5 Cleanup Projects to Fortify Your Family Tree

A weird thing happened when I finished a massive genealogy project. I felt lost! I didn't know how I wanted to spend my genealogy time, so I bounced around from task to task.

Then I found a cleanup project in my to-do list that kept me productive and happy. I may dive into another big project, but until then, here are 5 cleanup projects to fortify your family tree.

Have a little time to spend on your family tree? Choose a task with big impact.

1. Chase Down Exact Dates

I'm sure you have people in your family tree who are missing an exact birth date, marriage date, or death date. Use one of the two methods described in "2 Ways to Find the Loose Ends in Your Family Tree" to locate fuzzy dates. Then take the time to seek out as many exact dates as possible. It may be that you forgot to follow through and get those dates in the past.

2. Follow Through on Family Tree Leads

You may have a ton of genealogy papers on your desk in a to-do pile. Or a box full of old photos in the closet. Or a computer folder full of all sorts of family tree items waiting for your attention.

We put off dealing with items like these because they seem overwhelming. Don't you agree? But what if you break the process into manageable chunks that won't take a ton of time? When cleaning out a closet, they tell you to separate everything into 3 piles: keep, donate, throw away.

Why not apply that mentality to your genealogy leads? Start by organizing them into:

• Items that need more research. (Keep, and act on them.)
• Items that you thought were important but turned out not to fit in your tree. (Throw away.)
• Items that should go in your family tree right now. (Put them where they belong!)

For the inspiration you need to make this happen, read "How Many Genealogy Gems Are You Sitting On?"

3. Categorize All Your Genealogy Correspondence

I've been using Microsoft Outlook for email for at least 20 years. When I move to a new computer, I bring my massive Outlook file along—with all the old emails I'd decided to keep.

But my Outlook file is too fat, so I've been reviewing very old emails and deleting lots of them. I realized this is a good time to cut a lot of old genealogy-related messages by moving the facts to a spreadsheet. We don't need to keep every word of a conversation. Find out how to make the most of your correspondence by reading "How to Make Your Own Genealogy Correspondence Database."

4. Get Those Source Citations Done!

An awful mishap with my Family Tree Maker file led me to fix every source citation in my family tree. It was a huge task, but I'm so happy with the results. Now I'm careful to create a solid source citation for each fact or image as I put them into my family tree.

Once you've cleaned up your backlog, you'll be eager to do everything the right way going forward. Here's a detailed look at how to tackle your backlog and create "Step-by-Step Source Citations for Your Family Tree."

5. Cut the Fat Out of Downloaded Images

For the last few days I've been enjoying a cleanup project that's reducing the size of my Family Tree Maker file. I'm cropping the big black borders out of the census images I've downloaded from Ancestry. And while I'm at it, I'm reducing the size of the image from up to 6,000 pixels wide to a standard of either 50% of the original width or 2,000 pixels wide. (Do a test first to make sure the standard size you choose doesn't lose too much clarity.) The file sizes get smaller, and my tree becomes more manageable. Too see my process, read "How to Improve Your Digital Genealogy Documents."

Once I finish the census files I'll tackle the ship manifests. I love this project—I just couldn't seem to make enough time for it in the past.

Think of these cleanup tasks as a way to always be productive and keep from getting bored. Go on now and improve your family tree.

Top 5 Uses for the Free Family Tree Analyzer

Family Tree Analyzer (FTA) is a free and powerful program from Alexander Bisset (see ftanalyzer.com). FTA has so many features that I've written about individual uses for the program many, many times. If you haven't tried it yet, here's a taste of the top 5 ways FTA can improve your family tree.

Family Tree Analyzer has unlimited abilities, and it's free.

1. Finding accidental duplicates

Your family tree may have hit a software glitch. You may have clicked the wrong fact type in a menu. Or you may have gotten a little loopy during a late-night genealogy session. No matter what the cause, FTA can find all your accidental duplicates. To create your list, read "Let Family Tree Analyzer Find Your Duplicates Duplicates."

2. Finding missing source citations

Source citations help you as much as they help someone else viewing your family tree. How can you be sure of a fact when you can't remember where you found it? FTA can give you a list of all the unsourced facts in your family tree. You can create a list that ignores certain facts you don't want to source. For instance, I don't add a source for someone's sex.

Now that I've finished an all-consuming genealogy project*, I'm working on my missing citations. To find out how to do this, read "Catch and Fix Your Missing Source Citations."

* I finished my 6th (and possibly last) complete index of every available vital record for my ancestral Italian hometowns. They're free to download at www.forthecousins.com.

