Avoid these common research pitfalls that many beginning genealogists fall into!
If you’re looking for ways to improve your research skills, it’s always best to take a personal inventory of your research practices and habits. Following are some errors that many beginners and hobbyists make which, if eliminated, could save time and increase accuracy immensely.
Collecting Ancestors
This is one of the most common mistakes. Simply copying down someone else’s tree or taking their information at face value without sources or explanation is a quick way to perpetuate untrue lineages and family stories. A good rule of thumb is to be able to give a solid reason for every bit of information you add to your database/tree/chart. How do you know that John is the son of Robert? And how do you know that that Robert is the right one when there is another man by the same name a county over? Traditions handed down can be helpful and even true, but a good genealogist always double checks! (And P.S. – use special caution when attempting to tie into “royal lines”; many are known to have been fabricated long ago.)
Fishing for the Famous
We encounter this fairly frequently, and it involves trying to prove a relationship to a notable person simply because you share the same last name. “I am from the South and my last name is Lee. We are probably related to the famous Confederate General Robert E. Lee.” Such an assumption is not a sound approach and is very seldom true. The best course of action is to start with your recent family and move backward. Avoid beginning with a celebrity or historical figure and trying to force him into your tree!
Tunnel Vision
It is usually difficult to find direct-line ancestors if the rest of the family is ignored. In your research, build complete families, not just single lines of descent. Don’t just know who your ancestor was and who he married, but research who his siblings and their spouses were. Even studying his unrelated close friends and associates can often be the key to solving a brick-wall problem. If your ancestor didn’t leave much of a paper trail, there’s a good chance that one of his siblings did, taking you back to the next generation you couldn’t have found only researching one man or woman.
Incomplete Research
Lone records can often contain inaccuracies, or at the very least, a fragmented part of the story. Be sure to make the effort to confirm information that you find with multiple records whenever possible. Find a headstone? Great! If possible, also locate a death certificate, parish record, obituary, and/or will.
Being Disorganized
Do you have notes scribbled on three different notepads and tucked away on Post-Its, backs of envelopes, and other random slips of paper? This one is for you! Your research experience will improve if you make a concerted effort to keep everything in one place. The same can go for Word documents scattered around your hard drive. Make folders, keep notes in your pedigree software, and always back-up your files externally! No one wants to lose ten years’ worth of research because their computer crashes!
Don’t be discouraged if you find yourself making these mistakes from time to time! Genealogy is a fun field, but it can also be exacting, with a steep learning curve. Even as professionals, we are constantly growing and figuring out better ways of doing things, and everyone benefits from raised standards!
We want to hear from you! In the comments, feel free to share some of the things that you have learned over time – perhaps even some trial and error you experienced in your own research.
If you need help breaking through your genealogical brick walls, please contact us and we can help evaluate your specific circumstances and identify how we can be of assistance.
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I read this advice and think I understand it. But then I find myself collecting names. I will keep trying.
Carol, I am fighting the same tendency. Have found two things that help even though it is a struggle still.
1. Making notes even if they are just on-screen comments that get attached to your app or online tree. Write down what you found out, where you found it, and what question or hint for something else it raises.
2. Don’t let your tree get too big. Instead, break it down at natural points, like if you find a family with 10 children but two hundred years ago, track each line separately towards the present.
My goals are also twofold: not just to chase after every bright shiny thing that distracts me, and to work purposefully even if that means checking newspapers for Obituaries once a week instead of each time you get a new name. Keep a list before checking the Social Security Death Index, looking for military records or some other task you are going to have to do repetitively.
It is so much more satisfying to attack tasks and make breakthroughs instead of having hints and whispers that you check again and again because you aren’t sure if you checked that one already. That’s like struggling to get out of quicksand.
Have you noticed if kids today still see quicksand as the danger we oldsters lived in fear of?
thank you for this one. Recently I learned not to leave out the children, follow their line too. I have a lot of catching up to do cause that’s what I have done! again thank you
I would rather attach and then loop off the branch if I find it to be false, then never to have a lead at all.
Thank you so much for this posting! I work with beginning genealogists a lot, and sometimes have to push and nudge them away from these pitfalls.
Using ancestry.com I’ve seen many people use Ancestry Family Trees as sources. Has anyone ever estimated how accurate these might be?
