Genealogy Chat

I was lucky to be sent a 'one name study' of my father's side , not a common name but it had still taken someone a lifetime's work. I hadn' t planned to do that side of family to be honest as I thought I knew enough.

But when I took a close look, there was a glaring 'omission' rather than error, a second marriage had been missed (due to a name change) and so from that point on there was a blank, in 'my bit' as it were .

Always check someone else's info yourself, it may well be right but then again.....!

But at the same time that second pair of eyes can be invaluable. I couldn't figure out how my gt gt grandmother Annie could still be alive on a census after her known death..... second marriage, same name lol. Simple, but I kept missing it!

xx

Being a "beginner" and having a tree back to the 1800s sounds suspiciously like using someone else's research and we all know how often "trees" get downloaded from here !!

(a different Elizabeth !)

Ron

I agree with you 100% many a time i have posted the link to FreeBMD & Family search....for someone to come along and post what they were asking for.

When i 1st came on here if someone posted a useful site i would go and have a look, i also remember the thread that everyone posted web site on.

TC Julie

Elizabeth, I would lke to think we are all kind on here, I'm not trying to offend anybody and I take your point about being handed material going back a long way and people wanting to carry it on, I had not thought of that and it's a good point.

Now if that's the case then you are perfectly entitled to ask the question "how do I" the point I'm trying to make is at that point it's no good somebody offerring to do look ups for you, they need to point you in the direction needed to help you to help yourself, that's why I posted the link to the beginners website.

Hence the saying, give a man a fish.

Thre is another point rearing it's head in these circumstances, "having data from someone else". Unless you know how that data was compiled and what verification it may have raises the point "is the data accurate" and verified. The same goes for look ups, right name, right time, right place when looking at census or other sources does not mean right person.

Some people compile family trees without even buying a certificate to prove the relationship, due to the number of trees we print we see all sorts, we never question the data on those trees but in some cases it's obvious that data has been added to the tree that has been copied from other sources instead of the tree owners own research.

We have even printed a tree that went back 67 generations and right at the top of the tree was "God the Father" now try telling me that the owner of that tree had done all the research themselves.

Ron
www.genealogyprinters.com

About people who call themselves beginners - I am sure there must be many people who start off like me with a a lot of material they want to put together.
I started with a family tree drawn up in the 1960s by an uncle as a present for my grandfather. It was in scroll shape, and tore a bit more everytime it was moved, so I felt I ought to tidy it up and get the contents on record so I began to put it on line, finding it increasingly interesting - it went back to about 1450 - and getting more material from Hot Matches. I was disappointed not to get any hot matches from the other side of the family so eventually I put something on to Tryng to find to ask how to get back further. I knew absolutely nothing about access to censuses, registers etc., and that there were all you lovely volunteers waiting for queries. When I got lots of help from the answers I was then hooked! the great moment being when I upgraded to access to the censuses to do my own searches.
What I am trying to say is that it is quite possible to be an absolute beginner and not know how to start whilst having material back to 1450 - yes please do point us in the right direction for self help, but do it kindly as it is a closed book for soo many beginners!

I think if you enjoy research yourself then after the first small nuggets of advice you are given you will want to do it yourself anyway and so 'learn on the job' :) which is what I have done, but those first pieces of help given were a starting point and an encouragement. ( Two single best pieces of advice I had , 'freebmd' and 'google everything'!)

If you don't enjoy the actual research side (and many don't they just want the finished article , bit like making a cake...I don't like making them, but I enjoy eating them lol) then getting someone else to do the research is a big plus!

Rose x

I agree with both of you, the point I'm trying to get over is that if we do a look up for somebody then it should be that the look up is done following the efforts of the poster to find the information themselves,

if they know where to get it but do not have access to it fair enough a look up request is in order but a lot of the questions asked have answers that are easily found if you know where or how to look.

I'm trying to say it's better to point the researcher in the right diredtion to help themselves instead of just doing a look up.

One recent question stated that they were beginers but they had traced their tree back to the early 1800's, now if the researcher got back this far they should have a fair bit of knowledge about doing research but after saying what they did they asked a very basic research question which would be one of the things every researcher would know the answer to if they had even just a basic knowledge of carrying out research.

Ron
www.genealogyprinterscom

Ron - One way of tackling this is to follow the research and lookups on one thread, trying to replicate them yourself. Maybe some you can't do, because the poster has access to records you don't - e.g., Mick's 1881 LDS CD's transcriptions of the Scottish census (which can also be found on Ancestry). However, there are some that are just plain mysteries. Here, you ought to either ask on the thread how it was done, or else send a pm to the poster asking how they did it. (If you adopt the latter course, give a cite to the thread, e.g.,
http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.asp?wci=thread&tk=1162031 ).

I used to bookmark threads and URLs, but threads can vanish, and my URL bookmarks/favourites list just got too cluttered, so now I copy and paste stuff into a file(s), maybe adding notes to myself.

Ron

I am in complete agreement with what you say. When I like many others started researching my tree years ago the internet was in it's infancy and there was little or no other help availiable. It was only after some years that the 1881 census cleared the 100 year secrecy rule and became availiable on a large set of CD's from the LDS which I still have.

Most research was conducted by labourious methods of visiting Somerset House or trudging through graveyards looking for clues. All this did help sharpen the mind and hone ones research skills. Now virtually all the information and advice required is online and very simple to find, something I heartily welcome.

I accept that difficult problems will always arise where help is needed, even for myself, but the best help is self-help and guidance for those newly embarked on genealogy. It's rather like an apprenticeship where the apprentice can only learn by doing things themselves while guided by the more experienced and often self taught.

I hope this does not sound pompous as it's meant to be good advice.

Michael

Yeah - tell that to a Newfoundlander who worked in the cod fishery.

I'm a beginner.

Just 2 of the many statements made by people when asking for help, as always SKS jumps in and asks for further details so they can do a look up, all very well but it's not relly helping the poster, it may well find some possible answers as to who they are looking for but if you are a beginner, and we all have to learn, you could do a lot worse then look at this website.

http://www.cyndislist.com/beginner.htm

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and you feed him for life.

Ron
www.genealogyprinters.com