posted by Sandy on Family History Hints and Helps

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• Nothing on any website or on the Internet is necessarily correct. Apply your judgment and common sense to the record or contact the submitter or author of the website for additional comfort about the data.
• Most census information is correct because it was self-reported. That is unless the person reporting did not provide correct information.  Census takers often made mistakes based on what they heard versus what they were supposed to hear.  Census-taker handwriting varies.  Some is beautiful and legible.  Some is not.  Detective work usually corrects census mistakes.
• Family Trees posted by individuals often have errors. That is because people take information from each other and post it within their family trees without knowing if it is correct or where it came from.  Use good judgment and common sense about the research of others.
• Be wary of claims to royalty or fame. Most of the people who have lived and died were ordinary people.  If you spend time trying to prove connections to royalty, it is likely that you will miss the real stories of your ancestors lives.
• Use simple spiral notebooks to keep your notes as you research. When you have filled a notebook, write the date range for it and file it.  If your notebook contains the research for one surname, file it alphabetically.
• You can print many types of forms from the Internet, free-of-charge. For example, you can print Research Log Forms from Ancestry.com at no charge.  I like this format.  I simply print a few and three-hole punch them at the top so that they are in a landscape format.  It is easy to lay the binder flat and use the research forms.
• If you find that someone in your family has information you might want or need, offer to go to them. If they don’t want to part with a photograph or document, offer to drive them to the closest store which makes copies.  If someone does let you borrow some of their records or photographs, return them promptly. Not weeks, but days. Hours are better.  They will be likely to help you again if they trust that you will be careful with their records.
• STAY ORGANIZED. Put things away as you gather them and label them clearly.
• Truth is stranger than fiction.  Whomever said that was right.  Worry about what you find later.  Don’t get sidetracked until you have laid the foundation for each person.
• More extended family members attend funerals than weddings. Always take a camera with you.  Take photographs of the faces you do not have  in your records. Ask who people are if you don’t know them.
• Don’t become discouraged.  There will be people in your families who will NOT want to help you. Come back to them later and see if their hearts have softened.
• TAKE A CAMERA WITH YOU WHENEVER YOU VISIT A FAMILY MEMBER.  KEEP A DISPOSABLE CAMERA IN YOUR CAR GLOVE BOX.
• Do not assume that your ancestors rest in marked graves.  Find their graves. In each record note where the person is buried and whether the grave is marked.  Many families simply could not afford to mark their loved ones’ graves.
• ON A QUIET SUNDAY AFTERNOON, PULL OUT ALL OF YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS AND WRITE NAMES, DATES AND PLACES ON THE BACK OF EACH. THERE WILL ACTUALLY COME A TIME WHEN YOU WILL NOT KNOW WHICH OF YOUR CHILDREN, AS A BABY, YOU ARE LOOKING AT OR WHEN YOU WENT TO A PARTICULAR PARK!
• BELIEVE, WHEN YOU BEGIN THAT YOU WILL FIND WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR.  IF YOU DON’T FIND IT RIGHT AWAY, KNOW THAT EVENTUALLY YOU WILL.
• Write on EVERY photograph, document and paper.
• Create and MAINTAIN your filing system.
• Print out and make copies of everything.  Discard later.
• BE STEADY.

REMEMBER:  The longer you wait to begin the process of looking for your ancestors, the further their information recedes into the past.    Start now.

Tags: encouragement, helps, hints