Ancestry Tips

Ancestry Search Tips:

While having memberships to certain sites can be a plus in your search, it is not always necessary. There are plenty of ways to do searches on genealogy with out having a membership to a site. Here are some tips to help you on your journey to the past.

Library
For local and state searches, you can find a lot of information at your local library in the Genealogy dept. You can also go to your State Library or Genealogy Library and locate a lot of information for FREE.

Every county has a public library where you can access information of that county. County Obituaries will be located with in that county library. So if you are looking for someone locally, make a pit stop at your local library and copy information. 

• When searching at any library or location. I always recommend having a note pad, pen or technical device. I usually take my phone since it has a note pad and camera on it, my tablet device because it also had a note pad and camera. Plus both devices have access to the internet and my sites I usually visit. If you do not want to borrow a book because there is not a whole lot of information in it or because you simply have a ton of books your looking at sifting through, this would be a good idea to use your camera to resource the information.

You will want to make sure you include in your documentation or pictures:

• name of the book or location of the resource you are pulling information from.
• page number of that resource if any
• if you are documenting by picture then you will want to note each picture you take, so name them or number them by each picture you snap so you know where it is from, who it is for and resource to credit.

I ALWAYS note the resource location in any of my searches. I am on ancestry, so anytime I list a note or upload an image of a resource or tip on an individual. I always note the resource so others can locate it or see that I have verified a location. If there is a link, I will always note that link in my resource findings. Not only is it a good idea to include the location of that resource or website you are remarking on, so others can locate it. It is also helpful for you when you need to go back and recheck or verify something should you have questions about it later on. Believe me, you will almost always come back to most of your resources to either double check, re-verify, change or update.

State Historical Society

For a small fee you can visit your state Historical Society and discover loads of information. Most Historical Societies will have a seperate library inside as well where you can locate more information. I have learned that you will learn more about an indivdual or surname but learning about the town, county or state the individual resides in and how it was built up.

Local Stores are resourceful

Some people do not realize this but many resources are located within some of your local stores. Goodwills, Half Price Book Stores, Antiques Malls and even Historical Buildings or Historical Restaraunts. Places like these are full of information like: Pictures, News clippings and articles, Genealogy books, Photo albums and more. Some places will show pieces of history on their walls some place.

Other Buildings to check: County or State Government Buildings that will hold many resourceful documents or books. Some will charge a small fee and others will not. Something to keep in mind, most people don't know this, but a lot of counties and states are now merging a lot of their historical documents and information on to the internet in digital archives. Most counties and states will offer FREE information on specific or tabbed documents and other categories they may request a small fee to view.This is also the same for Libraries.

Google or Other Internet Searches

Why pay for memberships to sites when there are plenty of ways to start your search for FREE. Use the memberships as a last resort. Some ancestrial sites like Ancestry will offer part of their site for FREE. That is always great for the start of your tree and mild search. Some sites like Ancestry also offer a FREE TREE upload to store your information. If you use these sites and their trees, be sure you always back up your tree to either your computer or some other safe device or location like a disc. You always want a back up some place because there is no gurantee your information is safe.

Where to begin your search on the internet. Always keep in mind that the research you find on the internet is just that, research. Chances are not everything you find on your quest has been verified or confirmed as legit records. DO NOT take anything off the internet as factual information until you have verified and confirmed it. Some researchers unknowingly save information thinking it is true when it is only a resource that was noted not confirmed to be true. Verify them before you claim them as a part of your connections. If you do note them as a resource only, make sure you mark it as an unconfirmed or unverified resource and note the location where you found it so you or others can go back to that resource and work on it.

