If you are fairly new to building your family tree, you may have begun to find that the information you thought was about your ancestor – isn’t. There were several with your ancestor’s name and similar dates, living in the same town and buried in the same cemetery. How can you be sure you have the correct person and details?

Naming Patterns:

If you have listed out several family groups of your ancestors, your mother’s and your father’s lines, you may have already noticed some familiar naming patterns for the children. Perhaps one specific line of your mother’s family always used names like Elizabeth/Sarah/Mary/George/John/Joseph. Perhaps another line used different names such as Sophia/Lucinda/Charlotte/Benjamin/Francis/Samuel.

You may have found that at least one son, the eldest, always was named after the father, or the father’s father. And a daughter, the eldest, named after the mother. Additionally, a mother’s maiden name, or a grandmother’s maiden name, may have been used as a first or second name for one or more of the sons or daughters.

These patterns – if you can see any pattern – can be one of your best clues as to whether or not that gravestone lists your ancestor, or is a non-direct-related person. (The relation may be 3rd or 4th cousins, or more).

Collateral Lines or Sidelines:

Your ancestors’ siblings, aunts and uncles, are collateral lines – that is, they are not in your direct line of descent. If you were to fill out a 5-generation pedigree form, their names would not even show. But, they are excellent clues for evaluating the relationship of a buried ancestor to your line. You may well find that great-aunts and uncles named their children after their brother or sister (your direct line), so that there may well be 3-5 or more children of the same name and surname in the same town or county! Oh my – that can be very confusing!!

Follow lines down and then back up again to be sure of your direct line. You may find that you have used the gravestone details of a cousin rather than your direct ancestor. Take a look at the specific area that your ancestor lived in as well. On maps, check to see what cemeteries are/were available in the area. There may be older cemeteries with all names and details listed, including your specific ancestors. I have found one line of ancestors who are buried in three different cemeteries in one area, and only by comparing every detail I could find, was I able to be certain I had the correct person. Getting a photograph of the stone from all sides helped me in this situation.

Residences:

In general, families tended to stay close together in one area. At times, one adult child would move further away to settle in a new area. Daughters when they married, might move away with their husband, making it rather challenging finding them! Sometimes a widowed mother or sister would live with a far-away married daughter, showing up on a state or federal census record. There are many ways to find living people, and also to understand how it is that one ancestor is buried far far away from the rest of the family.

When you find one definite ancestor buried in a cemetery, search in a circle around that area for approximately 50-100 miles away, for additional ancestors. One of my ancestors from Maine ended up all the way over to the West coast in Washington, and I eventually found his sister’s family as well as one of his son-in-law’s relatives joined them in the same area. A treasure-trove of ancestor details became available – once I figured out who was related to whom in this new setting.

Gravestones:

Never assume that all the details carved on the gravestone are accurate. They should be, they usually are, but once carved, they were not corrected! Also, people were not always accurate in their birth year, so expect 2-5 years’ error in birth years on gravestones. Look for additional details on a gravestone – they may be clues to your ancestors’ membership in societies, military experience, reputation in area, occupation, and more. Photographs are so helpful, as you can imagine.

Sometimes children’s names and details were also carved on the same stone, but on another side of the stone. First wives may be buried in the same plot as subsequent wives, so check details as carefully as possible. You will need to compare with other sources such as censuses, marriage registrations, obituaries, and more, to know each person buried in that particular grave site.

While a personal trip is recommended, if that is not possible, find out if the local genealogy society is recording the cemetery. They may have already photographed or transcribed all details, or may be willing to do this for you on request. Because they live in the area, they may also have additional information on your ancestors or about the cemetery, or on other cemeteries in the area which may include more of your ancestors.

Finally – Assumptions.

Make none. Assume that all information is tentative and probable until you can confirm the information with another document or two. Pencil your records until you have confirmed the data. Particularly, do not input an individual into your family tree until you have done all the checking possible. If you are uncertain or have not been able to confirm data, add “Not Proven” to their death place – in this way, you can find all of your Not Proven ancestors quickly by checking on your family tree names list! Or, make sure you have noted that an ancestor is not proven on their family group sheet so that you can continue to check for documents over time.

Article source: Genealogy

Beginners to genealogy are often very excited to find family trees extending back several more generations from grandparents or great grandparents. Wow – there are names, approximate birth years, and more details. It immediately fills in your family line on one side of your family. Great – now you can brush your hands off and go look for more information for one of your other family lines.

