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AVOID These Mistakes When Starting to Build Your Family Tree
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ส.ค. 2024
- AAvoid these beginning genealogy mistakes when climbing your family tree. Learn to avoid these rookie mistakes that beginning genealogy researchers make and what to do instead.
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CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
00:40 Avoid jumping to conclusions
02:00 Failing to read the entire record
03:30 Failing to research siblings
05:39 Incorrectly Using Married Names
09:51 Having multiple trees with the same people
12:18 Not researching all your lines
13:52 Assuming spelling is consistent
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Question of the day: What mistakes did I overlook?
For more genealogy mistakes to avoid, check out this oldie but goodie. th-cam.com/video/Q-AcmwB9E6c/w-d-xo.html
Go back a hundred years or so - people didn't bother tracking their ages as closely. My g.grandma misreported her age by 10 years and while we were still using the indices, it took quite some time to track her down.
She was also christened with a diminutive form of her first name, "Hettie," but used the full form "Henrietta" when she was older.
The saving grace in that search was an unusual middle name, "Linwood."
I'd personally add 'don't ignore middle names if they have one and you know it' to this list. Sometimes records will switch the order and a family member's middle name will be used as their first instead.
That's a good one. I actually had a breakthrough by paying attention to middle names...A Smith ancestor's parents were completely unknown and seemed impossible to determine. Noticed that one of his sons had the middle name Almarion. I thought it curious and amusingly for a short time thought it was because he was born in Marion County, AL (AL-Marion)...NO...my ancestor's father was Almarion Smith
So true!!!! My ancestor Sherman Lewis Brown will appear as Lewis Sherman Brown and Sherman Brown Lewis, or other combinations.
This is so true, My Nana's 1st name is Conroy but she uses middle name Maude & my Mum's 1st name is Jennifer but she uses 2nd name Denise...I didn't know Nan's true name until started working on my tree. 😁
An old thread, but I will add people who change their first and middle names. My mother was born Doris Jean, but changed to just Jean as a teenager. She hasn't gone by Doris for 70 years. My niece also did this. Also I didn't know my uncle Jack was my uncle John until his obituary was published. So this is probably a lot more common than people realize, and should probably be joined with the same category as don't jump to conclusions.
This is so important!! I've also found several family members who went by their middle name -- for instance, until I started my research, I thought my grandmother's name was Anne -- it's actually Alice Anne (Ann A on more than one census); similarly, I was having a hard time find any records for her mother, Mabel Veronica, until I found out she went by Veronica, or M. Veronica Smith, for her entire adult life. Middle names have also been crucial for keeping different generations straight if your ancestors were fans of naming children after themselves and other family members; there are countless people named John, William, Antonio, Filamina, Catherine, etc. and in my tree, women did this just as much (Stephanie Ann is the mother of Stephanie, but until I find her husband, I don't have a surname to distinguish them apart)
Known nicknames are important to record for the same reasons.
Here’s a helpful tip that no one seems to mention: if you’re having trouble finding the parents or children of a deceased relative, look for their obituary, most funeral homes will post these online and they will include the deceased predecessed relatives (parents, children, siblings). They will also usually include the “survived by” members of the family from spouses to grand children
Great tip. I did a video about using obits here th-cam.com/video/KTjhm5DxDdc/w-d-xo.html
When I started out researching my ancestry I have jumped to conclusions on who's who. I suggest to make sure confirmation before entering the information into your main tree.
My best tip is to read obituaries because they have some vital information that is useable.
Thanks John for being honest. I think all genealogists should be able to reflect on where they begin and how they have improved (well, hopefully improved.)
I like your tip on reading obituaries. I have a video about using obituaries from Ancestry and Newspapers.com th-cam.com/video/KTjhm5DxDdc/w-d-xo.html
Obituaries were publisged in newspapers, right? Were families of workers able to afford obituaries I wonder?
Yep you need to really confirm identities because I have run into situations where others have made mistakes and I could have simply attached my shared ancestor to theirs. I would rather have a less complete tree than a wrong one. Sometimes you end up with two families with similar or almost identical name for the husband, wife and kids and even the ages match up yet they may well not be the correct ancestor.
And the maiden name issue drives me crazy too!! Big pet peeve of mine 🤦🏼♀️
Agreed.
A couple of related items.
Entering birth and death dates that are impossible. Like a birth date that is 150 years before the death date or a mother giving birth at 60 years old. You likely have two different people.
Not recognizing that it was common to reuse a name for a child when the first child died as an infant. Do not use the birth date for the first child with the death date for the second.
Definitely mistakes that I should include in a follow-up video. If you have any screenshots of mistakes, I would love to use them with your permission. Email me at info at familyhistoryfanatics dot com
I CONSTANTLY agent told I made a mistake will siblings when the same name is used twice, once on a dead child.
One problem I have recently discovered is my direct line ancestor and his brother both immigrated over from Scotland together and settled in the same area together and both had huge families (and of course, both married Mary's!!). As I have been trying to research this family I notice their children have similar names and depending on who's tree I'm looking at (while doing research), a kid could be claimed by one or other of these men. It's been exciting but drives me crazy at the same time! Especially when both lines will have a child with the EXACT same name! It's been challenging trying to find enough supporting material to separate these children to their fathers.
Oh Jessica!!! I can so emphasize with your struggles. Andy has kin from St. Keverne, Cornwall, England. They have William Williams who marry Marys and it's painstaking to keep everyone separate.