We love Ancestry family trees and other compiled trees as “ideas” and possible guideposts. Since generally these kinds of trees don’t include primary sources (birth certificates, obituaries, etc.) they can’t be considered a real source until the information is documented. But, as a starting point they can be helpful.
The accuracy of trees often tends to break down when primary sources become scarce (pre-1850 in the U.S. for example). At that point research requires good analysis skills and we find many not willing or able to prove a case for correct ancestry. That’s when parents get stuck into a tree that don’t really belong there, and then that tree is copied and placed around the web. So, finding documentation and putting together a case for the correct ancestors continues to be important.
We wrote a post on trees like Ancestry’s here: https://www.legacytree.com/blog/analyzing-family-trees/
While the Ancestry.com, Geni.com, and wikitree.com trees are USUALLY wildly inaccurate, there are usually some serious red flags that show up when you start wading into nonsense territory.
These include:
1. Sudden relationships to nobility or famous people.
2. People using the wrong titles and forms of address for nobility. For example, the Virgina Dudley line DOES eventually get back to the Baron Suttons of Dudley, but it Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, is only a distant cousin. If you follow the Ancestry.com and other trees, you’ll see claims that an earl’s son immigrated to the colonies, and the titles used are a complete mess. The chances of this happening are virtually zippo. By the time the Dudley immigrant came, his father was nothing more than the son of a mayor. Junior branches of mayoral families and urban branches of landed gentry descended from nobility commonly came, but actual nobility only showed up to be governor.
3. Ridiculous dates. Ridiculous ages of marriage, ages of children, spacing of children,
4. Years of both birth and death for several generations…but no more.
5. Lots of single children, for generations.
6. Untraceable wives, for generations.
7. Ridiculous changes in habitation. No, chances are that your family did not go shire-hopping across England.
Be REALLY, REALLY suspicious of the parents of anyone who is an immigrant. I must say that MOST of the trans-Atlantic genealogies from the colonial era are just flat wrong. Many of them are frankly forged by people wanting to have a noble or royal connection. 🙁
In my experience, having worked from written notes to the more organized Ancestry.com et al – I found the number of “presumed” family trees in Ancestry that are erroneous is very high. My experience over the years is to never trust a tree in any genealogy database unless it has sources up the yahoo – thereby being verifiable. The number of times I find great-grandparents etc, where it is blatantly obvious the persons are not what they show (husband is 100 years older than the wife etc). – I might use those trees as a nudge to check them and perhaps get a bit of good information. But never -never – ever trust another tree unless they have a mountain of sources showing siblings, spouses, children or totally obvious links to your lineage.
Usually I use it as a resource not as something I find usually to be accurate.
Kathy, you are so right! I try to remember to always cite my sources, but there are so many online trees (especially Ancestry) where folks “borrow” from others’ trees. One person repeatedly – on more than one tree – kept adding another child that didn’t exist. I wrote him several times. My dad is 95 and his sister is 99. They would know if they had another younger sibling.
My mother was very clear with research. I have our family tree back to 1864 in Ireland. I am looking for family that Maybe alive.
That’s wonderful – yes, it can be very rewarding to connect with living cousins. Now that DNA testing is moving further into Ireland we’re looking forward to that becoming an even more accessible avenue for connecting with cousins as well.
Hi , I had a 1st. focusing the name of Thomas Gibney . This was on 23and me . I know .g first cousin on my .other side but no nothing about whom ever is .g father . My mother lied to me all .g life prefer ting this Leonard Grove was my father . This Thomas Gibney as a 1st. cousin , at 8.44% DNA shared , 25 seg.eggs and 628 cM . Could be half identical ? Is there a possibility that he is related to me through my father? All of this is very confusing for me as I have a hard time understanding things vs , .gov .in d won’t let me and keep things anymore but I do know who .g first cousinrare. Thanks for any help or advice . Judy
Hi Judith, this article helps provide the building blocks for understanding genetically equivalent relationships: https://www.legacytree.com/blog/genetically-equivalent-relationships. Good luck in your research!
Katy,
I am considering using your professional help in my complex family search.
Some word has been done with resources checked.
I live in California; however most of the research will be in Amherst, VA and surrounding counties.