But, wait a minute here before you copy or merge that new-found family tree with yours. How can you be certain that those ancestors are truly yours? That any of the details are even correct?

You may find – as I did – that an online family tree had the wrong great-grandmother for one family line of mine. That error meant that many other people had copied the incorrect information into their own family trees, adding several generations of the wrong ancestors. Whoops! How did I know it was an error? Because we had a family story of my great grandfather’s wife’s family having a “Grover” as a maiden name several generations back… plus there were totally different family first names in my family line. More searching online, with details of marriages, and it became clear where my great grandmother’s family line came from: Buell, not Doolittle. By going up and then down the family line, I was able to confirm detail after detail with documents and registrations, plus obituaries, in order to be certain of the accuracy of my results. As you can imagine, I learned a great deal with this research project!

One of the things that will strike you as you look at online trees, is that many people simply copy one person’s family tree. So there may be 15 family trees all saying exactly the same thing about names/dates/places… But that may be the result of 14 copies of one original. The fact that there are many copies does not make the original, true!

How can you tell if this wealth of detail you found is correct for your family tree? There is only one way: verify each of the details with original source material if at all possible. An excellent source could be birth registrations (government or church) which list both parents including maiden names of mothers. Other sources may include the following: gravestones, church registers, pension records, census records over several decades, or marriage registrations which also may list both parties’ parents names and birthplaces or residences. Once you are back to the early 1800s or before that time, it may be quite challenging to find sources, but keep digging and you may find treasure.

At times, there may be published histories or genealogies of particular towns or villages which detail some of your ancestors. As the histories were often written about 80-100 years or more after the fact, taken from sources you may not be able to find or read, you will need to consider them secondary sources which will still need more verification. In the late 1800s in the United States, for example, family genealogies became very popular and many families had “professionals” write out their family tree in detail. Some of these are very well researched, and the sources used are detailed in the published material. Others are based on hearsay and conjecture, and contain many errors. The further back in time, the more likely there are to be errors of various kinds.

For example, in one family line of mine, there are many Grover Buell men, generation after generation, through siblings and side-lines. So many of them, born close together in time and place, that some histories have condensed several of them into one, thinking that “someone” made a mistake with the dates etc. I have had to list each one and research each one to be sure I have “my” Grover Buell! Luckily, others have been doing some of the research as well, and share their results online. We have shared finding gravestones with the correct person and his wife, and documents of tax rolls and more. “Cousins” online are so helpful!

That said about pitfalls, there are often very accurate family trees online, that have been researched well, and have source material attached to individuals in the trees. For instance, a published history details when an ancestor first came to a newly carved out village in Connecticut, names his sons and their ages at the time, describes his occupation over time, and his daughters’ married names. Wow – what a find! And there are additional details found in the village’s church registers of each person, marriages, their children, plus deaths and burials. Even a few gravestone photographs. Confirmation of details is so exciting!

One of my family lines joined up with a well-known surname family line which had been researched extensively. As the surname organization had original sources and details verified, I was able to merge safely and accurately with that ancestor’s descendants. For the challenge, I still researched through the direct line to be sure that in fact the family tree worked in both directions, up and down, and there were primary sources to support the details. Yes it did, and I was thrilled to find so much interesting information on that family line.

If you find a family tree line which merges with one of your line, take the time to write the person who has input the details, asking for their research or sources of the information. Several times I’ve received a response of “I can’t remember where I found this information but it was online somewhere.” Oh dear. Now you will need to be very creative looking for those records. Of course, this will remind you that you must make certain that if YOU find a source for details, you will definitely copy the source and webpage address into the individual’s record for future reference.

As you can see, there are wonderful possibilities when searching online for family tree information. And of course, there are challenging pitfalls as well. Never use online trees as “sources” for your family tree details: they should be considered as tentative guidelines for your further researches, instead. Once you can verify details with other documents and sources, you will be able to cite those sources for others researching the same line as your family ancestors. Plus you will be certain of the accuracy of your family tree. Happy searching.

Article source: Genealogy

When you are beginning to search for your ancestors and build your family tree, you may not be aware of all the possible clues there may be on any document you find. In order to be sure of your sources, to be certain of the relationships, on any document, it is important to look for every possible clue that you can follow. You may have only found 1 or 2 documents – how can you use those documents for further ancestors?

