Searching Your Roots

 Searching Your Roots

The following document was initially created for a workshop on Genealogy for a group of teachers and not knowing their background in doing genealogy research this was added to the workshop as supplementary information. Many people who now contact me via email are beginners or mid-range researchers and to help, I  refer them to this page for steps to use in doing genealogy research. For those who are experienced genealogy researchers don't be offended, just use the back button and escape from this info. I don't mean to offend anyone. However, you may find some of the information important to you as well.

Many people are trying to search their Roots and are finding it difficult because of lack of knowledge about how to go about searching in an orderly fashion. This web-page is an attempt to give a few pointers for those who are starting their search or need a few pointers on where they might look.

The most important thing to remember when searching for your roots or doing any kind of research is to try and work from the known towards the unknown. This approach will help you tremendously and keep your efforts productive. Another very important rule is to document your findings. This is a must both for yourself  and others who need to know where you obtained the information. Sources should be of a primary nature so that others can verify your findings. This does not mean that you just use a source that is known to only you or a very limited number of people. Sources do not mean where you have filed your information as "Left drawer of file cabinet, file #23" means absolutely nothing to anyone else but you. If that is where you have filed your information then the source would be where you obtained the information from; again, this does not mean from somebody else's undocumented information. Many people think that using a source of   xxxxxx.FTM (someone else's Family Tree Maker file or other GED file) is a valid source. This is very poor as nobody can verify this data and maybe it is completely FALSE and based only on what that person wanted their tree to look like. You would be surprised at the amount of bad information that exists where people have tried to force the data to fit what they desire. Another item that you must be aware of in today's electronic distribution of data is the fact that if you try to use data that the majority have and leave the single entry that seems out of place, you might just be lead astray as many people just copy information from each other and false information spreads rapidly. Look at both sets of data and you may find that the single entry with sources is the correct one and the others that show no or very poor sources are the ones that are wrong.

The following segment has some linked items to show examples of documents that I have used in my family research and also from others that I have searched. Many of these are from scanned documents that are shown as photographs in Unknown Krause Photos.

Steps to follow:

  1. Consider joining a local Genealogy Society and/or Special Purpose Genealogy Society.
  2. Determine how you are going to record your data.
    1. Using paper (Family Group Sheets)[FGS]. This method is fine for those with no computer. I don't use FGS as it would be impossible with over 112,000 persons. Modern day genealogy programs do exactly the same thing as the older methods of using paper.
    2. Computer Genealogy Program. Many ask which program is the best? That depends! What I have found is that whatever a person is used to is the best for them. I have my own preferences and they are based on functionality of the program and can it produce reports that can be emailed to others. If you are limited to only paper reports then mailing costs can become a factor when sharing your data with others.
  3. Start with yourself or one of your children or grandchildren if you wish to produce a larger tree or even a small one. Don't try to jump over generations and try to find where your ancestor came from across the waters when you don't even know their descendants and when they arrived in the area where you might think they lived. You must find proof for this information.
  4. Enter the known data for each generation starting with the first generation. Full Names, dates of Birth and Location of Birth, Marriage date and Location, and Deaths (full dates and locations), Place of burial (Cemetery etc.) Enter the source of your information and what proof you have that the data is correct. Primary Sources of data are the best. These include Gov't/Archive Documents of records for Birth, Marriage, or Death. Make sure you record all information from the document if you don't have a copy for your records.

  5. When you have exhausted the information on one generation (Parents and children of that family) proceed to the grand-parents of first family. Record all information on their children. Full names are important as the middle name of a child may give you an indication of the names of ancestors from either the mother or father's side of the family. Try to follow the descendants of siblings for at least one or two generations as this may contain very valuable information on the ancestral line that you are following.