If this is something you would like to work with me, I would like to speak with you.
Naturally I will pay for services rendered.
Thanks,
Charles Jordan
Cell 714-356-5235
Katy,
I am considering using your professional help in my complex family search.
Some work has been done with resources checked.
I live in California; however most of the research will be in Amherst, VA and surrounding counties.
If this is something you would like to work with me, I would like to speak with you.
Naturally I will pay for services rendered.
Thanks,
Charles Jordan
Cell 714-356-5235
Hi Charles! We would be very happy to help you. Give us a call at 801-783-1277 to speak with a project manager and discuss your goals, or email [email protected]. Looking forward to hearing from you!
This brings back memories. I’ve fallen into all these pitfalls, especially pitfall number one — collecting ancestors.
Now I “look for records, not people.” Often I can collect enough primary documents that I don’t need to even look at other members’ trees or if I do I discover that I have more information than the trees, which is nice because someone will come along someday and be able to see my tree and the documents that verified the information.
I’ve come across many family trees that are just big messes that don’t follow logic but have been copied and pasted over and over with no one stopping to notice that the family lived in Nova Scotia, Canada but 60 years worth of censuses were all conducted in England? Stuff like that requires hours of undoing, which is kind of a fun challenge if you like sleuthing.
Every once in a while I’ll be stumped and take a peak at family trees for clues. And that’ what other people’s trees are, just clues.
Laura, you’re exactly right! Those are very good points. Accuracy is key, and it’s so vitally important to draw conclusions from what the records actually do and do not say. We do the same with published trees – use them as clues or guideposts, but definitely not as sources themselves. It can be a real jungle out there, and the more genealogists who figure out what you did about pitfall #1, the better. Thanks for your comment.
What I often do is grab a ton of Ancestry.com names at once. As a teenager, I’d already digitized my grandfather’s painstaking research (and added some of my own!), so many of the names are familiar to me. If thinks look hinky, I break off that line and start doing detailed research. I hate using Ancestry’s Events and attach records–wills, deeds, marriage, etc.–as a separate document. When I go to put everything on my own site, it will be much easier that way. Just export the GEDCOM and then add the individual records so I have the whole thing with more complete records rather than the usual citations.
Pedigree books of various sorts are more reliable than Ancestry trees in general, but they can be in error sometimes and are often incomplete, too. The ones that contain the documentation in them is my favorite of all because they’re so easy to use! The best sources are, of course, the original documents, however you get them–everything from graves to wills to legal action. 🙂
I have had the DNA tests done at both 23andme and Ancestry.com. One says I have 23% Jewish and one says 20%. Just about all the matches I have received are from Jewish people. I would like to find out where in my linage the Jewish part comes from. All my ancesters are from Zeeland Holland and most all the documentation is in dutch. No one ever mentioned this to me, my siblings and cousins. We are all from here. Is there anyway I could find out? I am going to get the M test at Family Tree.com and I know my brother won’t spend the money for a y test. (all the old relatives have died)
Hi Sandra, How intriguing! We would love to help and would recommend starting with an Intro research project to get you going in a great direction. To learn more, visit https://www.legacytree.com/services.
My son has two children and he also has remarried. How do I show his current wife as my grandkids Step-Mom and not their mother?
Hi Barbara,
It sounds like you’ve got us confused with the software program Legacy Family Tree. We are Legacy Tree Genealogists and are professional researchers, so I’m afraid we can’t help you with the program you’re using as it’s not our product! I’d suggest looking for resources on their website (legacyfamilytree.com).
Regards,
Katy
Using an online and a computer family tree maker program I decided to add a ❤️ Heart Symbol after the surname of each person in my direct line of ancestors which made it so much easier to quickly identify them when looking at the large list of All family members in my tree.
Great idea!
I, too, Wanted to find a way to be able to track my direct descendant line through my family tree. I decided to type the direct descendant names in all upper case letters to differentiate them from the rest of the tree. I like the idea of putting in the heart ❤️, though.