Assume that there are “30 clues” on every document. In truth, there may be only 5 clues, or there may be 45, but there will definitely be more than the one or two that you are looking at on the document in front of you.

All these clues may help you make an educated conclusion about the validity of your searches, the validity of your relationships, the validity of your dates and places and more. Your family tree is only as good as the quality of the sources found, and the quality of your conclusions based on those various sources.

For example, here are clues you may find on a birth registration:

- full name.

Clues? Ahhh, look at that middle name – it seems to be a surname, who’s is it? Likely a mother’s maiden name, her mother’s maiden name, his mother’s maiden name. Or none of the above. Is there a naming pattern – first son named after father or grandfather, for example. What kinds of names are used in this family, are there second names or namesakes known? Look at siblings of parents if possible, for more records you can mine for other clues of ancestors.

- birth date.

Clues? Look at the distance in years between children, and if there are large blanks, think about why? Immigration? Father away at war? Epidemics? Is this an eldest child? – if so, the marriage date is likely within 2-5 years. Youngest child? – check the age of the mother; if over 45, it could be that father remarried and the mother is a 2nd wife.

- birth place.

Clues? Look at the residence over time through censuses, other birth registrations and birthplaces, immigration. If you see one or more children listed as born in England, others born in Upper Canada or Maine, you can make a good guess as to when they immigrated! With the birth place in hand, you may find other records of the family or parents in that place. Often families lived in the same area for many years, or within 20 miles or so. Check around to see if there are other relatives in a close region. Neighbors may have immigrated as a group, or come after another – check records to see if this will help you find the original residence of your ancestors. Compare the birth place listed with other residences you have for other siblings and other ancestors. What were the migration paths, and can you find details of these migrations? What about religion – was this child baptized in the region? Records may be found of a baptism at a later date (before marriage, or at a time several years later when a minister came to visit).

- parents’ names.

Clues? Try to determine if they are using a legal name, or a nickname. Guess what the “proper” name might be if it seems to be a nickname. “Lizzie” – Elizabeth, Eliza, Lisa, Lindsey. “Jack” – John, Jonathan, Jon, Jackson, Jacob. Some families used the middle name as the commonly-used name, but the first name on legal documents. For example, my Grampa Jack was actually “William John.” Look for naming patterns if any, in the family. You may get the maiden name of the mother (wonderful!). Sometimes the birth registration will give occupation of father at time of birth of his child; other records may include the grandfathers’ names as well. A parish registration may also include additional information such as names of farm, village, street or more.

- parents’ birthplace.

Clues? There are many possibilities to search with the birthplaces listed of the parents. At times, the birth registrations may have included only the country or, only the county or state or, listed the village or town. Country only? Look at neighbors and see if there are others also stating they are from that country. Perhaps they came as a group, or originally lived in the same town in the old country. Be certain that it is the birthplace that is listed, not the “racial or tribal origin”, as I have seen parents listed as “Irish” when it was their grandparents who were actually born in Ireland, all other generations born in the new country.

- father’s occupation.

Clues? At the time of birth, the father’s occupation may be listed. Generally, this will be stable over time, but it could be that father did whatever he could in order to support his family. Look up the definitions of these old occupations, so that you know what they actually describe. See if sons took up a similar occupation as they became old enough to work – usually 14-16 years of age. If it is a business, the father may be listed in a local directory, or he may have been a member of an organization or society such as the Masons, with details kept in Archives. Check historical sources for what kinds of industrialization was happening at the time.

Do you see the way you can mine every little item on a document for more clues to search or, to support your conclusions about your ancestor? You may have looked at the birth registration and ticked off your ancestor’s birth date and place, thinking that was all. Hopefully you will see that there is a wealth of information on every document. Censuses have many clues; look for a blank form so you know exactly what information was being asked by the census enumerator for that particular census year. There can be many errors on Censuses, but you may still find good clues to follow back to your ancestors.

Enjoy your searches, and remember: look for 30 clues on every document!

If you’ve been around the genealogy world for a while, you may have noticed how family tree scrapbooking is the next, new level beyond simply piecing together the standard family diagram. After investing the time and money to pull together all the necessary documents to verify your results with confidence, now what? Well, people are having a field day with family tree scrapbooking. And there are all sorts of creative ways people have gone about presenting the material in a safe format without concern that they’ll be lost or damaged.

