I am interested in my family history. I was given the results of years of research into my father's family.

Question

It is very interesting, but some people have questioned the results. How can a person who knows so little about the complicated process of family history research "check" to be sure the information is correct?

Answer 1

Hey Buttermilk,

You are very lucky to receive such a gift! Many of us spend years looking for what was give to you. Use it wisely.

Organize the files by family surname. If you can afford to get some computer software, check the list below, get some to help organize. Scan all of the documents into the computer, and store them by surname.

Enter all the information into your entry first. Your parents, your birth date, location, time, place, etc. Then attach in the place that the software lets you, all the scanned documents about you. Now go to your Mother, or your Father's entry. Fill in all the information about Him (going with your father). Attach all the scanned files. You have his parents, enter them. And their data. And you do this until you exhause the data, information, pictures, certificates, stories, you have.

In Genealogy, every answer (parent found), leads to 2 more questions (who were their 2 parents). So, you see, your work will never be done. But what a legacy to leave to your kids - fully computerized Ancestry.

To continue the check, get more certificates, check GENFORUM, check Family Search, check Ellis Island, trace each person from a known person, don't skip over any one because you think you know the parents. Prove the ancestors closest to you, then get the parents of that ancestor.

Here are some useful sites.
When you get stuck, try Cindi's list, which is a list of lists of lists of places to check - fantastic. Also, post questions here.

Answer 2

If whoever did thr original research was competent, he/she will have cited sources - wills, tax records, census records, obituaries, cemetery records, newspaper articles that are not obituaries

("Baptist minister runs off to Argentina with Choir director, building fund" - South Fork Herald, Aug 01, 1894)

("Paige Turner marries Don Breaks in garden ceremony" - Springville Times, 6/12/1912)

How you check is to look up those sources and make sure the researcher copied them right; the marriage really was 1912, not 1921, it was June 12, not Dec 6, the minister did run off to Argentina, not Brazil, and he did scrawl "So long, suckers" across the church door with a tar brush.

If there are no sources, then you have a long, tough row to hoe. You can check general things with the US, UK or Canadian census, if you can get access to it. It will show people living together who are probably related. (Usually. Once in a while a family adopts a stranger, or a cousin, and the census enumerator lumps the child in with the rest of the children. Sometimes a "wife" is really a widowed sister-in-law and her three kids.)

You can look up birth, death and marriage records, obituaries, cemetery records. Some are on-line; many are not.

If the original research has a citation for every fact (rare, but I've seen it, in professional journals, as an example of how to do it 100% correctly), you can probably just believe it.

If the original research has no citations and mentions more than one of the following, it is probably less than trustworthy:

1) Three brothers came to the US; one went south, one west, one north.

2) A Cherokee Princess.

3) The younger son of a noble family.

4) A man who was exiled for poaching the king's game. (Why would anyone parboil the Royal Scrabble set?)

If it is somewhere in between, you'll have to decide how much time and effort you want to put into checking it.

Genealogy isn't particularly difficult, compared to rocket science or brain surgery, so if you got a "B" on at least one history term paper when you were in high school (no matter how long ago) you can do it, but it does take time.

You could check just one generation, as a test. Start at either end - the oldest generation or the youngest. Usually the further back you go the less reliable a family history becomes; the mists of time and the fact not all of our ancestors could read and write obscure many a family tree. Either way you will get a feel for the accuracy of the original research.

Answer 3

Looks like rustskip has given you good answers, he's done a lot of research for you, thank him!. Good Luck!