Julia you just said and advised about some very important aspects about family research to a new person. You are 100 percent correct and I thank you for pointing out this major issue. You voiced/wrote the concerns better than I could. Karen ----- Original Message ----- From: "juliasgenes" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 11:29 PM Subject: Re: [G-P-L] Reposting of introduction message > Hi, Jessica - > > Yes, it is sleuthing exactly and yes, it's exciting! > > Just a cautionary note, though. There's a lot of misinformation that gets > circulated and recirculated, especially with the Internet. Sites like > ancestry.com try to entice you to accept "info" into your family tree from > other members that can really screw things up ("that 1st leaf" as they say > in their ads - can be poison ivy!). A lot of the info on familysearch.org > comes from church-member submitted data that can be very skewed. I know my > mother's was. (The info on the site that comes from source material like > microfilmed death certificates, etc is another, more reliable matter.) > Always ask where somebody got their information. If they don't reply to > your request, they probably don't have a citation. Without citations, it's > next to useless. > > Personal tips: > > * I know it can be frustrating, but go slowly backward from the known to > the unknown, proving each step of the way. Otherwise, you could find > yourself on a genealogical trapeze without a net. > > * Use every scrap of info in a document. The street address on the census > could reveal relationships between people (I've been able to establish > relationships because people from different eras lived in the same house > as it passed around the family). The enumerator (= census taker) could be > a relative. The name of a endorser in an old newspaper patent medicine ad > could turn out to be your great grandaunt (that really happened to me - I > used to think they were all made up). > > * Every 4-5 months or so, as you learn more and more, go back and re-read > documents you haven't looked at in some time. New things will pop out at > you and questions you had before will resolve. > > * 3 x 5 file cards still have a place in your tool kit. They are great for > recording info on people you suspect are related, but can't prove yet - > they can be rearranged every which way to tease out possible pedigree > patterns. > > Most of all - have fun or what's the point? Julia > > >> My name is Jessica, I’m 25 years old, and I’ve recently begun to delve >> into my family’s genealogy. > > > > > For all the latest News, please visit our Homepage: > http://www.germanyroots.com > > Please visit and participate in our new forum > http://www.germanyroots.com/phpBB3/ > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Thanks, Karen. In the very beginning, I spent a lot of wasted time and energy trying to unravel all those ancestry.com miss-steps! There's no free lunch, even when you're paying for it. --- On Wed, 3/10/10, onlinetrash <[email protected]> wrote: ...some...aspects about family research to a new person... Karen