Oh... That is frustrating. I know
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics That can can happen with families, my father's eldest brother a name was Thomas his father was Thomas guess what his father was named, my mother's sister married a Thomas, they had a son called Thomas, guess the name of my husband Yes Thomas, I have one son, I named him (wait for it),Mark.😀😀😀😀
I've been doing my tree for years now, and made some of these mistakes! I remember when I first started as a teen, and if I found an already existing tree with a couple of people that looked like the same people I was looking at, then I would go and add all of their ancestors to my tree. Very cringe.
I ended up deleting my tree and starting from scratch about 10 years ago. I'm a lot more careful these days. I often need more than three records, or else I need a very obscure reason (as in an uncommon name within a uncommon occupation, location, etc). One of the people in my tree was added based upon a certain house name and the handwriting of the person in two marriage certificates, and the fact that he was listed as widowed in the second. It was a very low population area in the UK, but even this is still not enough for me fully, because the person in question had an extremely common name to the area he lived.
One thing that does annoy me a little, but I don't know if it is a mistake, or what; people with trees that have thousands of people.
I did the ancestry dna test, and some of my matches have over 30,000 people in their tree. I've noticed that in some of these trees, there are many unlinked people, or several separate trees in the same gedcom. If I'm trying to find a link between a DNA match and me though, one of the first things I check is common surnames and common birthplaces in our trees, but if they have 30,000 people in their tree, then they often always match at least one surname and birthplace, but more often than not it doesn't check out.
I have been doing my tree on and off for about 18 years, and I'm currently at about 370 people, and that includes ancestor siblings, and their descendants wherever possible. I think if all of my lines were British, I would be at about 500. One of my grandparents was mainland European, and it's a little trickier because the records have been lost, or not yet indexed online.
Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks, because it's good to see that I've already ironed out all of these mistakes!
I can relate to the people with 10,000+ names in their family tree on platforms other than FamilySearch. With Ancestry, I only have a tree with a few thousand purposes because I want to find DNA matches for specific lines OR I want to research those individuals in records. I know to each their own, but I want to stay focused and not become distracted.
My main tree on Ancestry has close to 24,000 people. Half of my family and all of my now ex-husband’s family are French Canadian (we are related multiple ways further back due to endogamy/pedigree collapse). The Catholic church records are pretty good and you can often get back to the 1600’s of further. Also, most families had 8, 10 even 12 children or more. If you add their spouses and children as recommended by Crista Cowan, that easily leads to a lot of people. And, yes, most were carefully reseached. I know that this is not the case with everyone, but it does happen.
Excellent recommendation about the usage of maiden names. I stopped completing the female married name in the surname field to prevent my databases searching for hints from other trees that were incorrect. I found by leaving the surname (maiden) name blank, I didn't get as many hints that were errors and in some cases led me down a different path that I could then verify with parish records. I wish I had known this years ago!
Great point. People feel the need to complete each blank and that does mess up hinting and the quality of the family tree.
Love the spelling comment! My surname has so many variations it has become my joke. What is frustrating is when you find other who are related to the same people but insist “their” spelling I’d the only one, when there are example of multiple spellings for he same individual! Love your videos...I wishe all of this had been available when I started in genealogy nearly 30 years ago!
Aww Bill, I can SO relate with the spelling issues. And, as a baby genealogist I believed it. My parents told me this matra. I wasn't doing genealogy more than 30 years ago, but yes, I do understand the sentiment. I try to provide what I wish I had available to me when I began my journey. Glad you enjoy it.
I can attest to that surname being spelled differently. My great-grandmother had married twice in her life; a Tankersley and a Watson.
It's somewhat confusing having to juggle all these records with Bowling (maiden surname), Tankersley, _and_ Watson. Her first name tends to differ as well, annoyingly enough. Her birth name is actually Juanita Vernice Bowling, but we have records where both Vernice and Bernice were used as her first name. The family knew her as Bernice.
My other great-grandmother also has this issue of varying first names. Her birth name is Delphia Pauline Chambers, but everyone just called (and knew) her as Pauline. Some records will call her as such, too. My family didn't even know her name was actually Delphia and not Pauline.
I thought that was a very good point as well...folks need to remember that all spelling (not related to names) wasn't consistent prior to the 1700s when they first came out with dictionaries.
In my family tree, Karulak is spelled Karulk, Karolak, Karolk, Karoulak, Karuk, and Karoluk.
In the time between a family progenitor landing, in the Cape of Good Hope, and the 20thC, many family's were fairly illiterate or barely literate. It followed that records were, often, written by someone else, who recorded names as they heard them. My Mother was a de Bruin. This name is recorded as given, de Bruyn, de Bruijn and even the precursor "du". First names were recorded in a multitude of formats and even swapped around or portions dropped or added. Makes for fun. Patrick.
Thanks for this wonderful insight Patrick.
The most frustrating for me is when initials and complete names are interchanged. Census entries often unreliable in my experience for this reason, not to mention those spelling errors. Funny though, the penmanship is usually beautifully written in cursive!
No kidding! My grandfather is Lewis Sherman. His father was Sherman Lewis. Documents flip-flop their names and use initials all the time. I have many gray hairs that I color thanks to these two men.
BTW... sorry it took so long to respond. The volume of DNA comments is so large that the research video comments are buried for months before I find them. Thanks for supporting my work.
The most regular blunder I recognise is the misuse of Family Tree Maker auto-fill of places. For instance, type in Cardiff, with intention of getting Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales and accidentally click on Cardiff, Garfield, Colorado, USA.. So many times one sees these errors in family trees and it is difficult to get it corrected. And it then often gets added to other family trees by people who copy without checking... Have clicked incorrectly myself and have seen copies of my incorrect family tree in many places around the world.. (Although FMP does not seem to recognise Cardiff, Glamorgan(shire), Wales....)....
