8 Topics to Make You a Better Genealogist

Get a comprehensive view of 8 topics designed to make you a better genealogist.

Six months ago I thought of a way my weekly blog articles could do more for you. I wanted each article to give you the big picture on any single genealogy topic. Most of my articles since then give you several ways to:

• solve a problem
• improve your family tree
• use new tools to your advantage
• advance your research.

These articles are like one-stop shopping for genealogy best practices.

Here are the 8 articles that received the most attention so far. Have you missed any?

21 Genealogy Tools I Can't Live Without

Years ago I found out my husband's cousin was working on her family tree using only a spreadsheet. That meant it held nothing but names and dates. Any family tree software, whether it's on your desktop or online, offers you so much more than that.

Take advantage of the different tools available to you—many for free. When I took a look at my most important tools, I found that I'm using 21 of them on a regular basis. Find out what you may be missing.

7 Free Genealogy Map Projects

It seems anyone who's passionate about their family history has a fondness for maps. As a kid, I thought it was amazing that my parents grew up a block apart. But that was only the tip of the iceberg. All my branches have intersecting locations, both in New York City and in a small section of Italy.

Here are 7 different ways you can use maps to illustrate, understand, and enhance your family tree.

5 Free, Easy-to-Use Family Tree Charts

I rarely print anything out on paper. But certain forms are terrific to bring with you when visiting an archive or library. And when I research an unrelated family, my custom spreadsheet is exactly what I need.

Here are 5 different PDFs and spreadsheets that I created or adapted and want to share with you.

3 Key Signs a Family Tree is Wrong

If you think that family tree hints are the only way to build your family tree, I'm here to tell you you're doing it wrong. Hints alone can lead to countless errors. Besides, the joy is in the research and in knowing you've found your people.

Before you believe anyone's online family tree, find out how to tell when their tree is wrong.

These 3 key signs don't include a lack of source citations. And that's my own guilt showing. I've spent the last couple of weeks putting in tons of source citations I'd postponed creating. I have a long way to go, but I'm doing it because it will show that my family tree is based on facts.

4 Ways to Safeguard Your Digital Family Tree

How many hours have you put into your family tree? Countless hours, right? That's why your top priority needs to be safeguarding and securing your files.

It isn't hard to do, and you must make it a regular habit. I use:

• cloud storage
• backups on internal and external hard drives
• online storage on family tree websites
• and I always export a new GEDCOM file after a long day of genealogy research.

Find out your options, make your choices, and stick to a plan. If you work on your family tree every day like I do, daily backups are so important.

8 Tips for Researching Your Immigrant Ancestor

I'm lucky to have recent immigrants in my family tree. None of my people came to America before 1890, and the majority passed through Ellis Island. (Funny how 1890 is recent to a genealogist.) That means I have ship manifests with the ability to unlock generations of ancestors.

For many people ship manifests are our first look at our old-country origins. But it's up to you soak every bit of information out of that manifest. These 8 tips will help you get more mileage out of each ancestor's passage.

4 Keys to Italian Genealogy

Too many people think they can't build their family tree because they don't speak Italian. To them I say:

• Can you learn a handful of words if they're shown to you?
• Can you pick out a name among the words on a page?

These 4 keys will de-mystify Italian vital records and help your find your ancestors. I started reviewing these records without knowing anything. Now nothing about them slows me down.

Top 5 Uses for the Free Family Tree Analyzer

Any genealogy researcher can get carried away with the excitement of a new discovery. Those moments of excitement open the door for human error. No matter how careful we are, we're going to have mistakes in our family trees. That's a big part of the value of Family Tree Analyzer (FTA).

Years ago I struggled to improve my coding skills so I could write a program that did an ounce of what FTA can do. FTA's author, Alexander Bisset, has created something far beyond my imagination. The moment I found his software, I quit coding.

If you want your family tree to be your legacy, to be accurate and reflect your work, you need to use FTA. Here are 5 very important ways to use it to improve your family tree.

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If you have a topic you'd like me to cover in this blog, let me know. There will be some topics outside my experience, but I'm eager to know what you'd like to know.

A Deep Dive into Your Family's Last Names

Ever since I began exploring my family origins, the last names of my ancestors have fascinated me. You see, with all my roots planted deep in rural southern Italy, names are all I can find. My ancestors were not educated. Only a few could sign their name to a document, rather than making an X.

My people are not found in newspapers. Their exploits are not recorded in books. They were illiterate farmers or artisans living in remote hill towns. Their names are all I have to show for my effort. They are names recorded in their towns' birth, marriage, and death records. And I treasure those names.

Look closer at the last names in your family tree. Each one cements your connection to the places that make up your genealogy.

Unlike other cultures, Italian last names come in enormous numbers. According to an article in Italy Magazine, "Italy has the highest number of last names in Europe: 350,000." Some last names in my family tree are specific to their region or town. Others, such as Leone and Caruso, appear in every part of Italy.

I've used Italian vital records to identify 410 of my direct ancestors. That list of people contains 115 last names. One hundred fifteen! Only 9 of the 115 appear more than 10 times in my ancestry. The bottom line is that I identify with a lot of last names, not only the 3 names of my 4 grandparents (you read that right).

