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Last Updated May 25, 2022<\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n Ancestry 50% Off Gift Memberships for Black Friday (Gift to Anyone, Even Yourself!)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Family history research is a fascinating and rewarding hobby, and it\u2019s getting more exciting all of the time. With new records and\u00a0tools and research methods appearing every day, there are seemingly endless opportunities to explore and collaborate.<\/p>\n But, as most of us already recognize, there are also endless opportunities to make mistakes. And, in the connected world of online research, those mistakes can spread like wildfire.<\/p>\n Genealogy is collaborative by nature and sharing information is a big part of the journey\u00a0for many of us. After all, who wants to do research in a bubble? Genealogy is about connections and none of us would be able to expand our research to any great degree if it wasn\u2019t for the spirit of sharing.<\/p>\n But, as we discussed in an earlier article, sharing has to be approached cautiously (whether we\u2019re borrowing from someone else\u2019s tree or offering our own up to others). Because it is so easy for someone to simply grab our information and run with it, we must be extra cautious about the data we place online.<\/p>\n Make Instant Discoveries in Your Family Tree Now Imagine adding your family tree to a simple website and getting hundreds of new family history discoveries instantly.<\/b><\/p>\n MyHeritage is offering 2 free weeks of access to their extensive collection of 20 billion historical records, as well as their matching technology that instantly connects you with new information about your ancestors<\/b>. Sign up using the link below to find out what you can uncover about your family. Discover New Genealogy Records Instantly<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n And this brings us to one very important part of our family history research\u00a0that can easily\u00a0go awry \u2014 the connection between generations<\/strong>. It\u2019s becoming common, much too common.<\/p>\n More than any other area, this one is the most vulnerable\u00a0to the kind of mistakes that can completely crush\u00a0the accuracy of an entire branch of our tree.\u00a0Any person\u00a0who has been doing family history research for any length of time has seen this in action, an incorrect parent or parents on a family tree, sometimes copied again and again by others.<\/p>\n Of course, a \u2018bad connection\u2019 can happen to anyone quite easily and is not always a matter of poor research methods. Most of us have made a mistake about parentage at some point or other. But usually, if we\u2019re invested in our research, and if we\u2019re concerned about proper sourcing, we will catch the error fairly quickly.<\/p>\n So why is<\/em> this mistake so widespread in public\u00a0family trees? Because it\u2019s an easy error for any<\/strong> family historian to make, no matter how careful they are. And, let\u2019s be honest,\u00a0not everyone is interested in developing a highly accurate tree. Some\u00a0family historians are only in it for the short-term, just slightly curious about their family\u2019s past. And there\u2019s nothing wrong with that.<\/strong> Genealogy research is supposed to be fun and can be a simple, passive hobby for someone and still enrich their lives and the lives of others.<\/p>\n But it is for this reason that each of us must\u00a0take responsibility for what we choose to believe about other people\u2019s trees, in addition to what we add to our own.<\/p>\n Before we borrow or share information we need to ask:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n 20 Billion Genealogy Records Are Free for 2 Weeks Get two full weeks of free access to more than 20 billion genealogy records right now. You\u2019ll also gain access to the MyHeritage discoveries tool that locates information about your ancestors automatically<\/b> when you upload or create a tree. What will you discover about your family\u2019s past?<\/p>\n Claim My Free Record Access Now<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Am I sure<\/strong> that the connections I am seeing in this other\u00a0person\u2019s tree are accurate?\u00a0Are there quality sources to back the connections up? Does it appear that this researcher was careful about the information they added?<\/p>\n Am I sure<\/strong>\u00a0that I\u2019ve made correct connections in my own tree? Am I ready to share that with others in a format that encourages copying?<\/p>\n If we answer \u201cno\u201d to any of these questions, it is time to step back and consider our course of action.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re thinking at this point that you don\u2019t need to worry because:<\/p>\n a)<\/strong> you never copy other people\u2019s trees or<\/p>\n b)<\/strong>\u00a0you know you did due diligence on every single<\/strong> connection you made in your own tree,<\/p>\n that\u2019s great! But you might also want to consider that this type of mistake is so common that it was only recently discovered that an entire line in Hillary Rodham Clinton\u2019s tree was completely wrong. Was this because of random copying and sloppy research? Maybe, but more likely than not it happened in spite<\/strong> of careful research.