One piece of advice

I have benefitted from much valuable advice and assistance from this
group since I joined and I often see others thanking people for
assistance received. Then I thought it would be interesting to compile
a list of useful hints and tips.

A. Gwilliam...

Sounds like an idea!

Here's one:
The relationships given on a census return are to the head of the
family. So if the head's a man, and his wife is also named, any
children might be his by a previous marriage, hers, or a mixture of the
two.

So ... if you had to give a newcomer to genealogy ONE piece of help or
advice, what would it be?

Charani...

Take family stories with a large pinch of salt, esp if they involve an
illegitimate child of gentry/nobility, castles and lost fortunes,
until such time as they can be verified by independent research - even
if the same story comes from two or more different sources.

Lesley Robertson...

And remember that a name can be spelled in any number of ways - it all
depends on what one person said and someone else heard....
Lesley Robertson

Brian Taylor...

From the start of your research, record the source of each piece of
information.

Graeme Wall...

Read Roy Stockdill's Beginners Guide

Jeff...

Be meticulous in recording sources.

In my early days I just dived straight in. Later I spent a
lot of time going back over my earlier work to answer the
question of "how do I know this?"

In fact I now play a 'game' when I enter new data. If I were
an "expert witness" in a court case how would I present the
evidence to prove the connection I've established?

I still, take flyers but,, again I'm careful. I state in
each record "Notes" field (I use FTM) that this is a
hypothesis and I'm guessing its true because..........

I also record the steps I need to take to prove/disprove
that hypothesis.

Peter Goodey...

That ancestors lied.

Goonerak...

Ask your parents / grandparents as many questions as possible about cousins,
aunts & uncles they can remember. 6 months later when you have found more
cousins, aunts & uncles ask your parents / grandparents again and get ready
for "oh yes, so and so married so and so....".

Mine would be: if you're looking at Census images and the family you're
interested in is at the bottom of the sheet ALWAYS look at the next
image to check for other family members. (I've was caught out with this
a couple of times before I wised up.)

pilgrimsprogress...

Mine would be, don't take the father's name on the marriage certificate
as gospel. Make sure all the other evidence adds up, to equal the right
one.

Phil C....

I think my advice to a person with a commitment to proper research
would be always to think of possible alternative explanations to the
obvious or to what it's tempting to believe - even if the result is
frustratingly littered with "maybe" and "probably". The advice counts
double if the information is second-hand from the Internet or a
newspaper.

My family's a minefield of attractive but false claims and
information. I discovered two new totally untrue second-hand claims
only last night.

Hugh Watkins...

the records are not going anywhere and can wait

T.M. Sommers...

Except for the 19th century Irish censuses, some of which were
destroyed by the British and the rest of which burned in 1922.
And huge amounts of German records destroyed in the war. And the
1890 US census, destroyed by fire. Not to mention innumerable
parish records lost all over the place.

Not everything has been filmed, even now, much less been put
online. As late as 1973 a fire destroyed many 20th century
records of US military personnel.

record the memories of living people before they die

Hugh W

JohnB...

Now *that's* a five star piece of advice! My big regret is that those
who could have told me so much are no longer around. And there are
things I would have liked to have told them too.

Graeme Wall...

My big regret is when the people were around I didn't know what questions to
ask! My grandfather was always cagey about his WW1 experiences, dismissing
casual questions with a funny story, like being 'baptised' in the Jordan when
the camel threw him. But that was _before_ Allenby's offensive, so what was
he doing there in the first place? Now I know that is the important
question, at 14 I didn't.

Hugh Watkins...

as the oldest family member still standing (of this branch) I need to
follow my own advice and write my memoires

Hugh W

Neil Smith...

Mine would be: If you are given a load of info by another genealogist,
always check the data, I have been given the same info from several sources,
only to find it wrong, they all had got their data from the same source & so
had all got the info wrong. Only by checking the data yourself can you be
sure!

Tids...

Mine would be: Remembering that entries on the IGI 'submitted
by' are generally accepted as unreliable............