Locations on the Internet to look for FREE:

• Search the History of the State where your family originally came from.
• Search the County of the State where your family originally came from.
• Look online for County/State digital archives. (Most are beginning to merge files online.)
• Search the Surname for a specific State/County
• Search a Specific First/Last Name with a date(s) of event. For instance if you know the name First/Last, and the DOB/DOD or both. Include them in your search. You will be surprised what comes up. 
• Local Newspapers sometimes are willing to help you locate information. Sometimes they may ask you to pay a small fee. Most times they will send you the digital copy and offer you the original copy for a fee. I generally take the digital copy as it is faster and free.
• Visit local cemeteries sites where known descendants rest. One of the greatest journeys with ancestry is paying your respects to decendants. My children enjoy hunting with me. When we go to the cemetery it is not just an other hunt. It is a time to pay respects, learn some history and admire these great individauls of our past.Their final respecting place often speaks about these individuals and their life. Some headstones are creative and full of information. Some are in mausoleums and others have a small monument. None the less each one has a piece from that individuals life included on the stone. (When visiting cemeteries, you will want to have a pad of paper or ancestry search papers and a camera. Take pictures of headstones to document within your tree.) Headstones in most cases are more accurate then most records when it comes to dates. However, keep in mind there will be some that send you on a mystical journey with much confusion. I have definitely seen my share of mysteries.

Some sites that will offer FREE resources:    (Again keep in mind these are resources that may or may not be verified. It is your job to confirm which they will be.)

• Find A Grave  (I have also attached a search box here at this blog)
• Rootsweb  (Again verify your results before confirming a resource hit)
• Ancestry (Part of this site is offered FREE as well as a FREE Tree to start on.)
• Family Search
• 
  

Free Historical Newspaper Searches

• Chronicling America
• Elephind

County or State Digital Records

• Hardin County, KY Records 
• Records in Pennsylvania
• Hendricks County, IN Records

I am sure there are loads of other free sites out there that I have not listed. This atleast will give you the idea. If you have a good site you think we should add, please let us know and we will upload it to our list. 

Use the FREE resources first to get your search started that away the costly memberships are used as a last resort.  

Happy Hunting!

5 Ways To Tell If Your Genealogy Research Is Accurate

courtesy post:

I have honestly no clue who posted this article, it was passed on for other researchers. I also thought it was really interesting and certainly a good read for other researchers.

The information you add to your tree should always be confirmed and checked for resources to back it up if you can locate them. Do not just save trees to trees with out verifying the resource hit first. In my research over the past 15+ years I have found that some people just save the information and dont verify how accurate it is. Leaving trees full of descendants that are not actual descendants. If you can not verify the information then save it as a resource to your tree not as a confirmed hit.

Other tips to help in your hunt: Ancestry.com is great, Fold3 and other genealogical sites. However, Google searches are also great. Google your ancestors name and any years you may know for sure, death or birth, residence time frame. Google history of states or county where the ancestor is from or may of resided. You are bound to locate something on that ancestor. Findgrave often has factual resources, however, be careful as some information is not factual or has not been confirmed. Locate Obituaries. Most obituaries are full of information.

Good luck in your search and remember dig deep and read all you can as it will help you with clues to your search.

