Doing These 3 Things Will Profoundly Help Your Genealogy Research

Have you ever made a mistake? Perhaps a typo in something you wrote? Maybe you put the wrong date on something?

How about when you transcribe or abstract information from a document while doing genealogy or family history research?

Of course you have. Everyone makes mistakes. It's a part of life. It's part of being human.

So it stands to reason when you're looking at an index entry for your ancestor online that it just might be wrong. Or maybe when you pull down that book of will abstracts off the library shelf, that it, too, might have some errors. Maybe not all of it, but something in there might be wrong which makes it wrong-ish.

Which is why those resources make great clues.

And why they also need corroboration with some other clues before you can definitively say a certain statement is true or false.

That's right. You're going to have to keep looking for more clues. Finding one clue doesn't mean stop. It means it's time to find more clues. And if you can find them and have access to them this is why looking at the original document {or digital copies of the original document} will be much more helpful to you. Double check that index entry in that online database or from that library book. Was it right? Was it wrong? Wrong-ish? Was there more information that you needed on the original document that was not on the index entry?

How will you know for sure someone wasn't being human and made a mistake that profoundly affects the way you think about something and your research if you don't look for yourself?

Further, I've found way more information that I needed for research on original documents than in indexes. Sure, I use the indexes to help me in my research. In fact, an index tells me there's an original document somewhere that I need to get my hands on. It's like a big red flag that indicates this came from somewhere else.

But then?

Make sure that document is correct. The more I research, the more I find original documents have mistakes too. 'Cause, you know, humans create those too. Imperfect humans. In fact, my own birth certificate had a typo in it. Then when I lost it {Yes, I lost it.} and ordered a copy of it, the clerk who typed it out did not make the same typo as the first one had, but made a different one. That's right. My birth certificate is still wrong-ish. {Interestingly, both typos involve my mother's maiden name. Their typing skills need some work. Definitely their editing skills could use some, you know, use.}

Likewise, on my 2nd great grandfather's death certificate, his last name is misspelled just a bit, his death date is listed as his birth date, his parent's names are misspelled just a bit, and his parent's places of birth are wrong.

So. Good thing I ordered that microfilm roll that contained his baptismal record in it and his mother's death record. {Yeah, that wasn't online.} And good thing I ordered his Civil War pension record. {Nope. Not online either.} And it's also a pretty good thing I found his father's baptismal record. {That was online.} Plus, all those census records I found came in pretty handy for all sorts of corroboration. {All online.} And then finding my 2nd great grandmother's Proof of Heirship public affidavit in land records stating he died on such-n-such date without a will was kinda handy too. {She also listed all their living children -- his heirs -- and their spouses. Digital copies all online and for free.} And then his Knights of Pythias (fraternal order) records {Not online. At all.} were nice too because they corroborated his membership and death date. {By the way, the fraternal order clue came from his death certificate.}

And that's how I knew his death certificate, though official and created at the time of his death, was, you know, wrong-ish.

Those humans had made mistakes when they filled out his death certificate just like those humans had made mistakes when they filled out my birth certificate -- both times. {Will the 3rd time be a charm? Will they look over their work to see if it's correct? I'll let you know.}

But? The 3 things that will profoundly affect your family history research? The 3 things that can break-down that genealogy research brick wall?

1. Looking for original documents {or digital copies of original documents} wherever they may be.
   
2. Questioning those original documents.
   
3. Repeat.

~Caroline

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