<\/p>\n The researchers in this case had made one of the most common \u2018bad connections\u2019\u00a0\u2014 incorrectly using\u00a0the identity of a similar individual with the same name in a tree. It is not at all uncommon to find that there is another person with the same name as your ancestor born in a similar location on a similar date<\/em>. This is especially true when you are dealing with a common first name or surname, but can happen even to those with seemingly uncommon names.<\/p>\n And, of course, if you\u00a0accidentally use the information for the wrong<\/em> individual in your research\u00a0you will\u00a0get off track with an\u00a0entire line\u00a0<\/strong>very quickly.<\/p>\n But we can<\/em> avoid this.<\/p>\n The most important way to stop ourselves from accidentally traveling down the wrong path in our research is to make sure that each and every connection we make is as accurate as we can possibly determine. It is important not to make assumptions in our own research and not to simply take another person\u2019s research at face value.<\/p>\n When adding a new generation to your tree make sure you:<\/strong><\/p>\n Do not simply copy<\/strong> another person\u2019s research. Carefully examine every single source that person has, and if proper documentation does not exist, find it yourself.<\/p>\n Have an acceptable combination of \u2018connecting documents\u2019 <\/strong>that tie your generations together. While these sources will change from situation to situation, they should always include documents that clearly show a grown child you are researching and<\/strong> the parents together. This may be a marriage document or death record to start with. Find this information first and then work backwards in time to further verify the information with birth, baptismal, census records and others.\u00a0Make sure the picture you are forming makes sense and don\u2019t overlook discrepancies or usual dates \u2014 they could be a sign that you have gone off track or something is amiss. Look for consistent data and make sure that variations in sibling\u2019s names or ages, people\u2019s birth dates, or family name spellings are just variations and not a sign that you have the wrong individual.<\/p>\n Avoid adding documents to your tree<\/strong> that you can\u2019t be sure actually relate to your ancestor just because the name and birth year are similar. Sometimes we do have to take leaps of faith in genealogy research, but we need to take as much time as possible to make sure that the document is really an accurate addition, every single time.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t take big leaps.<\/strong> Once you have found the parents of an ancestor, work backwards carefully through the records, making connections wherever you can, to make sure you don\u2019t accidentally assign incorrect individuals to your tree.<\/p>\n Be cautious about\u00a0step parents or adoptive parents<\/strong>. People remarried and when they did they often adopted children, legally or not. If a person\u00a0remarried when his\/her children were still at home the new father or mother may even be listed on a marriage certificate or death record as the biological parent. Sometimes there are virtually no clues to make this apparent so always make sure you find a birth record for your ancestor once you have secured proper connecting documents. Most family tree programs have an option to add step or adoptive parents so that you can record the importance of this person in a child\u2019s life while still maintaining an accurate biological line.<\/p>\n When in doubt, always double check.<\/strong> Don\u2019t leave important connections to chance. Noone wants to spend years researching a line only to find it\u2019s not even their own.<\/p>\n If you have any doubt at all about any of the connections in your tree, we encourage you to take the time to examine each one and make sure you have the sources needed to know\u00a0that you have the correct information.<\/p>\n And if you do not \u2014 and cannot find documentation to prove the connection \u2014 consider removing the information from public trees or making clear notes about your doubts. A simple question mark after a name will alert a fellow researcher to your concern. You can then follow that with a note that is attached to the person in question.<\/p>\n And if you see another person\u2019s tree that shows an incorrect line, take a moment to drop them a note so that we can all help to avoid one of the most common and destructive mistakes in genealogy research.<\/p>\n By:<\/strong> Melanie Mayo | Editor, Family History Daily<\/em><\/p>\n Image:<\/strong> Portrait group of African American Bricklayers union, Jacksonville, Florida. Abt 1899.\u00a0 Library of Congress<\/em><\/p>\n Originally published Feb 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Are You Sure They\u2019re Your Ancestors? This Genealogy Blunder is More Common Than Ever Last Updated May 25, 2022 Ancestry 50% Off Gift Memberships for Black Friday (Gift to Anyone, Even Yourself!) Family history research is a fascinating and rewarding hobby, and it\u2019s getting more exciting all of the time. With new records and\u00a0tools and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-guides","tag-db"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":717,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions\/717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}