It is not the size of your genealogy database or how far back you can extend your family tree that matters.
What matters is that you tried to document the lives of your ancestors and relatives as accurately as possible. Try and record your relatives’ lives as carefully as you would want someone to document yours. Would you want someone to have you married to the wrong person, born in the wrong place, and having children before you were born?
If that means you have a small tree that only goes back to the 1820s, then so be it.
There’s nothing wrong with being stuck in 1820 if that’s as far back as the records allow you to go.
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2 Responses
Excellent advice. Thank you. I had never thought of how I would feel about someone entering incorrect information about me! Gives a whole different feeling about genealogy now! Good.
I get so bugged when someone brags about having 14,000+ people in their tree. Seriously? I doubt anyone has really documented fully that many people. I barely manage 2,000 individuals. Often, I’ll pare down those 2,000 further when the task of fully documenting distant cousins is too much to handle. This can’t be reiterated enough. The next time someone brags about their huge database, I think I’ll quote the 14 million names I have access to in FamliySearch Family Tree.