You know the old phrase, "If I'd only known then what I know now"? It relates to genealogy very well because we build our family trees over a long period of time. Over the years I've learned so much about building a family tree. I'm sure you have, too.
As I continue to add source citations to my family tree, I revisit my early inexperienced work. Now that I know what I didn't know then, I can see past my incorrect conclusions and make breakthroughs.
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| Take a fresh look at your early genealogy work with these details in mind. |
My "newbie" errors fall under a few categories. Here are 5 details you can review to enrich your family tree.
1. Not Assuming a Country of Origin
Years ago I documented all the available vital records from my grandfather's hometown. When I entered people with no birth record available into my family tree, I left their place of birth blank. I decided not to assume they came from the same town, or even the same country, where they later lived.
Tens of thousands of documents later, I know it was uncommon for people in this place to leave home. My roots are in small, remote, rural towns. Evidence shows people stayed in place unless they moved to the next town to marry.
Historic events in your ancestors' country may have led to a lot of migration at different times. But in my family tree, people were rarely uprooted. So even though I don't have proof of a person's town of birth, I can assume a couple of things:
- If they lived in a town where their last name was common, I'll assume they were born there. No harm done.
- If their last name is not found in their town, I'll assume they were born in Italy. This way they won't show up in a report as missing their 1870 U.S. Federal Census. (See "How to Find Location Errors in Your Family Tree".)
But let's say you're researching people in a country that saw a lot of immigration (the United States, Brazil, Australia, Canada, etc.). You shouldn't assume anyone was born in that country. You're going to need to find other documents to narrow down their place of birth.
2. Missing Certain Annotations
I looked at a ton of vital records before I realized certain important clues could be hiding there. Now that I'm hunting down source citations, I get a second chance to scan those records for clues like these:
- If a baby is born after their father died, check the birth record for a note about the his date and place of death.
- If a child is born and the father doesn't report the birth, there may be an explanation why. You may see that he was ill, the weather was terrible, he was dead, or he was somewhere else working. I have a lot of records in my family tree that say the father was in America when the baby was born. This is a good prompt to search for his immigration records.
- On Italian vital records, you may overlook the fact that a baby was stillborn. Look for the words "nato morto" (stillborn), "senza vita" (without life), or a death date in the column of a birth record. It's important to notice this because of the next item to review.
3. Not Recognizing Human Error
A town clerk is the person who creates these old vital records. And being human means there's a possibility of human error.
Some marriage records confused me long ago because the dates didn't line up. Here's what was happening. To get married in Italy, the bride and groom had to show a copy of their birth record. It's not like today. You didn't have your birth certificate in a strongbox at home. You had to request that a town clerk find the original record and hand-write a copy of it. (No Xerox machines, either.)
I found cases where the clerk copied the birth record of the bride or groom's dead older sibling with the same name. Since I have access to the birth records, I can see that this was human error. But there's another wrong-person error that can lead to big problems for your family tree.
Aside from their own birth records, the bride and groom needed their parents' consent to marry. If their mother was dead, they needed a copy of her death record. If their father was dead, they needed his death record. And if their father's father was dead, they needed a copy of his death record. Grandpa may have died many decades ago. If the town clerk didn't have the right details, he might copy the death record of a different man with the same name. And they all had the same name, didn't they?
Not recognizing this error may lead you two merge two very different people in your family tree. If the details seem off, try to search for the man who fits this stray death record.
4. Overlooking Marriage Clues
Early on I made this mistake over and over. If a couple posted marriage banns, but there was no marriage record to go with it, I assumed they never married.
Sometimes that is the case. (See "When Is a Marriage Not a Marriage?") But then I learned two important facts. In Italy, if a bride and groom came from two different towns:
- they had to post marriage banns in both towns
- they almost always married in the bride's town, even if they were going to live in the groom's town.
A couple's second marriage banns should tell you if one of them was born in another town. (See where to look in "How to Read Italian Marriage Records REVISED".) If she was born somewhere else, you can expect they married there. Now I'm making sure I check the other town for marriage records. And I'll find the original birth record of the out-of-towner.
5. Not Expanding the Search
Building on that last point, the original vital record is always better to have. The town clerk is less likely to misspell a name that's common in his town. If marriage records tell me the groom's father died in another town, I'll get the original record in that town. Then I use the original document for the source citation.
In the past I was more likely to stay within my ancestral hometown and not chase down the out-of-towners. But the purpose of my family tree is to help countless other family tree researchers. If I can cite the original birth record of my third great uncle's second wife from another town, why not do it? I won't build her entire family tree, but I want to put together enough facts to make that possible for someone else.
It took a huge source citations project to get me to review everyone in my tree. But it's so worthwhile. I've made discoveries, added new people, and enriched my family tree. Find a way to give your family tree a thorough review. What big discoveries will you make?
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