Grandma Is Human & So Are You

Remember that any relative, even the most well-meaning and reliable one, can occasionally tell you something that is incorrect. Verify everything Grandma (or Uncle Herman, etc.) tells you, using other sources as much as possible. Well-intentioned informants can be incorrect and the very process of verifying what they tell you may cause you to locate information you never dreamed of.

People tell me that “I didn’t look at that record because I already knew what was on it.” You don’t know what is on it until you actually look at it. You may think you know and you may be correct. But there’s always the chance that you were wrong.

How Old Should They Have Been?

We all know that census records can contain incorrect ages. When searching online databases, besides having the years of birth for people I am looking for, I have their approximate age in 1850, 1860, etc. This helps me eyeball if I might have the correct people or not. Having only the years of birth in front of me is helpful, but having the approximate at the time of the census saves me a little bit of time and reduces errors because I “subtracted” wrong in my head.

Does Your Own Handwriting Give You Another Variant?

In reviewing handwritten notes for an article, I looked at the way I had written the last name “Butler.” If I had not known what the word was, I really might have been inclined to think it was “Beetler.”

I remember a time when someone told me that they way I wrote my last name made it look like it was “Neice.”

Maybe if you are not having luck with spelling variants, try writing sloppy and have someone else read it!

Multiple Records of Same Event

Always keep in mind that there may be multiple records that may provide information on the date of an event. The date of your ancestor’s death may be in a county book of death records, an obituary, a church register, a tombstone, the family bible, his pension record, etc. There may be a note that he is deceased in a deed, a tax roll, or a probate journal.

Not all of these records are equally reliable. Just remember that an event may be recorded in more than one place.

And don’t neglect to check records just because “I already have that.” One never knows what additional information a similar source may provide.

Similar Names May be Different People

Just because names are the same does not mean it’s one person with a variant name. My ancestor was Nancy Jane Newman. She had a first cousin Nancy Elizabeth Newman. To further confuse the issue, they married brothers.

Researchers are frequently confusing them. It can be easy to do, but remember–just because you think the names mean the people are the same–check. Do your research and take care before determining you have the same person with two slightly different names. You may have two very different people with similar names.

Be Negative and Record It

Are you keeping track of the people who “weren’t” the right ones and WHY they weren’t the correct ones? Often a person will run into the “same wrong” people over and over. Tracking them in at least outline form and having that information handy may keep you from researching the same people over and over only to learn you already eliminated them a long time ago.

And if it ever turns out that they are distantly related, you’ve already got some of the work done.

Those Boarders Might not be Boarders

Is there one or two “boarders” with your family in the census? Just because they are listed as a “boarder” doesn’t mean that they aren’t related. Boarders could easily be nephews, nieces, or other family members temporarily staying in the household. They may be a clue. Try and find them ten years earlier or ten years later and keep the names in case they appear in other documents.

Write Down Your Thought Process

This has been a tip before, but it bears repeating.

Sometimes in our haste to gather information, we fail to record why we did certain things and what led us to certain conclusions. Our reasoning may have been correct, or maybe not. If you don’t write down what you were thinking and your reasons as you do it, duplication of research is impossible and sooner or later you will wonder why you did what you did or someone else will ask how you arrived at that conclusion.

Writing in my research notes why I did what I did as I did it reduces the chance I make mistakes along the way. It also makes it easier to review my thought process later and see how I was wrong—or how I was correct.