St. Augustine. He ended up supplying food to the British and Americans each without the other's knowledge. He continued to run his plantations and businesses without interruption just had a new set of customers. He also had two wives, simultaneously, along with two sets of children in two separate homes, one on a plantation and the other in the city limits. And once upon a time he dressed up as a French prostitute and smuggled in women's clothing to two signers of the Declaration of Independence who were being held prisoner and got them dressed up also as French prostitutes and the three simply strolled out of Fort St. Marks (as the British called it) and out to a waiting ship my ancestor owned and he sailed them right back to the Carolinas where they were from. So this particular ancestor ended up buying up large tracts of land and many homes and businesses owned by his former neighbors and most of the ones he and the other two remaining families didn't end up buying or already owning he controlled acting as an agent on behalf of the fleeing former residents of La Florida. So that ended up being that long ago grain of truth that was turned into a family myth. It turns out that for roughly 20 years one of my ancestors owned or managed more land and properties and businesses and homes than any other individual and that constituted roughly 20% of what the British called East Florida, the most populated (with Europeans) part of Florida. So my ancestor turned out to be a far more interesting character than my Dad would have ever imagined. Not ever actually owning all of Florida but to one of my ancestors in his youth it might have seemed that way so that is the way it was passed down to us. I have learned that not only should one take oral history with a grain of salt, one should also take it with an open mind and a willingness to track down the origins of that oral history. Another story passed down was about how an ancestor was slaughtered by Native Americans and blood was spilled on a boulder and stained that boulder red which no one has ever been able to clean off said rock. I had thought for many years it was just a completely made up myth until I found out that sometime in the 1690's and in connection with widespread unrest among a couple of New England tribes there was an ancestor killed by a Native American and whose body was left on a large boulder and that that the boulder was red in spots and the colonists thought it was blood stains on the rock and locally was known as "Massacre Rock." At some point in the 20th century the rock was investigated since there were a number of supernatural claims about the rock and it turned out that it simply contained natural mineral deposits that made the rock appear red when dry but black when wet so when the colonists tried to clean the "blood" off it it would seem clean when wet but when it dried the "blood" came back. Our line hasn't lived in that town since 1750. so that's over 200 years the story was passed down orally and fairly intact. Another more recent oral history told of an ancestor who was like Edison and had hundreds of patents and an extensive laboratory where he invented things. I found out, long after Dad died, that we did indeed have an ancestor who had patents. But not hundreds. He owned a saw mill in New Hampshire and was innovative in the machinery that he used to turn raw longs into usable building materials. He was active circa 1840-1880. He had five patents to his name and did indeed have a workshop and I found advertisements for his saw mill that both cut lumber for a fee and sold lumber. Not like Edison by any stretch as it seems he really didn't make much money from the patents in terms of selling inventions but I guess it prevented others from using the same process to efficiently produce building materials. In any case a good example of oral history originating from something truthful yet somehow getting altered along the way. More recently I helped a friend find his ancestry. He was born in Jamaica and the claim was that his grandfather was a pirate, an actual pirate of the Caribbean. The truth is that is great, great grandfather, roughly 140 years ago was in fact an actual pirate. Not the swashbuckling kind mind you. He was convicted of stealing a small boat and using it to go from dock to dock stealing fishing equipment and using it to catch fish for himself. The charge was piracy though the facts kind of sucked the romance out of the whole matter. But later in life he ended up as a preacher and married a woman from Portugal who it turns out has real connections to Portuguese nobility roughly 200 years ago.

[@christianramirez7979]

Wow! Absolitpry amazing and thorough family history, you should make a book lol

[@michelinefortuin9110]

Fascinating!

[@kennethdandurand3472]

@ 2:36 - 3:36, AMEN~! I chased my Genealogy via paper documentation. Way Back. But then last year I joined MyHeritage and was amazed at the other so-called genealogical records and checked each one meticulously before accepting the name. What a surprise when I received a notice that there were 429 mistakes. My Great-grandfather was listed by another so-called genealogist as being the son of my Great-grandfather.... not as his father. So, be really really careful...especially on this site. The person you are checking against may be correct, but then the 12 generations below might be way off and totally wrong.

[@laurathomas3878]

Clear and concise. Thank you for not rambling on and on with what could have been said in half the time.

