Beginners questions

Grey123

I have started putting my family tree together and have some general questions and some related to Ancestary.co.uk if anyone has the time? I have a good start as others have don some work that fills in part of mine. Some is handwritten from oral records and some from research.

To date I have just been filling in the info I have and finding the records for people which is going well. However I am wary that I may just copy a research mistake / assumption someone made. What do people look for in proof that a person is the right father etc. I have pretty common names in areas where those names are common. I want to prove connections for myself. Like why is it this John Murphy?

Other questions:

Should women be recorded with their madden name or married name?

How do you record nicknames or "known as", I am thinking the likes of Margaret = Peg. No one ever called her Margaret.

Is there a checklist I should run through when researching someone. Currently I am doing Census, Birth/Marriage/Death records, grave records. I am trying to keep track of what I can find for each person, I am doing my own excel but maybe there is checklist out there?

Is there any guidelines on who to include? Obviously I include someone who married in, their kids yes but the person who married in's parents? I am thinking not. Is that correct?

Do people focus more on direct ancestors that say grandfathers brothers?

How do people store records. Ancestry does an okay job at linking them but I like to have a hard copy to show people. I also don't plan on staying subscribed.

Thank you

55Gem

There are no hard and fast rules as such apart from check and double check and be very wary of hints.

Clare Santry has a very good guide site, check out the forms in Tools and Resources, you could use them as a check list. Lots of other useful information there.

https://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/

personal I would record women’s maiden names and while you may at first only do your direct line if like many of us you get addicted you’ll end up branching out sideways, this can also sometimes help to ensure you have the correct ‘John Murphy’.

I’ve never had an Ancestry subscription, Ireland has a lot of free records, but your tree will still be available to you when your sub is finished.

I built my tree on excel using it’s graphic functions.

Grey123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121556112#Comment_121556112

Thank you. That looks like a great site.

euro_girl21

Hi, I am only an amateur researching my own family and my husband's family so my tips are only from my own experience. First I agree with 55 Gem about hints, many are a good guide but many are also wrong with people jumping to assumptions so I check everything I can from original records like births, deaths and marriages, grave records, or census etc. I also save all records I find and I set up a filing system by family branch using a standare file name which records record type; name; date, e.g., i would save as a birth record as: birth john ryan date.month.year or a census record as: census irl 1901 bynre address. I would suggest you keep everything you find - a key lesson I learned is that things that seem irrelvant at the beginning become useful later when you understand your family history and its branches more - like a godparent or marriage witness or another branch of the family which seem unrelated but actually turn out to be important. There are lots of good free research guides on youtube and as 55gem says many records are free. In the end though I do pay for subscriptions from time to time and then do a lot of research during that time. I would especially recommend newspapers (when you are bit more experienced). I got huge value for marriage and death notices/obituaries but also a lot of social history which brings records and your family history to life more. Your local library or local history group might offer good classes which are worth attending. People on this forum are very kind and helpful with queries! As well as Clare Santry (recommended above) I would recommend Claire Bradley's blog : Claire Bradley – Claire Bradley is a Dublin-based genealogist specialising in Irish ancestry (cbgenealogy.ie). Hope some helpful thoughts there.

Grey123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121556792#Comment_121556792

Thank you. I have certainly seen errors in the bits of family tree we got from American cousin. Perhaps less info was available when they completed it but I must contact them to find their sources. I feel they may have just picked the first result in a search not realising how common a name was.

I also have a tree which I believe was done orally so no sources. Need to confirm who inputted and that it's not just bad research as it's really my starting point. I'd like to verify it all.

I've got my GG Grandparents and am finding them names in there kids wedding registers etc. That's probably as far back as I'll go (or get).

That gives me 30 direct ancestors. Could be an average of 4 siblings each, that's 120. Then all their kids and there kids. It adds up fast!

I am hoping that I have a 2nd or 3rd cousin doing similar!

cobham

I have a family tree template that came with a sub to Ancestry dated 2012. I use that on my computer but it never uploaded online. I like the layout and ease of finding individuals. There is also a section for notes on individuals so here you can put queries, petnames and other odd bits of information. I even add in some historical perspective where relevant.

Keep original records either printed off or saved digitally. It is always interesting to look again at these. For example I had a gr grandfather in 1881 census in London and only in later years did I notice that the family group continued on the next census page so I had missed two siblings on first look. Witnesses to weddings and sponsors to baptisms are often family members so some good leads there. I think there is one dedicated genealogist in each generation so worth chasing those second and third cousins. There is always some hope that one has some item like a diary, photograph or family diary of a forebear of mutual interest.

Welcome to the group, some great experts here!

pinkypinky

Lots of good suggestions here.

Always record women with their birth name.

Ancestry has a fact category "also known as" but you could also stick it in the free text box under their birth details.

Definitely research the siblings of your direct ancestors in each generation. Sometimes different info is recorded, and you might need to go sideways to go backwards. For example, a marriage of my ancestors did not record their mothers' names, but the younger sister of the groom married much later, and the church had changed the format of their register, so included their mother's name.

I do not researched married-in ancestors unless there is someone very interesting/famous. I've wasted lots of time contacting people over the years about someone in their tree only to find it was their mother's cousin's husband's family and they had no info of use!

I'm actually giving a talk at Rootstech in Utah next month on the subject of how to critically analyse hints. I hope they will be putting online but am not sure yet.

Download every document you use to source your tree and label it. There's no right way but just be consistent so you know where it came from, etc.

Thanks @euro_girl21 for the plug of my blog!

Grey123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121558061#Comment_121558061

I am not sure I am have that free box, I am using the web version of Ancestry.

Does the site hide living people, I don't feel that comfortable entering living cousins as thin like DOB could be a security question but it also seems weird to have loads of gaps.

I will for that talk, I definitely think its tempting to accept a hint. I got one from one of the bits of 1850s census remaining. There is nothing that doesn't line up but not enough to accept it given how common the names are I could see someone just accepting.

Oh do the Griffith Valuations work? I just get a server error on this page. https://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/

pinkypinky

There's only a web version of Ancestry. See the description section - you can put anything in there.

Living people are hidden by default, but you don't have to put any data in on them.

Griffith's Valuation website is ancient and clunky but it should work. Try a different browser.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121562034#Comment_121562034

There's an Android (and I presume iOS) app version also; which does work differently.

Grey123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121562034#Comment_121562034

Cheers found it. Just surprised that it's not a standard feature that shows up under the name in the tree. Half the women in my family tree go by something other than there name!