I haven't experienced that but I can completely understand how that would be problematic. I try to be careful when I put in Ontario place names. Ontario was called Upper Canda at one point in its history, so I try to go very slow when trying to add that name in. Not the same as your comment, but similar.
I absolutely love this. I wish I had seen this because I have actually spent sleepless nights worrying about damage I had unwittingly done feeling proud of all the "good" I thought I was doing at the time.... There are so many frustrating teensy mistakes one can unwittingly make that actually have HUGE consequences! My biggest mistake is trusting first searches out of excitement, then others copy it and when I look again for supporting evidence, I find a record as my source which ends up being someone else copying what I recorded as fact. In fact, One mistake I made had become so loved and copied and shared that when I tried to remove it as being obviously wrong - others were angry with me and argued that it was so prevalent that it must be true (each family tree referenced had used mine as a source). I finally figured that idea of having a "theory tree" that is not shared, but only for me to mess around with.
I hear ya. I loved seeing my name cited as a source for a tree I created on a Geocities website that no longer exists. I have told folks... I have new information from the research I DID INCORRECTLY but the insist my previous research was accurate because they found it on line. That was funny. Thankfully, that was in 1994 and since that time, few people cite that information. Instead, they have migrated to copying everything I put in FamilySearch. Since they're not serious researchers, they don't fuss as much when I make changes.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics yes. That is EXACTLY what I am talking about. I am just thrilled that everyone, even my kids, can now access and play with and discover things, even if it is not technically accurate, the kids live playing family history detective!
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics one more question, I wonder what happened to roots web, do you know? I was sad to see geocities go, but any link to roots web does not work anymore either.
That's circular sourcing. There was an example of someone who created a fake wiki entry, which a newspaper found when looking for background and cited. Another newspaper saw two citations - one for the fake wiki entry and one from their rival publication, so they accredited it with more confidence than it deserved, and it spiralled from there.
Unk is a real surname! Thousands of people in the Netherlands have that surname. It can be confusing though, sometimes, when you can’t tell if Unk means Unknown or a real surname.
Because UNK is a real surname, all the more reason not to use it as a substitute for name unknown. Wouldn't you agree?
I had searched for years (off and on) for the maiden name of my G-G-G-Grandmother. I finally found it on the death certificate of a sibling of my G-G-Grandmother. So, make sure you check out the records of your ancestor's siblings!
So true!!!
I follow some channels like this kinda casually, a few days ago another channel asked 'how far I could go back'
Me personally? To my grandparents lol (honestly, I had to ask my mom my grandfather's name; I never knew the guy as my grandparents divorced when my mom was a teen and they didn't have much contact) - who are born in the 1930's and 1940's (I am 20) but I remembered two things
a) someone on my mother's side did some family tree research (not the same person as point b, my mother's aunt did)
b) I remember my mom telling her last name has some history. That is, People with her last name were dressmakers at the court of Charles V (holy roman emperor, ya know, the guy that controlled half of europe in the early 16th century) so well...AT LEAST 16th century. If I can connect the 'my mother's name' family trees I find on the internet to us. Her name has a coat of arms though, so it would be fun to get a clear link to the court of charles the fifth.
Point of the comment: I definitely focus* on my mother's side, and all branches of my mothers side. It's simply more exciting - I can combine it with the work my mother's aunt did who I think mainly went back the female-female-female way (to early 19th century so far) based on what the family tree looks like so far, and on my mother's father's side I can get to a royal court. My and my father's last name means 'from the fields' and has no research done whatsoever, but based on the meaning of the name it also sounds rather unexciting.
(Focus when I have money that is, as I have to subscribe to myheritage now to do anything else and I am a 20yo middle class student so nope.)
At your age, focus on one branch at a time. Focus on capturing the stories of the living as well as you're going to want them later in life and might not have access to them. Welcome to the hobby.
I am so glad you included that variations of spelling bit. People spell many names in my tree different, like how Foulis is used as Fouls, Fowles, Fowlis, Foules, Foelis, Etc.
Thanks for the variations on the Foulis name. And you're welcome for the inclusion of the spelling mistake.
All of that is excellent advice for managing personally created/maintained trees; however, not all of it might be applicable to public crowdsourced trees. For instance, on the Geni website (which started independently but was later acquired by MyHeritage), unknown surnames are (supposed to be) designated “NN” (which I resisted for several years before finally acquiescing ).
I must admit that in ten plus years I have been working on my tree I have made most of these mistakes. Now I know what I need to do to clean up a few records and to delete my original tree that I no longer update. Thanks for the information.
No worries. We often don't know what we don't know.
These were great tips, thank you. The spelling thing drives me bonkers! My 2nd great-grandparents immigrated from Norway and when I first started researching them....I was going bonkers! I knew nothing about the family because my great-grandmother divorced my great-grandfather when my grandmother was an infant and the poor guy was in France fighting In WWI. This is the case of just how many first names and last names can Norwegian ancestors have? I’ve figured much of this out now but they were all Spokley’s in the US. And Spoklie, Spokely, Spaakalie, Spoaklie and on and on. Most of the siblings spelled it their own unique way. So did Census workers and military personnel. “Bjørn” went by “Bear” and “Aslaug” was “Ann.” Then in Norway, no sign of any Spokley....because they were Bjørn Tjøstolvsson Underberg and Aslaug Larsdatter.
10yrs later I mostly have things figured out. But in the beginning? It felt like an insurmountable problem. I’m happy I didn’t throw in the towel though. It was, and still is, way too much fun! 😄
Thanks for much for sharing your journey. The patronymic naming is very confusing but I'm glad you figured it out. Go you!