[@davidbagley1783]

Aloha

[@metrower42]

Enjoy your presentations so very much and learn from them. You are very good at explaining things in easy to understand terms. Thank you! Keep up the this good work.

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

Thank you very much for the kind words! I’m glad you’re finding these videos to be helpful!

[@RustyWalker]

Transcriptions all need verifying against the original when possible. I'm using FindMyPast to research here in England, and though I'm sure the transcribers all did their best, they don't know who these people were or where they came from. They do appreciate submitting error reports for mistranscriptions too, so future researchers can find what they're looking for. Caveat: they specify error reports are for mistranscriptions only, not for perceived factual errors in originals. That's not their function.

[@StrawberryFieldsNIR]

Most definitely view an image of the original document when available. Not just for errors, but sometimes there are nuggets of information in that record that have no field in the transcription database.

[@donaldwarriner1640]

Thank you for sharing your experience.

[@NNSokol]

Thanks for your hints! Very useful

[@melaniecarver5719]

I've been researching since I was 16. It never ceases to amaze how many people want to claim Native ancestry. "My great-great-so-in-so was a chief", etc. I even was in touch with a cousin who insisted that our great grandmother had NA heritage. When I told her, no, I haven't found any so far (and I'm about 5 or 6 greats back), she actually got mad at me and was never in contact again! She insisted "you could look at her and see it!" When I told my mom she said she'd never heard such a thing, lol. It's not to say there isn't but I haven't found. Still I see people in queries & message boards stating the chief or princess in their tree.

[@lindakay9552]

I've never seen this channel before. It just came up in my suggestions. I have been hardcore researching my ancestry for just a few years. I've found as far back as 15 generations. I don't attach a new person, until I've proven beyond doubt with records, the validity of ancestry. I figured it extremely early on, to start researching HOW to do research. I usually find that good geaneologists are deplorable at verbal communication. I'd like to thank you for your superior eloquence. I'll be looking to see what other videos you've produced! Edit. Lol, I liked and subscribed just before you suggested it. 👍🥰

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

Thank you, Linda! I'm glad you're enjoying my videos!

[@schnooleheletteletto]

Ive been doing research for about almost 10 years now and on my ancestry page Ive noticed that its really common amongst users from the states to just add random people to their tree which makes a mess. Comparing it to the swedish people who do research people actually seem to do the job of looking into things. Many americans who have "copied" my tree I realized they have no relations whatsoever to the people they are adding since its obvious to me being swedish things dont make sense. I dont know why this is a common thing in the US

[@scottishhellcat]

A great video for beginners. Thank you.

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

You're very welcome!

[@StrawberryFieldsNIR]

For newbies, always try to view an image of the original record if possible. Sometimes there is additional information that can be extremely helpful going forward. Back when I started, it was mostly microfiche and microfilm, and although not indexed, a lot of images of original records. I still have a microfiche reader, LOL.

[@joemaae5915]

I was impressed how u explain the way we find genealogy in our family 👍👍👍🇺🇸🇦🇸🇼🇸

[@heathercox5356]

Thank you so much for this video, it was very helpful!

[@sharris2118]

I just discovered old notes I made when my mother was in early dementia. I'd forgotten I put them on Ancestry and I just discovered the details of places and names of the house she was evacuated to in 1939 at the start of WW2. Hoping to find her and her carer in the 1939 English registry (similar to a census and used for rations and more), I looked without luck. I put the name of the house and address in a Google search and surprise, there was a photo of the old abandoned house, now part of a golf course! It was near a famous archeology site she waked past every school day where they were digging up an old ship and treasures, just as she told me.

[@lisasmyth6408]

I ran into the family story situation more than once. I am a firm believer in the grain of truth in family stories adage. A family story said my great great grandfather received a medal for shooting a confederate spy at the battle of Pea Ridge. His widow gave the medal to a state historical society. The state historical society didn't have any such thing. Fortunately, I found him on the 1890 Veterans Schedule and obtained his unit. I looked at the unit information and he was never at Pea Ridge. He was at Hatchies Bridge. There was no individual medal but the whole unit received a commendation from their general for over running a confederate gun emplacement and capturing four guns.

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

Kudos to you for figuring out what really happened!

