Genealogy Chat

Can I throw in a word of caution here to new researchers. Please do record where you find your bits of info, where and when you searched. Otherwise in years to come you will find that you have no memory of where the info came from and will start to doubt it! You will not know how reliable it is. Did you actually find it, or did someone tell you it? If so, who? And how did they know? I know that I made this mistake when I started 4 years ago, and had pages of entries, the origin of which was obscure to say the least. Much has had to be rechecked! Always but always record your sources!! It is very easy to get carried away in the early days when so much info comes to light so quickly, but please do slow down and take each step carefully.

It is incredible though, amongst all these bits of paper and vague scribbles from my early visits to the local records office I have found some real little gems. Ive found things that I have only just thought about looking for! It worries me that I had forgotten all about them!!

Heather As everyone knows, if you want to find your great-grandmother in Dorset in 1881, you need to start by looking very hard for your mother's cousin's husband in 1901 in Cumbria! nell

I never throw anything away, like you months down the line I find it what I have been looking for all along. Irene

I know thats probably what I am doing BUT as I am stuck at present until the certs arrived, I thought I would go back to when I started 9 months ago on my search. Blow me, amongs the 3 box files that have accumulated there was lots of info which obviously I thought of no use at that time but which now are gleaming nuggets of gold. So guys if you are waiting like me, go back and look through the stuff you disregarded months ago. I am amazed what I had managed to collect when I had no knowledge of what it could mean in the future!