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics I've had the same problem with patryonic names, both sides of my family are Welsh. As well as some of the older censuses some of the place names are tongue twisters. I had great trouble tracing my paternal great Grandmother, I used to talk to grandmothers Be had remembered what they told me, names etc.i finally, after a great amount of trailing through through the cencus forms, found out that she had been married twice, had two children with her first husband, and claimed ten more with her second husband, I am from the latter. She herself was illegitimate 😔, no father named on her Birth certificate. Another strange thing Was that I found was the families of my great grandparents lived next door to each other on the 19011 census. Yet my parents didn't meet with each other until they met in Derby Derbyshire England. Where my father went to find work, when they closed the pit down in Wales.
OMG YES! #1 jumping to conclusions, ie, newbie mistake. Long story short, i did a tree for a family that isn't mine. I found out after 3 months, circling back to mother's name, wrong staying point. I researched Pearl Rose Light, not Pearl Mary Light. Turns out, my birth mother was adopted.
Also, great grandpa Thomas Freeman married Charlotte Andrews, and great grandfather Thomas Andrews married Charlotte Elizabeth Gibson. (Whose mother was Elizabeth Charlotte) or was it the other way round? 🤔
Lastly, spelling also depends on handwriting and transcription. Also,as a census taker, I ran into people who wouldn't take the time to spell; they didn't care.
But you circled back and got things straightened out. That is the next point that I should likely make. Do a review/redo at some point.
My Grandmother was a Procunier. A cousin, David Charles Procuniar has a website that shows 110 different spellings for this family.
How wd I handle an ancestor whose last name is spelled multiple ways, e.g. Cronkwright, Conkwright, and Krankheyt? I have a 5th great-grandmother of Dutch ancestry who went by Cronkwright some of the time and by Krankheyt at others. Her father followed the same practice. Records are sparse, so I haven't been able to determine which name either of them may have used more consistently. By the way, I agree with you abt not using Unk, MNU, and LNU. When I began working on my family history, I thought LNU was the last name of one of my 4th great-grandparents, and I cd not for the life of me figure out how to pronounce it. Stupid is as stupid does. LOL
All newbies get confused by MNU, LNU, NMI, etc. Times need to change.
With regard to the last name, perhaps do a couple of things.
Do a little surname research. Perhaps one of the spellings is more common in a particular area or just in use. Or, perhaps the different variations let you know about their origins or ethnicity.
After that, it becomes a judgment call. Andy and I typically try to use the name they wrote their names in or that appear on official government documents.
When all else fails, pick one and then keep a note that has 'also spelled as.'
I’m Dutch and I would say you can write the surname like: Krankheid, Krankheijd, Krankheit, Krankheijt, etc. I know “Krank” is the German word for “Sick”, which in Dutch is “Ziek”, so maybe try this as well. The surname then would be “Sickness” as the -heid part is “ness”. Do you have more information about her like where she was born and when? I can access Dutch archives here, so maybe I could have a look!
My great great grandmother was married at least three times by the time she was 40 so my Great grandmother had a couple of full siblings and a couple of half siblings. Fortunately, HER grandfather was famous for starting the Pine tree cumberland presbyterian church in Awalt texas.
My great grandmother was actually named in two publications. It help me know her father's name. But my dad's first cousin Darlene refuses to believe it, because she thought she heard someone call him Lewis at some point. My point is that sometimes the researcher will hit a dead end because of their own stubbornness.
Sadly... the refusal to accept evidence is more common than we think.
I had to laugh when you said come back to your Polish ancestors when you can understand Polish better. I didn't know I had any Polish ancestors until a few months ago when I discovered my mom is an NPE. Her biological father is Polish! His parents, my great grandparents are immigrants. This has been a huge shock to our family. I don't know that I'll ever feel comfortable tracing this line back any further.
Talk about spelling! This Polish family has been spelled so many different ways since coming to America! For example, I have seen it spelled Moldoski and Moldrawski and many others. My favorite is one sibling's family just went with Molder! All his descendants are now Molders!
So many spelling variations. Yikes!
I made the comment about Polish because I've worked with beginning genealogists who want to climb their Plish family tree but they can't read Polish. Also, they don't know how to do any genealogy research. I invited them to work in the language they know and then tackle the Polish ancestors. (They didn't listen.)
My mom has a lot of polish ancestry. It is hard to find info about them.
still beginner but thinking of starting from scratch. I have 2000 in database added from other trees but most are unverified and I know some birth and death dates and places are wrong. Do I spend time cleaning and trying to find which is true and which is false or start a new one. I know a lot more than when first started but still a newbie
I have been attempting to write a blog post or make a video response to this question, but I haven't been able to get it done. Instead of not responding, I'm going to tackle this and eventually get the video done.
I think I would keep my tree and use a software program like RootsMagic or Family Tree Maker. I would work from myself back through time, fact by fact, ensuring that I have quality sources for each. You can then color-code the people in your tree so that you know who you've validated or not. If you come across someone who is inaccurate, you can delete them from your program.
I hope that helps.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics Thank you
Some very good points. After researching for many decades I have encountered many of these and a few others: 1) I also like to look at sibling's children as well. Was trying to determine which of several brothers was the father of an ancestor Elizabeth Shelton. Many had connected to father James but I was doubtful as early histories did not mention her as his child. However another brother John was married to a Parthena...and wouldn't you know it, one of Elizabeth's grandchildren (by a sibling to my ancestor) was named Parthena. Further research indicated John and Parthena Shelton were likely Elizabeth's parents. 2) don't trust all family lore that you have been told. I am conclusively related to a famous person in western history. I cant tell you how many times I have been contacted by folks whose family "stories" say they are related to that same famous person and it turns out to be completely false; 3) sometimes folks just change the way they spell their names. Am related to a Dolton family and without any rhyme or reason many line changed the spelling to Dalton...in this case I think they just tired of correcting folks; 4) dont trust old research. Have an ancestor that many early researchers listed as dying in 1897...except I found him on the 1900 census! When I pointed this out to one researcher they responded "well a census can be wrong". Sure a census might get the spelling or age or place of birth wrong but it is not going to list someone who died 3 years prior! 5) look for things that don't make sense. Ancestor Michael Jones was listed as having been born in 1699...however many of his children were born in the 1760s and when he died in 1780 his will listed minor children...not likely if he was 80 years old. In reality he was probably born in ca 1730.
