Gathering and finding information can be a daunting task. When you start going back on your family tree, there are families with eight, nine, ten children, and sometimes more. Sons may marry someone with the same name as a sister. Brothers may marry sisters from another family. After a while, you begin wondering who your family members really are. Here are some search tips to help you keep your facts straight:
- Talk with as many family members as possible to get any hints or facts than you can.
- Compare what you learned from family members with what you find on the internet.
- Look at old family photographs and identify the people and their relationship to you.
- Consider your source on the internet--is it an historically reliable site?
- Even Ancestry.com contains errors--it's all in how the handwriting is determined.
- Connect with others who are researching the same family members.
- Print out and compare any historical documents that you can.
- Use additional sources such as cemetery, church and school records.
- Document sources for your information in case you have to check facts at a later date.
- Use the library for access to archives
- Research your family's coat of arms to identify its origin
- Find whatever free sites you can for conducting your search, as it can be extensive!
Finally--have fun! Who knows what or who you may find at the top of your family tree. We're still looking for that princess my husband's uncle told stories about. Is he royalty?
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