I am a novelist writing a book that involves DNA. I know nothing about DNA but in the novel I was to be able to use DNA to find this character’s grandmother. What I want to know in simple terms the steps one would take, who might do the test, and what the results would look like. It is basic 101 questions and answers. John
Hi John, a great place to start gathering information is on our blog. Here are a couple introductory articles to get you started: DNA Testing for Genealogical Research and The Who, What, Where and Why of Genetic Genealogy Testing. Good luck with your novel!
Not recording accidentally discovered information. This happened to many when I 1st started researching my own family. I was having difficulty with one particular ancestor, so I drove Mason Co, Ky, his home county from about 1825 to 1890, in order to personally research whatever I could find about him. While going through marriage and real estate records, I find a possible reference to a marriage for another ancestor. The surname was spelled “Highland” and I never heard of the bride, while my ancestor’s name was spelled “Hilen.” I didn’t record the info or where I found it. Less than 2 months later, I discovered that it was indeed my Hilen ancestor’s 1st marriage, which was unknown to my relatives. It took me about 2 years to rediscover the marriage record and the name of his 1st wife. He had several children by that 1st marriage and all his children spelled their name “Highland.”
Yes, this can certainly be a pitfall as well. Thanks for sharing your experience, Mick. I’m glad you were finally able to “rediscover” the record!
I wish I had seen an article like this when I first started collecting my family history in 1988 when my mother died.
I spent at least 8-10 years collecting data without noting sources! ACK!
Now . . . over 30 years later, I am STILL paying the price and doing cleanup on that information, still trying to gather sources, and still trying to validate conflicting information.
I know it can be hard for folks who are new and excited family hobbyists to understand but the sources of your information are everything in genealogy.
They aren’t just important to the professional genealogist.
By the time you have amassed 3-4 generations of information, you are bound to have run into conflicting information.
And, that’s the point that even the hobbyist need to be able to ascertain which of two dates or which of two individuals is more likely to be the correct ones — and THAT is most critically decided based on the sources available to you.
If you didn’t gather that info, you – like me – will pay the price decades later.
Thank you for the work that you do.
Ugh, I’m so sorry it has been a frustrating experience to go back and correct information and add sources. While painstaking, it is such an essential task to complete! I think you’d enjoy this recent article from our blog on tips for evaluating conflicting evidence. Good luck with your reesarch efforts!
Here is a bit of crucial advice to newbies: don’t make assumptions!! My bad was assuming that my third great grandfather was the biological father to the first two children he reared. I knew he married a widow about 1860, but I never even considered that she brought two children into the marriage!! The children use their stepfather’s last name from the earliest records we have for them.
Great great great grandfather & grandma went on to have their own large family and happy marriage. Over the last 140 years the information about Maggie and George, the two eldest kids, was lost to descending generations. Consequently, I spent years researching a man with which I have no common DNA, although I carry his last name in 2020, a century and a half later.
Now I have had to start researching an entirely new Baden-based family. I have been doing genealogy since before the internet when one had to go to the LDS Family History (er, Mystery) Centers to crank through microfilms in a dark room. Now I can spend my days on the sofa looking at 19th century church records stored electronically by the state archives in Freiberg. I can do it at 3 AM or 3 PM. Maybe some day I will find my great great grandfather‘s baptismal record.
People say it’s a needle in a haystack, but I will continue to look at every Catholic church record in Baden. It’s enormous, but a finite amount. I believe his unusual last name will help me. I am months into this and will NEVER give up.
Hello I’m knew to this but I see all the last names are Say. My mother is kaly Say My father was Donald Pepperall. My mother gave me up at birth on Feb 28 1978 drying the scoops. My father was not aware I was alive I was told. If any of you have a clue please feel free.
Jason, we’ve helped many people in your situation. Please consider filling out the form on our home page to give us more information. You may be able to learn something from a short consultation. https://www.legacytree.com.
Has your company ever had failures where you have not been able to provide what your customer is looking for. What is your company policy if that happens or are you always able to come up with the answer(s)?
Sandra, thank you for your inquiry. Please take a look at our Terms of Service page. You can find most of the answers you are looking for.
Does your company always manage to find the information that your customer is looking ? If no, what are your policies about that situation.
Great question Sandra. We are usually able to accomplish our client’s goal(s). This is because we set realistic expectations at the start of the project. After an initial consultation, we can tell the client how much research time is needed to complete their goal. If you would like to schedule a consultation, please contact us!