All great points. Thanks for sharing. I just wanted to point out that I wrote about evaluating family legends in this blog post www.familyhistoryfanatics.com/post/avoid-rookie-genealogy-mistakes
I love this video. Hmm mistakes I've made the Unk yet I'll stop that now. It was an indicator that Oi get back to this. Thanks for a great video.
Glad you found it helpful. My goal is to help newbies get started on the right path.
In your video called Newbies for family Search you had a green marker you used. What app or tool was that. I sure liked it.
If you mean the green tool that I used at this point in the video th-cam.com/video/XrdnavEibVE/w-d-xo.html
That's the Page Marker chrome extension.
Thanks, brilliant video and advice. Way back in my tree there is an O'Halloran but when they came to England the O was left off ☺️
How did you figure that out?
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics my late aunt had the information and passed it on years ago, luckily. Irish records are not good I've hit a brick wall there.
Non-standard place names are a pet peeve of mine. I usually use a four-part place, no matter where the location is, and I always spell it the same, nor do I abbreviate names. I never enter street or farm names, as these really mess with the search systems.
For the US, my format is: Town, County, State, United States of America
For the UK, my format is: Parish, Hundred/Wapentake, County, Country
For Ireland, my format is: Townland, Parish, County, Ireland
INcluding the hundred/wapentake in the UK place name is something I find incredibly useful, as there can often be several places with the same name in one county. It also helps to visualise where in the county the parish is, as there can be over 100 parishes at times. It's easier to keep track like that. Townlands in Ireland are so very important, as the parishes tend to encompass several settlements, and the lack of variety among first names and surnames means often the only way to tell 5 different John Doyles apart is by their townland.
Thanks for sharing your practifes.
Do you either have or would you consider making a video about who NOT to add to the tree? I am sure I have gone down a rabbit hole or two, perhaps because the spouse of a TRUE ancestor had such a [seemingly] well-documented tree that I went on an incredible tangent if that makes sense. I tend to operate on the notion regarding genealogy that when a person gets married, they marry the entire family, so to speak. Thanks for any guidance you can share!
I think I have answered this in different videos, but my approach is this. Build your family tree on FamilySearch. That way, if you do discover that you've gone off on a tangent, you can break the link and leave the research you've gathered for others who might actually be descendants of that ancestor. In my mind, no effort is wasted because I learned a lot of skills. And, if I share what I've collected, I've given back to the community that has given me so much.
As for when not to add someone to a family tree. It's okay to have a working hypothesis. In fact, in FamilySearch, I can 'create an unlinked person' and build on them until I can make a confident conclusion of how they are related to others. So, again, research the potential people and be okay with making mistakes. Just have strategies of what to do when you discover them.
Also know, you're in good company. Every experienced genealogist has a tale of the mistakes they've made while building their family tree.
I can't speak for other online trees, but I've found in Ancestry, if you leave the [maiden] surname blank, it makes life extremely difficult when trying to find the person. Likewise if you use '_____' - so whilst I understand that 'MNU' or similar usages aren't correct, it just makes life easier.
One principal of genealogy is to record people by the name they were born with - ie, women with their maiden name. What are your thoughts when people prefix a man's name (usually) with 'Captain' or similar as they patently weren't born a captain, or adding the suffix 'Sr' as a man wouldn't be xxxxxx xxxxxx Sr until after xxxxxx xxxxxx Jr was born.
Ouch when you said 'sz' was a beta; it decidedly isn't! it's an es-zett; they do look similar, but are different. ß vs β
Thanks for the education on the es-zett. I did know this, and yet, folks have no idea what that is, so I default to what Americans typically recognize. I'll do better in the future (or at least I'll try to.)
I have a ton of females with no surnames in my tree and I haven't had trouble finding them. I would recommend using MyTreeTags as a filter rather than the _____, but that technology is new to many. Have you used it?
How do you delete trees. Or make one consistent family tree. On my heritage they only show 10 people at a time. I kept thinking people had been deleted. Do I have to start from scratch and readd people. When I add people from someone else’s tree does that duplicate my person or just mirror my person?
There are several things in things question I need more information before I can answer. Send me the question through www.familyhistoryfanatics.com/contact
The maiden name has been the biggest issue I’m having, especially because of the fact that we are from Mexico. Kept having issues with how to list the females in those lines and man, when you’re literally in a family with 260+ people and that’s just my moms, and 80% of those are all women it definitely makes for a banging the head on the desk type of moment 😂
How to list the women - list them the way they appear in the culture. Mexico has the double surname habit. For instance, let's say your grandmother's surname is Hernandez y Espinosa. Then you should use both names in the surname field. Make your family tree reflect the culture of the person.
Mexico also has the problem of Catholic Priests who baptized every female as Maria and every male as Josef or Juan. Did the family really name them Maria, Josef, or Juan? If you have evidence that they didn't, then exclude the Maria, Josef, and Juan from the primary spot for the given name and use the name at baptism as an Alternate Name. If you don't have proof, then you must include the name in the given name file.
But what's really great about many Mexican church records is that they will name the child, their father and mother, and their paternal and maternal grandparents. That's something many other countries don't have.