3. Finding inconsistencies in your family tree

No matter how long you've been at it, there will be inconsistencies in your family tree. Unless you're working at it day in and day out, you're bound to forget how you recorded a certain type of fact in the past.

I've always been an advocate for consistency. To me, consistency is a sign of good quality control. That's why I investigated some oddities FTA found when it opened my GEDCOM file. You can simply scroll down the Main Lists/Individuals table to spot wording that stands out. Sort by different columns and scroll on through. To find out what to look for, read "It's Time to Make Your Family Tree Clear and Consistent."

4. Finding all kinds of errors

No one wants their work to be messy, but it happens. If you'd like to find and fix your errors, here's a deeper dive for you. Take a look at all you can do by reading "One Report, Endless Possibilities for Improving Your Family Tree."

5. Finding missing details you need to research

Have you ever discovered a new treasure trove of genealogy documents? Nothing could be more exciting! Sometimes we add people and facts so fast that we overlook our mistakes. That's why we need FTA as our safety net. Find out how to use the program to point out all those missing facts by reading "How to Plug the Holes in Your Family Tree."

No matter where you are in your genealogy journey, FTA offers so many ways to improve the value of your family tree. It needs to be in your genealogy toolbox.

3 Key Signs a Family Tree is Wrong

When you find your relatives in a stranger's family tree, it means one of two things:

1. You've discovered a new branch of your own family tree, or
   
2. They made a mistake and put your relatives where they don't belong.

When that stranger is also your DNA match, you hope they're right. It's up to you to see if their family tree is reliable or riddled with errors.

Here are the 3 key signs that separate fact from fiction.

Don't pull that family tree into your own. You don't know where it's been!

1. Their family is from the wrong place

Giuseppe Nicola Mascia was born on 9 Oct 1794 in Colle Sannita, Italy. I know this because his baptism record is included in his 1826 marriage papers from Colle Sannita. I have vital records that tell me his and both his wives' names, birth dates, and parents' names. I have birth records for his 8 children, born between 1815 and 1835.

One of my DNA matches has Giuseppe Nicola Mascia, born on 9 Oct 1794, in their family tree. But things quickly go wrong.

• They say Giuseppe was born on that date in Deliceto, a town 80 miles away from Colle Sannita.
• They have the wrong parents and siblings for Giuseppe. I have documents for the correct people.
• They have Giuseppe's first wife and kids but the wrong second wife and kids. Theirs overlap with the dates of the real second wife and kids.

What can we make of all this? Since the people in their tree are from a town 80 miles away, they're a different family. I'll bet they saw a hint for "Giuseppe Nicola Mascia" from my tree and pulled him and his first wife and kids right in. They were wrong to do so. They didn't check the facts.

You must know your locations and time period! In the early 1800s, people from my grandfather's town of Colle Sannita stayed put.

For a better understanding of the importance of place, see Location and Mobility in "4 Keys to Italian Genealogy."

2. Their dates don't add up

In the same person's family tree, they added another couple from my tree even though the dates don't work. My couple, Nicola Giuseppe Mascia and Angelica delVecchio, married in 1818 and had 7 kids in the town of Baselice.

This person brought Nicola and Angelica into their tree along with 4 of their 7 kids. They documented the fact that this couple married on 30 May 1818 in Baselice. Then they added FIVE other children who were born in Deliceto (50 miles away) between 1804 and 1814. In 1804, Nicola was 15 and living in Colle Sannita, and Angelica was 12 and living in Baselice.

The dates do not work. They contradict logic and the documented facts. I found the 1812 birth record for one of the misplaced kids in Deliceto. His parents were Mattia Mascio and Maria Farollo of Deliceto. Someone didn't do their own research.

Does your family tree have dates that can't be right? You can fix them. Find out how in "How to Find Errors in Your Family Tree."

3. Birth locations are vague

I find so many family trees where it's clear they don't know where their people came from. To spot them, look for great grandparents with only a country as their place of birth. They'll also be missing a full birth date.

That's fine—either they haven't done their research yet or they've hit dead-ends. But that country without a town is a red flag when I see they've put people from my towns into their family tree.

If they don't know where their people came from, how can they assume my people are their people? When I spot this type of borrowing from my tree, I check their direct ancestors. If I can't find a strong possibility of a connection to my towns, I disregard the entire tree.

Are you still missing your ancestor's hometown? Here are "4 Key Places to Discover Your Ancestor's Hometown."

Everyone is in a different place on their family tree journey. Since you're reading this blog, I know you wouldn't pull another family tree into yours without proof. But if you're browsing through DNA matches' trees hoping for a breakthrough, keep an eye out for these 3 key signs a family tree is wrong.