Whether or not you’ve done any scrapbooks in the past, you’ll find family tree scrapbooking to be pretty straightforward. If you start out with a binder or portfolio of good quality you’ll be happier long term. Another thing to consider is how you may want to have room to expand over time. With some you can simply add pages. It’s best to be able to insert pages throughout, just in case you need to add something along the way that you forgot or later found. With family tree scrapbooking, you just never know when you’ll locate a special item that you want to catalogue.

Now, before you actually begin the family tree scrapbooking process, it’s really important to stop and think about how you want your pages laid out in the book. Sometimes you can get a better idea by setting out all of your papers, awards, memoirs, pictures, and documents first. You can generally get an idea of how you want things arranged via this dry run. Organize everything in a meaningful way before you commit it to the scrapbook.

Family tree scrapbooking also provides some wonderful “quality control” benefits. See, when you’ve laid out the results of all your research, it gives you a chance to see what all you’ve come up with, in one fell swoop. In the process, you’ll likely want to label every page. As you do so, you may realize, for example, that you don’t have this person’s full name, or that lady’s maiden name.

Additionally, you’ll come up with other things you’d like to know. And as you add entries such as place of marriage, it can quickly help you see what’s missing. This gives you a concrete way, like a checklist, to recognize and remedy missing data before your sources pass away! You can simply go back and get this information. And this leads me to another key reason for family tree scrapbooking. You are going to come up with information that really doesn’t have a way of being documented. But the scrapbook will at least give you a place and a way to write it down so it’s not forgotten. In fact, you could just include your own notes, which itself is a neat way for documenting the process you went through to create the masterpiece.

My final piece of family tree scrapbooking advice has to do with the fact that the project can grow very rapidly. Just realize that simply stepping up to consider your own parents sends you down two entirely different channels. There’s a big decision point as to whether you want to run down one side of the family until complete or not. Alternately, for family tree scrapbooking purposes, you may choose to go chronological, incorporating both sides of the family as you go. I know it can seem odd to create an intentional family “schism” and just follow one side through to completion when doing a family tree, but handling both sides simultaneously can be taxing. Either way, just keep good records and you’ll do fine.

Article source: Genealogy

If you are planning on building a family tree online, here are some very important issues to think about before you start. The Internet has allowed individuals to easily find genealogy information and documents, history, and more. However, it has also allowed the spread of mis-information, mistakes, legal data on living people, and more. Before you start – or if you have already started – make decisions about the following 4 tips:

1. Living People

Remember that living people may not wish to be found online, with their data easily available for anyone to see. ‘Mother’s maiden name’ is such a common identity question, that it should not be tossed out on the Internet. In addition, you may have stories or details that some members of your extended family are not aware of or do not wish to have public in any way. Be respectful of your family members – make certain that your online tree does not have children, living family members, or juicy stories which might disconcert others.

2. Documents Data

All details in your family tree need to have excellent quality sources to support the truth of the information. These could be certificates, records, registrations, legal documents, photographs, wills, and the like. When you put your family tree online, add details of the documents which support your data. You do not need to scan them online, but do record that you have a copy in your files, or record what it is that is your source.

3. Other People’s Trees, Other People’s Information

Unless you can see that there is primary source material (that is, documents or records made at the time of an event), do not use other people’s family trees or information in your online family tree. You may simply be repeating other people’s mistakes. And then someone will copy you, and someone will copy that person, and so on and so on. Do not make this mistake. If you find a very likely match, but with no sources listed, contact the person who put it online, and ask them what particular sources they used to support the data for those individuals and families. No sources? They just copied someone else’s tree? Sigh. Back to your searches. Use the information as a rough guide, only.

4. How To Share Your Family Tree

Generally if you have an online family tree, you are able to share it with your relatives using an “invitation” which allows them access to view the tree. Make sure that you are the only person to have the power to change or edit the tree. You do not want others ‘correcting’ the tree putting in what they think is true – when you have actually found documents showing a well-sourced detail! Of course, if another relative is excited about genealogy and would like to work with you, that is great – the two of you can figure out how and when to edit the tree as either of you find more information.

You can email a GEDCOM of your family tree at any time to a relative, as long as they have a family tree software program on their computer. There are several FREE versions available for download on the Internet. Any software program you use will have the capability to “import GEDCOM file” into it. Quite easy to do. Use your Help button on the software toolbar, and it will walk you through the process.

Enjoy your family tree discoveries!