[@MoonlightMirage]

Hey, could have been worse to be fair - he and his unit still did amazing being able to capture Confederate guns at Hatchies Bridge

[@StrawberryFieldsNIR]

Definitely investigate those family legends! I managed to disprove one of mine - yes, a couple of things were vaguely correct, but the details were mangled.

[@janetcarlson4923]

I often find that people often miss vital information in records. For example, obituaries often give marriage, divorce, and burial dates yet when you look at that person on someone's tree it is missing yet they had the source listed. So I like to to look at sources myself. Once, by doing so, I found information on a totally different person that proved a family story.

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

You're so right! It's easy to look at a document and pull out the one fact that you were looking for, and completely miss some good information. Going back and looking at records we already have can yield big results!

[@diannereeves8601]

A good video to touch on the basics.Although I have learned most of these tips from my own experience it is good to be reminded. Especially going back and reviewing what you already have. My father has told me that my cousins wife has found we are related to William Wallace of Braveheart fame. Examining her info has shown me that she has taken so much for granted with records for John, James and William Wallace all very common names. Another legend in the family is that one ancestor became pregnant to one of the royals while she was a nurse maid in the royal household. Very unlikely. She was found to have a number of court cases for "telling lies" and was actually living in the slums of Brighton at the time.

[@roslynechivers36]

Yes! I already do all those things you said to get things right! I find Ancestry is a place where there’s so many mistakes because I go look for the original records myself and different information. I am in Australia and there are several records on Ancestry for my aunty’s relative and all incorrect as I am the only person who found his convict record and it was under a different name because he changed it but it has he was resentenced under the new name on the record. Only reason I found it as he used his original surname as his middle name on his marriage certificate and I looked under that name instead and all his convictions and transportation records popped up and lead me to his baptism! All the family is running around with the wrong name! But a bit late now!

[@richardbigouette3651]

Took me 8 years to properly work back to 1680. I rushed it the first time and restarted from scratch. Learned this lesson the hard way lol.

[@stephfoxwell4620]

1680 is 11 generations ago You'd have to trace over 4,000 individuals.

[@richardbigouette3651]

@@stephfoxwell4620 it depends as well if you research siblings, strictly matrilineal or patrilineal. My list is around 2,000 currently. I haven't checked in a while.

[@landonedwards7504]

Your comments are spot on. It's a shame that so few people actually search records, either to learn something new or to validate what they think is true. I've discovered, sadly, that people are a lot more gullible and lazy than I ever thought. Many people consider Ancestry trees or IGIs at Family Search a "record." They even cite these! The majority don't seem to care when mistakes are brought to light, or discrepancies noted. It never occurs to most people that families didn't just pick up and move around, county-to-county, or state-to-state until well after WW II. If the last name is correct, it must be my family. Don't get me started!!

[@traceybradshaw]

Oh I hear you loud and clear and talk about this regularly with other researchers.

[@janrogers8352]

It depends on where you are. Here in the UK many families moved around more than people would expect. The Industrial revolution, or other major events caused many to leave the land and head to the cities, you need to factor in their occupations. I have ancestors, one a stone mason and another a brick maker, both of whom moved from different parts of the country, to London for work back in the 1800's.

[@traceybradshaw]

@@janrogers8352 I know what you mean Jan, I use maps constantly when researching, but also check the occupations. It’s when nothing matches except the name and people have them jumping back and forth across the ocean in very short spaces of time with different family members etc. I have ancestors also who moved to where there was work available - from Kent and Norfolk to Northumberland for ship building, others from all over who went to Portsmouth as Seamen in various roles, military roles in Malta and India where their wives accompanied them and they had children - but the records match.

[@spectatorwv1054]

Here! Here! This is really great advice.

[@sylvainroy9509]

Very very good and sound advice. Knowing those errors that researchers make can also instill doubts when you cross too easy answers to your research.

[@NgombeKouho]

Thank you !

[@glennelliott708]

Agreed. It is frustrating when one sees obvious mistakes copied from one tree to another. Even if one has first hand knowledge to correct the error, other sites show no interest to hear the arguments. Guess the only option is to make sure yours is correct.

