Saturday's Tip

Online Family Trees

You found an online tree that has your ancestor in it. You have been searching for this particular ancestor for a while but have been unsuccessful in finding him. Now that you have found him what do you do? You may ask yourself how do I know for sure this is my ancestor? First, is the information sourced? How do you know the information is correct? Look for gaps, inconsistencies, and conflicting information in the tree. The following list will help you as you look  through the tree.

• Birth of a child before the mother was of childbearing age
• Inconsistencies in christening locations
• Mother passed childbearing age
• Siblings too close in age
• Inconsistent marriage date
• Incorrect gender
• Person beyond normal life span but not marked as deceased
• Duplicate birth or death dates or places
• Inconsistent surname spelling
• Inconsistent place names
• Married name entered as a maiden name
• Siblings with same first name
• Person duplicates
• Persons not connected to others in tree
• Connection between generations

Online trees are notorious for errors. Resist the temptation to just take the information and add to your tree.

The information from an online tree needs to be examined very carefully making sure it the correct information about your ancestor before using it in your tree. Every genealogist would like to have a robust family tree; however, you would like to have your ancestors not someone else’s ancestors in your family tree. You do that by searching for additional records for your ancestor following solid genealogical methodology and verifying the accuracy of the information you use in your family trees. 

No matter how long you have been doing genealogy it is always a good practice to continuously review your work, and when you scrutinize an online tree you are reviewing someone else's tree.  As you go along in your research always cite your sources and that saves time in the long run. If the online tree has sources you cite those in your tree if that is your ancestor.  This will help you trace back to where you found the information and verify whether your conclusions about your ancestor are true.  Other researchers will have confidence that your information is correct when you have records to back up your work. Sources are a great way to point you to family members such as an ancestor’s siblings. They also give you clues for further records and leads to more research.

Even the best genealogists have errors in their research. By checking for gaps, inconsistencies, and conflicting information in an online tree and following up with sources that backup the research will you build an accurate family tree.