  6. Look for information in Public Libraries, Provincial/State Genealogy Libraries, Family Bibles. Try to find the person(s) who are the "Keeper of the Notes" on family history as they may also have old Photographs. Personal examples of this are at the following pages
  7. Use Cemetery Tombstone information to determine dates of death and birth. If the date of death is given as just the year then obtain the internment records to find the date of burial. Using the burial date and local newspapers for the area to find an obituary or notice of death for that person. This should give the date and location of death, surviving relatives as well as deceased ones.
  8. Use Birth/Marriage/Death Indexes, if available, to determine the actual dates and locations of the events. The parents are often given in the actual Marriage Record recorded in the Index. The actual record must be ordered from the necessary Archive location. This is often a Local Library that has inter-library loan privileges with the Library. Birth Indexes are used to order the actual Birth Record using the same method.
  9. Once you have the data for a family back to an early enough date to find them in a Census or other document then you should try and follow that family through each earlier census to determine the names of children, their age as reported, and place of birth. This is very useful as it may give an indication of where the family has resided over time. If the early children were born in a different country then you have the first generation that came to the country you are searching in. The locations of birth for the other children will indicate if the family has moved from one state/province to another.
  10. Use Birth Records, Marriage Records(#1, #2), and Death Records to determine the correct dates and locations for the information found from any Census. Census data is known for many errors in dates and spelling of names. No proof that the person shown as the mother is the actual mother of the children as she may be a second wife. However, census data might be more accurate than information obtained from tombstones. The living person was the most knowledgeable about the ages of themselves and their children. Tombstone information might only be a best guesstimate of the birth year of a person who people want to honor. I have seen cases where the tombstone says died at age 104 when by the person's own declarations they would have been 94 when they died.
  11. Use the microfilm or fiche available from your local LDS FHL (Chrurch of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints Family History Center Library). These are primary records that have been microfilmed by the Mormon Church and can be ordered by your local FHL (Family History  Center Library). Look in your local telephone book for "Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints" then in their list see if an entry for "Family History Center" is shown. You don't have to be a Mormon or connected to the church in any way to use their facilities. Rental is paid on microfilm ordered and you must use the microfilm at their facilities. Local Public Libraries may also have microfilm or be able to order it on inter-library loan at little or no cost to the user.
  12. If your ancestor came from over-seas, find the date that they arrived and the country they came from. Once you have this data traced back through as much documentation that you can possibly find then try and find a Ship List Index that will provide information about the Ship List Departure information for that family. Names, ages, and relationship to the family and where they were from in that country.
  13. Don't rush to find the data in the foreign country as most of what you want is most likely located in the country where you are searching. Death records will often indicate the place of birth of the person. Marriage records will give place of birth and may include names of parents. Other sources of this data may be from special documents that were required when traveling abroad.
  14. Other sources of data that are a must for searching your ancestors includes the following:
  15. Use of Mail, Email, and other methods of connection to others that are searching the same families.
  16. Join special email or mailing groups where you can inform the group of the names and locations of the families that you are searching. You will most likely find that others have done a lot of searching already and have data that can be shared. Don't just use their data as it must be checked for accuracy and verified. Share your data with them and work as a team or group.
  17. If you are using the Internet then use large databases like WorldConnect and Ancestry.com to try and find members of your early ancestors that are already in the database of others. Email these people to determine if what they have is from reputable sources or you may end up with incorrect data that someone has not researched and just made an assumption with no documentation to show that it is a very weak proof.
  18. Consider Publishing your results to WorldConnect or a similar Genealogy Database.  Set the options so that you don't publish information on living persons. You will be surprised by the contacts that you will have from people who have the same ancestors and it also helps you to find many of your distant relatives. When you publish, using this method, always put the disclaimer "This is a work in Progress and may have errors and/or missing Data. Anyone with updates is requested to contact the contributor". You should not worry about not having your tree complete before publishing as I know of a person who only had about 10 members of  his ancestors who were deceased and when he published the data, a person in another country contacted him by email and he was able to help them with a chapter in their book and they helped him to fill in data on different branches. Families became separated and one branch went to a place unknown to the others. If you are on that unknown branch then you can help others who may be looking for that person who had unknown descendants. He is now a firm believer in publishing his data and it keeps yielding results for him.
  19. Don't make assumptions, also known as speculation, about connections to families that you would like to be related to as that will make your data very suspect and will not standup to scrutiny by others. Remember to be correct and thorough!! Speculation is defined as unproven assumptions. You must always prove your assumptions as either true or false. If they are false then they should not be published. Your reputation as a genealogy researcher depends on the accuracy of your information.
  20. Remember to always record the full data about a source. If you have found a family in a census then the appropriate source record should include the following as an example: 1850 Census, Calais Twp., Washington Co., ME, Ward 4, ED#78, page 125, frame 24/136 (this last item is for online census data available at Ancestry.com. This may change but the actual page number on the original document will exist even on different ordering of the frames.) You might also consider recording the Microfilm Number. Remember that this number differs depending on the source of the Microfilm. LDS use their own numbering system and it differs from the Archives in the State/Province/Country.
  21. Verify your data and make sure that it is correct. Many people who have data published in papers, books, and other sources have made mistakes and it is your responsibility to check to see that it is accurate.
  22. One of the newer sources of information or misinformation depending on how one interprets the results is the use of genealogy programs that seem to do the research for you when in fact all they do is to provide you with possibilities and it is up to you to determine if the information is valid and useful. This is especially true for what is called OneWorldTree from Ancestry.com and also a new feature that is in the Beta testing stage that professes to show the "Famous People related to ----" . It appears that this might be more of a method to sell memberships then to give sound researched information. However, it is still useful but the onus is on you to determine if the information is accurate. Don't just blindly accept what is shown. The following links show some examples of a "Famous People report for our daughter" that shows people associated with her maternal side and the second one for her paternal side. and an example of two different reports that show the connection to Charles Tupper. Both of these lineages show gross errors where the parent is born after the child. In both cases, the error is very near the top of the listing and is easy to find. Case 1, Lydia Chipman(1654-1730) child of Mary Skiff (1671-1711) and Case 2, Annie Chamberlain(1688-), child of  John Chamberlain(1760-1835).
  23. Sometimes the most unexpected documents may contain info on family history and these can be of great benefit. One example of this is the use of heir-ship property that is passed down when someone dies without a Will and several generations later when the property is trying to be sold then all of the living heirs have to be contacted to have them sign-off so that someone can purchase the property and have clear title. The following link explains some of the trial and tribulations of such a transaction. Eben-Getchell-Land story.

