You are Getting Hitched, But How Do Your Parents Support Themselves?

This 1945 marriage record from Fountain County, Indiana, asked for quite a few details–including names and occupations of parents. Made this record for my uncle’s son more interesting.

You never know until you look–more reasons to research the extended family.

 

How Primary is that Information in the Newspaper?

Trautvetter’s fine and jail time probably came from official records. The second sentence–probably not.

Any source can be accurate. Any source can be inaccurate. The reality is that most sources are somewhere in between and the researcher has to determine where to give the most credence. That’s particularly true with newspapers who have to balance deadlines and bottom lines with getting the complete and accurate story. It can be a difficult balancing act. That newspaper account of your relative’s scandalous behavior, appearance in court, etc. may have relied on information from extremely reliable sources, second hand sources, biased sources, etc.

And if the newspaper has a political bent and your relative was of the “other party,” they may not always be mentioned in the most favorable light.

And the newspaper may also drop in a little opinion about your ancestor’s behavior as well. Some newspapers sprinkle the opinion on more than just the opinion page.

When the Site Dishes Up Results, You Must Determine If It is Mystery Meat or Fine Cuisine

A search for a relative on a “big” genealogy website may search records from a wide variety of sources and instantly pull up an image with the name of interest. Before you assume you’ve hit the genealogy jackpot there are some warnings:

  • The image may not refer to your relative. The image may come up because the name is “close,” the location is “close,” or someone else thought the record was about your ancestor. The name may not really be the same, the location may be too far off, or that other person may be incorrect. If the search parameters were set too loosely, the “match” may make absolutely no sense. Search results are not divinely inspired.
  • The transcription may not be correct. The original may be difficult to read or the transcriber may have made a mistake. Transcriptions made on Ancestry, FamilySearch, etc. are not officially sanctioned transcriptions. They are not gospel. Do not treat them as if they are. Read the document yourself. Ask someone for assistance on one of the many genealogy groups online (Facebook, etc.).

When viewing any image of a record, ask yourself the following questions:

  • what record did this image come from?
  • is there more to this record?
  • what was the purpose of this record?
  • am I using an image of the original record or a transcription of the original record?
  • who originally created this record and where are those originals?

If you don’t know what on earth you are looking at, how on earth are you going to understand and analyze it?

Don’t just ask those questions and ignore them. Get the actual answers. If you do, you are likely to:

  • make fewer mistakes
  • save yourself time
  • discover even more information

[In reference to the title of this post, I realize that some readers are vegan. If so, replace “mystery meat” with “plant of unknown origin.]

For a somewhat lengthy example of this analysis, view a post on our sister site, Rootdig.

Is Your Question Clear?

Whether a question is sent in an email, posted on a message board, submitted as a comment to a blog post, fired off to a Facebook post, or spoken out loud, try and be as clear as possible.

Avoid:

  • pronouns (he, she, they, etc.) if the reference is not clear;
  • nameless titles or relationships (doctor, Grandma, Uncle, etc.);
  • abbreviations and other shorthand that someone else may not know;
  • do not self-create abbreviations;

Your goal of asking a question is to get an answer. If someone cannot understand your question, they may choose to ask for clarification.

Or they may simply bypass your question entirely. Remember that it is the internet and people often move onto the next shiny thing.