Best of luck.
Good morning. Having done genealogy for a number of years I must, pretty much, agree with everything. My only disagreement is that where I do not know any first/last name I have to record it as "Unknown". It is a factor of my software, which assumes that the final name is the surname. I have a great many Unknown Unknown's. It works for me. I also, usually record such as Unknown m Unknown, for males, or f, if female or u if no idea. Regards & happy genealogy, Patrick
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, even though I respectfully disagree. In your private trees, do as you wish. However, I would still avoid the practice. It's obvious you don't know their names when you have blanks.
Re names and their spelling, particularly in census records can be completely off the mark if the Enumerator spelled what he heard due to the accent and not what the actual name was. For me, I have Lay from Wiltshire in my tree...the name in the census for a particular year was Lloyd. Sometimes you have to take a really broad approach to finding families in records. Or Holmes instead of Ormes.
Very true. Human error can effect our records dramatically. We have to research with a very open mind.
Unfortunately some sites don’t let you leave fields blank which is extremely frustrating
YES! I noticed this on WikiTree for the surname. I don't like that.
Love these videos! It’s helped me so much! Are you also on WikiTree and Family Search?
I use both of those websites but FamilySearch more so than anything else.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics I was wondering if maybe I can find a possible cousin relationship to y'all! That would be very cool!
My wall was grandmother's that remarried . My grandmother who lived to 95 showing me an old photo of her great grandmother Taylor . Can't find anything until my 2x's grate grandmother who was her daughter with her maiden name on marriage certificate . Sloved that one .
Well done!
I am from India so I can't get any records. Although I have discovered my paternal 5x great grandfather it's impossible to go further up.
Are you sure there are no records available online for India? I just accessed the FamilySearch Wiki and there are some things worth seeking out. www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/India_Online_Genealogy_Records
thanks for this video, it has made my genealogy trail a bit easier. I too had a relative who married someone with the same family name, I left it blank because I thought it was entered in error, turns out they were both called Brown.
When that happens, what you do is DOCUMENT that the names are the same so other researchers aren't confused. It all comes down to leaving notes so others know what you discovered. Keep up the good work.
Just discoved your channel today....I was laughing and nodding my head at so many of the mistakes people make that I find beyond frustrating! Especially the maiden name issue!
Welcome aboard! I share these blunders because I did them myself when I started out. Hopefully others will find this video and avoid the mistakes earlier than I did.
Inconsistant names are huge in my family line, especially once we're back to a point before they were on American soil. I see so many wonky or different spellings on census' and things. When I have to choose I use the most common spelling.
I tend to opt for the spelling the ancestor self reported or wrote. For instance, what did they write on a marriage record rather than the census? What did they write on a draft record? What did they write when they completed an ecclesiastical record (not the priest wrote for them, but they wrote themselves)?
When I know they told someone their spelling or wrote it themselves on an original document, that's the one I prefer to use.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics That's a good point, using the spelling the actual person used. Sometimes it's just not out there, but I've seen it save the day too, like on a marriage record where it could have been written by a few people.
I’m fortunate on my English side I descend from the nobility and on my Jewish Spanish side from Cohen priests. My Ashkenazic side mums mum is terrible to trace. I made one or two errors earlier on but corrected them
Making mistakes is how we improve.
Wouldn't it be helpful to add someone (temporarily) into your tree, whose data you are not quite sure about, just to watch which kinds of hints come up, that might help you verify?
In a private tree on Ancestry, go for it. In any public tree, be careful because folks tend to copy or perpetuate the errors if you discover they aren't related.
However, if you are relatively confident that someone belongs in a tree, add them. If you discover later that they aren't, you can break the connection and explain why.
I know that's a double sided answer. In short, if you have reason to believe someone is connected based on documentation, add them to your family tree. If you're adding someone to your family tree without evidence, wait until you have more evidence to add them to your tree.
Have you any recommendations on how to document all the different spellings of one name in the tree? Especially if it is a surname?
Since I do much of my work with online sources attached to my online trees, the name spellings appear on the sources for me to view. The sources document the spelling variations even if the ancestor didn't really have their name appear that way.
However, you can also take advantage of any Notes, Life Sketches, or "Alternative Spelling" fields in genealogy databases or online trees.
If I'm working on formal research project, I'll keep the alternative spellings in my research plan. Check out this video about creating research plans (th-cam.com/video/9MVfPrJLEPo/w-d-xo.html).
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics Thank you. And the link to research plan is very helpful.👍
i learned the best way to start a tree start with pedigree then start adding sibbling to each lineage then spouses then children and thats how you can relate your DNA matches. my ancestors are Peña both side on my moms side just like the Smiths and alot of my cousins in the US spell it Pena (they omit the ñ alt+145) or Trevino instead of Treviño that makes it hard to link them to trees. most records in mexico are hand written and faded but i have done the read before and after pages works like a charm. i use diff programs to zoom and make out words I m working on transcribing them to typed form them translate them to english for those n my fam that are too white washed :D.
Difficult to read records are such a pain. However, I've heard Mexican Catholic records are gold mines. Is that true?
I hope that someday the algorithms on different auto-hinting genealogy programs can read the names with diacritical marks and without as potentially the same.
People are wanting to link to famous historical figures: I have that problem with John Harrison inventor at two ancestry tree Websites, so I found one of the many census records gave a different birthplace that is the same as siblings leading me to building back to the correct family. I found, yesterday, a tree that may be related to John not on the direct ancestor line, but through his brother that has a painting portrait of my 7th great grandfather (John's nephew).
