{"id":4020,"date":"2015-12-18T15:32:54","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T21:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=4020"},"modified":"2015-12-18T15:32:54","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T21:32:54","slug":"genealogy-is-not-a-video-game-where-everyone-is-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/2015\/12\/18\/genealogy-is-not-a-video-game-where-everyone-is-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Genealogy Is Not a Video Game Where Everyone Is Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Family history research is more than simply pointing and clicking your way to an ancestral <a href=\"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/tombstone2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4021 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/tombstone2-268x300.jpg\" alt=\"tombstone2\" width=\"268\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/tombstone2-268x300.jpg 268w, https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/tombstone2.jpg 547w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 268px) 100vw, 268px\" \/><\/a>answer&#8211;or finding where someone has already solved your problem.\u00a0 No matter what the TV commercials, the shows, and the websites indicate, some problems require a little more than five minutes of work or an &#8220;automated search&#8221; to find the answer.<\/p>\n<p>In the United States, the research becomes a little more challenging when the people being researched lived before the American Civil War in states that didn&#8217;t keep vital records. The problem is compounded if the individuals didn&#8217;t have much money and moved on a regular basis. In these situations, research becomes (at the very least) about:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>learning about <strong>all the records<\/strong> kept during the time period and locations where the ancestor lived;<\/li>\n<li>learning about the <strong>history<\/strong> of the area and the <strong>current events<\/strong> of the time;<\/li>\n<li>accessing material at <strong>all levels<\/strong>&#8211;local, county, state, colonial, federal, etc.;<\/li>\n<li>learning about the <strong>applicable laws<\/strong> and <strong>common legal practices<\/strong> during the time period;<\/li>\n<li>having an understanding of how your ancestor probably <strong>lived on a day-to-day<\/strong> basis;<\/li>\n<li>being willing to <strong>shed assumptions<\/strong> about history, culture, and your ancestor<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Not everyone gets leaves on the online trees&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=1662\">especially Benjamin Butler<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Family history research is more than simply pointing and clicking your way to an ancestral answer&#8211;or finding where someone has already solved your problem.\u00a0 No matter what the TV commercials, the shows, and the websites indicate, some problems require a little more than five minutes of work or an &#8220;automated search&#8221; to find the answer. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153978,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/153978"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}