5 Ways To Tell If Your Genealogy Research Is Accurate There is a lot of guesswork and uncertainty in genealogy. People in the past may have put the wrong information on old records, either from genuinely not knowing, or from having something they wanted to hide. Mistakes can be made in transcriptions of documents from one location to another; even tombstones are known to sometimes have mistakes on them from the stone cutter. Census takers make mistakes in the spellings of names (and even dates and places of birth of the householders they enumerate). Those who published family genealogies back in the 19th century, when this was a popular thing to do, often relied on legend, gossip, and the erroneous family stories other people gave them. There is a lot of room for human error in genealogy research, and you are undoubtedly going to come across it, either in the work of others, or through mistakes you make in your own work. Even the best genealogists will once in a while discover they got an entire line wrong based on one incorrect assumption, misinterpretation of a record, or by obtaining a faulty record. With so much room for making mistakes, how do you know you’ve gotten it right? How do you know if your genealogy research is successful? The fact is, except for mother/child relationships (and even these might be non-biological without you knowing it, if there was a secret adoption), genealogy is never a 100 percent sure thing. Even the best, most carefully carried out research can still potentially be proven wrong by a future researcher who discovers a clue no one ever noticed or that has just come to light. However, there are a few ways to be as sure as you can ever possibly be that your research reveals the correct family relationships and information. Here are five ways you can tell if your genealogy research is most likely correct. 1. You Have Found the Same Information in More Than One Set of Records The more often a family relationship, name, birth or death date, marriage date, or other important piece of family information is repeated through various record sets, the more likely it is to be correct. This is especially true if the records are primary records (records generated at the time of the event they mention). For example, if you find the same names of parents or birth date or any other type of information for an ancestor in: Birth and death certificates Old newspaper birth and death announcements or other articles Wills Military records the more reason you have to trust that the information is correct. Unless you find something drastic later that makes you question this information, or that refutes it entirely, you can be reasonably sure your research into this person is successful. 2. Your Research Matches the Research of Other People In the online age, you are bound to come across people who are distant cousins or relatives by marriage who are working on your line. They may have been working on it for a while, possibly just as long as you or longer. It is important to compare research with these people. If you find that your research matches up, including the sources you both used to arrive at your conclusions, you can have a great deal of confidence that your research is correct. If there are discrepancies in your research, then one of you is wrong, and you both need to look at your work again. If you can find other people who have worked on the same line, try matching up your research with theirs. In fact, the more people you find who have done the same research and whose research is identical to yours, the more sure you can be that your research is correct. 3. You Can Reverse Engineer Someone Else’s Work Those big genealogy books of the 19th century, though notorious for containing mistakes, also contain many correct things. Most of them come with annotations in the form of footnotes and/or endnotes as to where the author got the information used to write the genealogy. Use these sources and find them yourself. It is always good genealogical practice to look at the original record in any case. You may find information on it the original researcher missed. If you can go through all the sources the author used and still come to the same conclusions as him or her, then you can be as sure as you can be that your research is successful. 4. Look for Confirmation for Your Wild Assumptions Sometimes, in genealogy research, we have to take a leap of faith in our conclusions due to a lack of solid evidence. Even the well-respected genealogical journals often contain articles where the author made their conclusion based on an assumption. However, those assumptions are always backed up with ample amounts of secondary evidence (evidence where the record doesn’t outright state a family relationship or date, but one can be inferred from the information that is there). If you have made a large assumption in your research, look for secondary evidence to back it up. The more secondary evidence you can find, the better. Once you’ve accumulated enough of it, you are at a point of being as sure as you can be about the accuracy of this line. Of course, the best thing is if you one day discover a primary record that confirms all of this secondary evidence. Keep looking for a primary source, even if you have a lot of secondary evidence. Just because you haven’t found one yet doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It may be out there waiting for you to find it. 5. Get DNA Evidence While still relatively new to the world of genealogy, DNA has a remarkable ability to prove and disprove family relationships that would once have been impossible to confirm. While DNA may not be able to tell you the exact names of your particular ancestors, it can definitely put you in a suspected ancestor’s family (or take you out of it) without a doubt. If you have a person in your family tree with whom you have a suspected but unconfirmed direct relationship, DNA can confirm or deny it for you. You just need to get at least one (but the more the better) modern descendant of that person to compare their DNA with yours. The various DNA testing companies online can then tell you if the two of you are genetically related within a certain number of generations. The more people you can get to take the test, the more accurate your results will be, especially if one person doesn’t match up with all of the rest of the people who tested into the family. DNA offers about the surest way to confirm the success of your genealogy research, as there is no room for human error in DNA results. Conclusion Genealogy is imprecise and uncertain by nature. There is always a chance a relationship or information about an ancestor’s birth, death, marriage, or anything else is wrong. This is more true the farther back into the past you go. People weren’t always as careful about accurate record keeping as they are now, and making up noble lines of descent to make a family seem more prestigious was common. While you can never get around these things entirely, you can make sure your genealogy research is as accurate and successful as it can be by using the five tips above. Being as sure as you can be is the same as declaring victory in genealogy.