There Are No Answers in the Back of the Genealogy Text Book

There are no answers in the back to check your genealogy work.

Your genealogy research is not a homework assignment where you can check the answers or someone can check your work for you. In some families you may be the first person ever attempting the homework.

And in other cases you may have other people in your “class” (ie, family) who aren’t as concerned about as being accurate as you are.

That’s why you constantly want to make certain that your conclusions make sense and are reasonable, you track where you find things (even if you citations aren’t “prefect”), track why you concluded what you did, and keep a list of sources that you’ve used.

And while there are no guarantees in genealogy, doing those things will increase the chance that you do get the right answer. Or at least as right of an answer as is possible.


Check out Michael’s list of webinars!