[@catf9223]

Another thing to look for is transcription errors. A lot of these websites are transcribed by volunteers that have problems reading the writing so you may be looking for a Harris but the website shows it as Hanis. Definitely makes it harder to find.

[@ashdoginc]

In my experience it is good practice not to take anything for granted... even records. I find too many genealogists find a record and take it as gospel - when actually it may contain an error. Always try and find as much as can on any given person before starting to make your findings. Also experts can be wrong. But also don't worry about making mistakes, none of us are perfect, so long as you correct them as you discover them - after all for most people this is a hobby, it is not a academic analysis.

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

Exactly -- just because it's written down doesn't mean it's right! Developing the skills of spotting inconsistencies and then resolving the conflict is key to sorting things out. Fortunately, it can still be enjoyable and not like a high school term paper :-)

[@judythompson8227]

I've learned to be very careful of census information--people often lied on the census, or admitted to more education, or ancestry--in the 1940 census my parents aren't even listed, nor is the small town they had moved to. And some people refused to be included, not trusting census takers. Anyone in the future will discover that my husband and I are in there twice, once in California, and once in NH. sigh. Neither would take no for an answer.

[@maryfrump7937]

Im always fine tuning my tree. Finding new evidence to confirm what I found

[@rockyroad7345]

YES, the biggest mistake I made in the beginning was using information on other people's trees. In addition, just a few generations back people were often married more than once, due to death, war, etc. It's important to find out which of those marriage partners is your ancestor.

[@evanmcclellan5878]

thank you so much for this.

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

You're very welcome!

[@johndoylemc]

I was looking through Latter Day Saints records - and found my brother attached to one of my father's first-cousins. All names and dates were correct! I knew all of the people personally very well!!! I contacted the person who listed the incorrect "info" . they couldn't tell me where they got the wrong info, but I was able to convince them that I was correct and they deleted the wrong info.

[@sbrock6385]

Thank you

[@lkksu4]

The merging of family tree advice is very valuable. I have seen a number of family trees with mutual family members and incorrect data that would have caused major heart ache if I’d just automatically merged the record to my tree.

[@AmyJohnsonCrow]

Merging trees has caused so much heartache!

[@LennyLacey]

I am bran new to this, and pretty lost. But i am so excited and having so much fun. Your video was amazing, calming and helpful. thank you

[@fabianmckenna8197]

Just start at the very beginning....... You, your parents, their parents etc, etc, etc. Look for certificates and documentation to prove what you enter on your tree.

[@joseeallyn9950]

Very good advice, thank you. Someone entered a person on my family tree on Family Search who had no relationship to us. It was hard to get rid of the entry,especially as it was the name of someone who had a vague connection with an uncle by marriage, but no relationship. It was quite upsetting.

[@Kari_B61ex]

I agree with everything you've said. One example: I have a 3x Great Grandfather who is my brick wall, he was born in 1791 according to his Census and death records Others have entered his birth and (parentage) 12 years earlier in 1779 (with no records to prove - just from other Ancestry users) I have a suspicion that he was base-born 20 miles away. I just have to work out how his mother was related to the family living in the area he lived and died in (but wasn't born in). I've been researching my ancestry since 2009 and won't ever add anything until I have at least two confirmed records as proof positive. An interesting find on my 3x Great Grandfathers parish death register is that there was an 'alias' which he also gave to his firstborn son. I have lots of detective work to do.

[@elainemilligan9086]

I also have one where his head stone could say 1791 or maybe 1779. Things can get mixed up, or too old to read.

[@janetrhoades]

Your video's are awesome.

[@lindacarroll6896]

When I started doing genealogy, my aunt offered to help. She had been working on it randomly but was recently retired and lived near a genealogy library. She had, also, been to some of the places our family lived and looked for records. Turns our she had collected a few non-family members along the way. But the one I can forgive her for is when she visited the county clerk and she told her a number of family tales that later turned out to be just tales. I mean, the county clerk should know, right? Even as a new researcher I knew you did not collect every person with the same surname. Especially one sentence in a history book that might refer to someone you were related to.

[@benjaminlewis671]

I just want to say you are doing a great job at helping us. I knew most of what you are saying, but the little bits I didn't have really helped put it all together. I'm lost on Andrew Jackson Lewis, I just need more confirmation before I continue backwards to Virginia then Wales (I think).