U3A Family History Group: Key Principles
We asked our members what important principles or lessons they had learned about family history research, including things they wish they had known when first starting out. Theses are the topics that came up, ranked according to the number of people who raised them:
- Check everything, especially information gleaned from other people's family trees published on line.
- Keep a record of your findings, including research that may seem irrelevant: document everything and keep your records well organised.
- Start by talking to your family, but check against documents and don't believe all the family stories without checking them.
- Context is important, particularly with transcriptions; geographical context is especially important.
- Don't give up on apparent brick walls; new material is being added to websites all the time.
- Have a plan: know what you are looking for and document your progress against the plan; be specific.
- Expect the unexpected and the improbable; family history is always throwing up surprises.
- Records can be misleading: original documents may contain errors of spelling etc.
- Think outside the box; in particular explore the full range of potential sources.
- Go back to the source material: in particular, transcripts of originals sometimes contain errors
- Don't forget the distaff side: don't restrict yourself to tracing back just the paternal line; mothers often have the best stories!
- Save all downloads as soon as possible and give them meaningful file names.
- Do your own research: don't rely on the work of other people that they have published on web sites.
- Wills are useful but don't assume too much: they may not cover all of a person's estate if there had been previous grants and disposals.
- DNA can be very useful, particularly in breaking down brick walls.
- There is always more to learn: family history is a life-long hobby, and can become an addiction!
- The Internet is not all bad; there is a huge amount of useful information out there.
- Sometimes Americans get it right! American family historians have a poor reputation but many are very good, especially where they attach source documents.
- Love history (more widely); the more you know of the past the better you will understand your ancestors' stories.
- Put your mind in their times not your own; values and attitudes today are very different from those of the past.
- Enjoy the rabbit holes: they often lead to the most interesting characters and stories!
- Don't bore your family with your research! Some will be interested, but not everyone will be; be sensitive.
Hints and Tips
Here are some websites that contain hints and tips to help your research:
The Society of Genealogists has a number of guides and tips to help you discover your family history
Findmypast has a handy 10-point checklist every family historian needs
FamilyTree has 25 tips & tricks for successful family history research
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