Oh... I forget that mistake often. That's why we made a comedic video about being relating to royalty. th-cam.com/video/QUSFvily9u0/w-d-xo.html
Please enable captioning for all videos.
I finally found a solution that makes this possible. My archive is 500 videos deep. I'm working on it. Please be patient. Thanks for your interest.
What do you do when you try too find an ancestor you find records on them then they drop off records you can't find anything on them after a certain date?
I used her married name and maiden name nothing .
You might be running into a problem with lack of available records for the area you're researching. Have you used the FamilySearch Wiki th-cam.com/video/jIR6hatnyEE/w-d-xo.html to discover if records existed for the time and place you're researching? th-cam.com/video/BArAO5H41VM/w-d-xo.html
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics I'm a Ancestry.Com member so I used their records they have a wide range of records free too me, they had records in that time period just nothing on her.
Make sure if a genealogist or therapist ECT is getting into your family history they arnt outright lying to you about the origins of your families surnames.I had that happen to me when I was a kid.
I don't suggest surname origin research. There are too many ways it's not helpful and can be changed. I prefer researching people generation by generation.
Lol, every point you make is so relevant to issues I have faces!! Name spellings! I have had uneducated relatives (not to mention cencus workers tried the best they could). We have "Jewetts" or "Jewards" or "Jewat" or.... It keeps life exciting for sure 🤪
Perhaps you should just have the last name Jew*
I have an 4xGt Grandmother whose first name was Tearney, it was spelled correctly on her Birth & Marriage records but the censuses & Death record were a nightmare...spellings of Teniah, Tanuar, Tonnea, Tianna & Tynisah. It made it easier for me to put no name at all in the search and just work with year and place of birth, luckily it was a small village in England.😉
Same with me my mum and dad has last name smith but not realated
That has got to make things difficult.
Also some people got married more than once and we assume that they must be the parent of the child. So it's better to look at the birth record of the child to make sure who is the father and who is the mother and compare the dates with the marriages records...
Thanks for that insight. Definitely a great point.
Hey everyone be aware that some imports may give you "unknown" even if you never use unknown. Also how do you handle someone's real surname if they were adopted?
Thanks for that importing tip. I had forgotten about that.
Great question about adoptee names. The answer is, it depends.
While the recommendation is to use the name of person at birth in the primary given name spot, it's difficult to apply in some situations. For instance, my grandmother had the name Marie Anderson for about 24 hours. After that, she was known as Louise Long, the name her adopted parents chose. So, on our family tree, we put Louise Long. Her alternate name is Marie Anderson with an explanation as to why we chose that.
The more distant the relative, the more I tend to chose the name at birth guiding principle. The more recent the adoptee, the more I use the adopted name depending on the age they were adopted.
As long as you leave notes explaining your decisions, you really can't go wrong. People go wrong when they don't add notes.
several years ago my Uncle hired someone to research our Polish and Czech genealogy hit many dead ends because fathers name and or birthplace not listed on birth records. They did not look for siblings that may have had that information.
I suppose you have another research project in your future. - The Siblings.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics from my understanding of how these records were kept, the father not being listed is an indication that the parents were not married
I found a branch someone made that spans back the 1100s and they had a wife listed that was only 5 years older than their supposed child. That sure made me question the validity of the tree!
That would definitely raise a red flag.
I had a doosey.
2 men with the same name,
born on the same day
died on the same day.
married a girl with the same name.
both parents had same names.
their 3 kids had the same name.
One had a photo in Family search funeral hits,
I added it to the one that was my uncle.
His daughter spotted it and told me it wasn't her dad
What a coinendence
Wow.
well I had to make a conclussion but still me and my family are 100% sure it was him because we did know his name his wife his herritage and the time his wife was born so we found a guy in Antwerp with exact the same name , same birth year as the woman we had and the same city. His name was uncommen in Belgium , but not even a few people with that name. The only people we find with that name in belgium was littarly people from our family so. I was only 70% sure , cause we didn't have his birth or dead year. I asked all my grand ant's and uncles and all of them wer 100% sure that this was the man we wer looking for so I believe them.
If you can make a case based on as many documents as possible, then go with it. It's okay if we're not 100% certain because unless we have DNA evidence for close relatives, we're all less than 100% certain on the facts of our family tree. Many of us are comfortable with 70% confidence or higher.
Those mistakes are all to often made. I have been doing my family tree for at least a decade.
I know. Hopefully, videos like these can be a positive help for new researchers. I hope they'll learn from my mistakes.
The worst mistake I see, is people copying what others have posted online, not caring if it's correct or not. Then others will copy the mistake, and soon it's spread to a couple of hundred trees. They don't take the time to notice their grandmother was born in England in 1856, then they find them in the 1860 USA Census, then in the 1870 Canadian Census, then in the 1880 UK Census.
That is a mistake that is frustrating. It's reduced somewhat with collaborative trees. In some cases though, some folks have to argue with sources until finally a resolution about our ancestors can be determined. That's frustrating.
Where do i start!... Lol. Yes, i have made them all of these mistakes in my journey and i want to share a couple of them with you.
I was researching a set of grandparents. John Braun and Barbara Brown. My mother had always thought it was interesting because John's paternal grandparents were Casper and Maria Braun and Barbara's paternal grandparents were Casper and Maria Brown. Can you guess what i found in my research? 😁
And another is jumping to conclusions. A grandmother, Agnes Ritchie. Her parents were John Ritchie and Mary (unknown at the time but i know now). They were from Scotland and lived in Champaign County, Illinois. Who would have guessed that i found Agnes, John, and Mary in Champaign County, Illinois so quickly... And they were from Scotland. And on the sensus, i found out from where in Scotland. I even found a couple of her brothers... But... The more i researched. It wasnt the right Ritchie family. The names corresponded, the dates corresponded but in the end it was another Ritchie family from the other side of Scotland. I did find my family and they were living one county over.