Article source: Genealogy

Gravestones and cemeteries are extremely interesting areas of research for your family tree. There is much to discover from searching through a cemetery which contains several ancestors’ over time. Sometimes families had all family members interred at one specific cemetery, and deceased individuals from other towns/states were transported to that cemetery for final burial. However, you may find that one individual is buried many miles away from other family members, perhaps in a different state or country. How interesting – I wonder why? Good question, interesting clue. Here are some tips to help you search on burial information of your ancestors.

Online: Many gravestones and burials are online now and available to search, mainly for free: FindAGrave is one example to search. In addition, there are volunteers or members of local genealogy societies or of “Graveyard Rabbits” groups who have taken the time to go through cemeteries methodically, listing every stone and detail, often including a photo as well.

Start off by identifying the town or village your ancestor may have died in, and then identify a likely cemetery. Remember that some families had gravesites on their property, particularly if they lived on a farm, or in a very sparsely populated area. Histories of the area may give you more information on this possibility.

Search on a town website for the names of cemeteries in the area, or search at FindAGrave also. Once you find a likely cemetery,begin searching using the surname, thensearch usingfirst names. Finally, go through the cemetery listings name by name. It won’t take as long as you think it might, and the results are well worth the search. For instance, you may well find married women with their maiden name listed as well – how helpful! Also, the search function online for a cemetery may not pick up all your ancestors if their name is spelled slightly differently, or if only an initial is shown, or any number of reasons. Therefore, search by surname, then search by first name, then go looking name by name by name.

Examine the year(s) in which your misplaced ancestor died. Was there a war or skirmish on? An epidemic? Did a frontier area in the next county or state open up and everyone moved away except this one? How can you find out this information? Local newspapers, perhaps? A lone interment (burial) can give you great clues to follow. Multiple interments by one family could give you different clues. For instance you may find that there were more James Terwilliger or Grover Buell burials than you knew, in one area. Which one is ‘yours’? How can you tell? Think carefully about the kinds of details whichwill help you identify your ancestor.

Here’s another tip: Look for first wives being buried in the same gravesite or area as subsequent wives; it would be misleading to think they are children, but an easy error to make. Search for the details of birth and death, and remember that some women died in childbirth in the 1800s, so a death within 4 months of a birth may be another clue.

After doing some searching and identifying a very likely grave, you can write to the cemetery office to request more information about your ancestor. Remember that the staff may be quite busy and may need proof of your relationship in order to comply with your request. Provide details of why you believe this is in fact your greatgrandfather, and ask if there is a fee for the service. There may be nothing but the dates and names of theancestors. However, for example, my grandfather’s burial gave the cause of his death (massive heart attack), which I hadn’t known previously.

Look at newspapers in the area where your lone ancestor died: there may be an article or mention of his death, such as an accident, illness, or the like. Also look in the newspapers where his other relatives lived: they may have picked up the information and provided it to local papers as well. This is particularly true in the later 1880s and into the 1900s. For example, details of the education as well as death of one of my greatgrandfather’s sons were printed in the Port Townsend WA newspaper as well as in the East Berlin News PA, and noting that he died in New York city, NY. If I had only looked in the New York City newspapers I would have missed the rich details reported in the other papers.

While we would like to think that gravestone carvings are “accurate”, errors can creep into gravestones carvings, as well as irregular spellings. Be prepared to think creatively as you search for gravestones. Also, find an additional source to confirm the details on a stone, before you conclude this grave is definitely of your ancestor. Some sources might be newspaper obituaries, articles, city/county histories, church notices and records, and the like.

While you are online at a cemetery, check the information provided, and see if there is a possibility of a volunteer taking a photograph of the headstone in question. You may find that the volunteer is a long-time resident of the area, and is quite knowledgeable about history, perhaps even has more details about your ancestor at the local museum or archives. Unless you ask, you’ll never know. For example,I requested a photo of the headstones of my greatgreatgrandparents in a CT cemetery where they were listed on FindAGrave. In less than 3 hours, I had 3 wonderful photos, plus information on the house in the background, and details of exactly where in the cemetery these individuals are buried. How exciting!

As more and more clues are found, use every bit of information, and ask yourselfmore questions. Is there a symbol etched onto the gravestone? What does it represent? Find out! Write to the local genealogy society and ask questions. Perhaps someone living in the town has the exact information you are searching about your ancestor – and may actually be a cousin. Enjoy your searches!

Article source: Genealogy