I admit it. I am a passionate collector of names and dates. I celebrate the many marriages that united entire towns in my family tree. For me, "Genealogy is the Joy of Names." Every family tree builder should take pride in "Where Your Last Name Came From." You should take a deep dive and "Explore Your Last Name Concentration."

In fact, here are:

• "3 Reasons to Do Your Own One-Name Study"
• "4 Rules for the Names in Your Family Tree"
• and here's "How to Keep Track of All Your Surnames"
• and "How to Crunch the Numbers on Your Family's Names"

Dive into any of the examples and projects linked in this article. You'll fall in love with your family names, too.

These Steps Make Your Family Tree Much More Valuable

My extended family tree of more than 80,000 people keeps on helping my very distant cousins. They get so many hints from my tree that many feel compelled to write to me. Helping them discover their roots is my goal.

But my project to connect all the families from my towns makes me skip most source citations. I know, "Shame, shame!" That's why I spent this past week adding tons of missing source citations. If you find your ancestor in my family tree, I want you to find the links to their vital records, too.

A well-sourced family tree shows the world that you've done your homework. Your tree is valid and worth exploration.

Without source citations, why should anyone believe your family tree? Follow the genealogy rules and show your work.

Getting a Handle on Missing Source Citations

After writing "5 Ways to Find Loose Ends in Your Family Tree," I worked my way through people with a missing birth date. I found many of their vital records on the Italian Antenati website. For the sake of speed, instead of a source citation, I added a note to each person that looked like this:

His birth record: https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12657/an_ua971481/03dOqgV

It's easy to find those notes when I open my family tree's latest GEDCOM file in a text editor. I search for "His birth record:" and follow the link. Then I create the source citation. This example becomes:

From the Benevento State Archives, 1824 nati, Pago Veiano, document 70, image 43 of 51 at https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12657/an_ua971481/03dOqgV; https://iiif-antenati.san.beniculturali.it/iiif/2/03dOqgV/full/full/0/default.jpg

If you're curious, the first link goes to the document in the book of birth records. The second link goes to a high-resolution copy of the vital record. It's perfect for downloading.

If this were your ancestor and you found him in my tree, you'd be able to follow the link and see his birth record. That's the real value I want to provide for anyone with a connection to my family tree. I still have hundreds more of these notes to cite. Then I'll run an Undocumented Fact report in Family Tree Maker and start whittling away.

If your family tree software doesn't have an undocumented facts report, use Family Tree Analyzer:

1. Export a GEDCOM file from your family tree and open it with Family Tree Analyzer.
2. Go to the Main Lists tab and scroll all the way to the right.
3. Find the Num Sources column, click the down arrow by the column title, and choose Sort A to Z.

All the zeroes will be at the top of the list, showing you all the people with no source citations.

I don't know about you, but I never include a source citation for someone's sex. It seems ridiculous to say, "Yeah, the census says Maria was a girl, so that's my source." I just don't think it's necessary or of value. So my undocumented facts report is going to include the sex of all 80,491 people. I have to skip all those entries.

Last Saturday, from about 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., all I did was create source citations for those "His birth record:" notes. I completed only 86 of them, so the remaining 447 or more of these notes will take many days to finish. (There are also lots of Her birth record, His and Her death record, and Their marriage record notes.)

Then I'm left with the thousands of people whose vital records are sitting on my computer. I put off their source citations because my priority was getting families into my tree. I knew I could go back and create the citations whenever I wanted. And now I want to.

If you have an overwhelming family tree task like this to do, start close to home. Begin with your closest relatives and fan out. (See "Overwhelming Clean-up Task? Start With Direct Ancestors."). If you use Family Tree Analyzer for this task, sort the list by Source Num and Relation to Root. First you must view the Main Lists tab and choose Export (from the menu at the top of the screen) > Individuals to Excel. Then you can use your spreadsheet software to sort by both Sources and Relation to Root.

Doing that, I see that I have more than 100 direct ancestors who have no source citations. (I'm horrified!) That's where I'll start.

Your Task Won't Be as Huge as Mine

Do you have 80,000 people in your family tree? Did you postpone adding sources in favor of expanding your tree as quickly as possible? If not, then you shouldn't have thousands of missing citations.

I have enough Italian vital records available to add one or two hundred people a day to my family tree for a long time. But for now, I'm putting those additions on the back burner. I want anyone who finds my family tree online to see that I have the documents to back up my facts.

An unsourced family tree lacks credibility. With all the work you've done, do you want your tree to look unreliable?

If you're proud of the family tree you've built, show it! Retrace your steps to find the documents you used to add someone to your tree. Then add each document's source citation to prove you're a thoughtful, careful genealogist. (See "6 Easy Steps to Valuable Source Citations" for help with this task.)

Need help creating your source citations? Don't stress out about it.

• Develop strong habits for creating source citations as you go: "Step-by-Step Source Citations for Your Family Tree"
• Decide which types of sources make your family tree more reliable: "Choosing and Using the Most Reliable Sources"
• Follow a pattern when building your citations: "Add Consistency to Your Source Citations"

Take these steps and show the world that there's solid research behind your family tree.