I have a tip. Personally, i dont link people from other family tree's. If i cant make a paper trail i will leave it blank. I have too many times in the past found wrong informatiin in other peoples tree's. I once found a tree at the Family History Center as i was looking into my wifes lines... That went back to Abraham... Yes, that Abraham and Sara. I cant in good conscience link anything to that tree. When you do the information is only as reliable to the person who made the tree. Sources sources sources...
I'm guessing either someone made a mistake or they're from a really small community.
Oh no. I hope you left that research for the 'right' Ritchies to find. That's what I do with my mess ups. I share it on FamilySearch.
If you are a life long alcoholic, will this affect DNA results? And how?
No. It doesn't affect your DNA results. It does affect the susceptibility for descendants to become alcoholics. I descend from multiple generations of alcoholics and that's what I've discovered.
That's the same last name of my mum's side of the family tree
That sounds like my family tree
If you're teasing, I love your humor. If you're not, ummmmm
Yeah… I’ve made pretty much all of them…! And have spent the better part of the last year going back and cleaning things up…. Not fun…!
I would also add not being led astray by the use of the same name, for multiple children within a single family… Prior to 1900, it was quite common, if a child died, that the name might be reused on the next child of that gender… early on I dismissed these instances as errors… and it was an unfortunate mistake.
Welcome to the club. I believe nearly every serious genealogists has made some, if not all of these mistakes.
However, is it not part of learning?
I hope you'll continue watching our videos about building out your family tree. Here's one play list to check out first. th-cam.com/video/Fx2Tff-R-yI/w-d-xo.html.
Dates, dates, and dates. Birth, marriage and death. My mother has been told her father was born in 1902 but it was changed to 1900. I think he was actually born in 1900. Than her older bother (half-bother) said that their father married his last wife 5 days before my mother was born but what I found is that they married the year before.
Sounds like dates and sources rather than family tales are important. However, they were in the ballpark of date ranges. Imagine if he was born in 1892?
I’ve linked to Charlemagne 4 times over May sound exciting but most of Europe is descended from him.
Very true.
I'm a little confused about one point. I understand leaving a woman's maiden name blank if you don't know it but 1) If she got married, isn't putting her married name better than leaving it blank? And 2) Shouldn't you always leave a woman's maiden name even if she got married, for consistency's sake? The field in Ancestry is always labeled "maiden name if woman" for that reason, no? It seems like you advise the other way around in the video. Thanks.
Referring back to the video, Mary Smith married Leon Smith. Her maiden name WAS her married name as well.
When you add the married name as the surname, you're suggesting a situation very similar to this. You will confuse other researchers and the Ancestry algorithm.
The spelling of last names.....Heymer, became Heimer, and that became Heimerl.
Wow! I can see how hard that would be to search.
My ex wife looked up her family tree, found out they were still living in it
Okay.
Got booted off! As l
As always, thank you Devon!!
Oh no! I think the chat ends pretty quickly after the premiere.
I have 13 generations in the U.S.. I take a minimum of 2 sources. If I look at other trees I find a lot sources that dont site the DOB or DOD. I have correct once in awhile who the wrong information on my direct where I have a copy of the actual BC DC MC. I have correct i belong to SAR Society of the Cincinnati GSW1812 etc...
Wow. 13 generations. Yes, many other trees do lack sources. You''re wise to be cautious with them.
Hmm. So, you want a laundry list of my greatest hits, huh? Well, I talked about one of them in this blog: allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2019/09/52-ancestors-week-37-mistakes.html
Basically, I thought this lady Rosa Stella Coppola was a Coppola. Turns out that Stella wasn't her middle name. It was her *LAST* name. Yeah, that was an epic fail. More details in the blog. I thought she was a daughter of Paolo Coppola and Rosa Suverato. Turns out Paolo was her uncle. Still family. Just in the wrong spot. Luckily I had help from a VERY understanding person about this mess. She is a cousin so she filled me in on some cool stuff like how Paolo's son Giovanni payed the way for Rosa Stella and her sister, Marianna to come to America. Very cool of the cousins helping each other out.
Thanks for the blog post. And hooray for a patient relative helping you sort it all out.
Family History Fanatics Yeah! She was fantastic!
Ancestry only allows dna with main tree, so a lot of research “clutter” is forced to be on there.
I don't understand what you mean. Would you mind starting a new comment thread and explain further? If you respond to this one, YT will hide that you replied to me.
We’re all related anyways 🤷🏼♀️
Yes, and no. The question is when and how.
Eszett, not "Beta." - Danke
Sorry, but as someone who has been doing genealogy from childhood (about 65 years) I completely disagree with leaving surnames blank, that is the road to error and confusion.
The reasons for this are simple, take a married woman who gives birth to an illegitimate child, if no surname is given the child may be assumed to be her husband's child, if you add Unknown as the surname it is clear that the child is not the husband's child.
In the case of marriages one can come across the same scenario when one partner has the same forename but different surname, this may again lead to confusion and errors. Adding Unknown as name makes it clear the persons name is not the same Elizabeth or William but another William or Elizabeth.
If that causes problems for the software then the software is poorly programmed and needs to be rewritten, computers are supposed to support humans not humans supporting computers.
Cheers
Guy Etchells
I respectfully disagree that this is a problem as you explained. But I appreciate your opinion.
I thought you only left the surnames (usually maiden name) blank when you don't know it or aren't sure of it. If you know the surnames/maiden names you put them in.
What are these "this"? lol
?
Who cares.😝😝😝
People interested in building an accurate family tree care.