  24. The following questions pertain to the new way of doing online databases for your ancestry and the user needs to be aware of the following items:

  25. Beware of the "Green Leaves" approach used by Ancestry.com in their online databases and also in FTM-xxxx to show that others have information on your ancestors. These are only hints that someone may have some information and does not prove what they have is correct. If they do not have sources for their information then unless you check it out to prove that it is correct then you are also using mythology and your added data is GARBAGE!! These green leaves are often useful as they give you a hint on where to look or the person may just have a letter or some other private document that is the missing link needed to prove connections between families. The onus is on you to prove that the information is correct.
  26. Another major source of error today appears to be how people use the "Place Name Authority"(PNA). When they attempt to enter a place of Birth/Marriage/Death and the PNA cannot find the location because it is based on a modern day map. People just use the suggested location rather then the correct one and this leads to errors. This is especially true for the area of Europe that was the border between Germany and Poland prior to WWII and is now within the area of Poland and the previous German names have been replaced by Polish ones. The other thing is that the names are from maps that are 1:100,000 (1 cm = 1 KM) or 1 inch = 1.56 miles) which is a far greater magnification then found in the PNA maps.
  27. Persons using Ancestry.com are also warned of the following method used that often gives false information to users:
  28. It is becoming evident that many new researchers are having a hard time trying to  differentiate between fact and fiction according to some of the Trees that I see on Ancestry.com. They have the parents of a child born after the date of birth of the child and have families mixed together. they attribute this to the fact that their search using Ancestry.com indicated these suggestions. Since they are new at genealogy then they accept the hints as facts and enter it into their database which gives GARBAGE genealogy. What these people need to do is to reply to their emails and notes posted on their individuals that try to tell them what they have is wrong. Work together with others to try and publish only fact and not fiction. Do NOT speculate, it is better to enter what you think might be an ancestral family but do it as a separate family and do not connect your line to it until you have proven that you have the correct family. Using this method there will be less spreading of false information than what we have at the present time.
  29. Beware of using other people's trees as your source of information. The tree may be based on speculation and now you are using GARBAGE genealogy to extend your tree. If you use someone else's data then you need to prove that your line is truely descended from the line you are connecting it to. This can be done by using Y-Chromosome DNA analysis to prove that the Haplogoup is not different. If the Haplogroup is different then your line does not connect to the tree that you suspect is part of yours. Even if the Haplogroup is the same, you will need at least 37-Markers to prove that you are a close genetic distance from the other person who is a descendant of the other tree. Since Y-Chromosome DNA cannot be used to connect a specific person to a specific set of parents then you will have to use Autosomal DNA tests to do this. A test called Family Finder DNA test from FTDNA is the way you can prove the connection provided that it is within 7 generations of the persons being tested. You will need to test descendants of your tree as well as a person from the other tree. You may require assistance in analyzing the Family finder results as they are not simple to understand. When you use someone else's tree then you need to do as much work to find the proofs and sources. Contact the person who has the other tree and find out what their sources were for their information. Failure to do this can lead to you wasting a lot of your time.
  30. As an example of how speculation can give rise to GARBAGE genealogy data, I give the following example of what happened to me. I received an email from a person that I will call person A, this person said that they were just speculating in the attached report, now I will be person B. This same report was sent to person C but without any indication of the speculation so they assumed it was correct and entered it into their database using A as the source. Once person C had this in their database then person A used them as the source so both of these databases had sources but it was based on speculation and was GARBAGE genealogy. It has taken years to try and get rid of this as these databases were published and others used this same info and it spread like a wild-fire. In fact, this error still exists today and is published by person A.
  31. The following is a special WARNING directed to all users and especially to people just trying to get started in family history research. The internet today is both good but it is also very bad as it allows people to start doing genealogy research but they have nobody to turn to for help like in the old days when you had to go the a library or archives to find your information. The old method allowed you to talk to others and learn from them as to what you should do and how to go about learning how to do research. Today, if you buy a membership in Ancestry.com or any other genealogy company then you can get started and there may be all sorts of hints( sometimes called shakey leaves) that try to give you hints as to the ancestor of the person that you have. The problem with these hints is that you have to be a very seasoned genealogy researcher to know if the hint is for real or is just garbage information. In fact, you need to know the answer to be able to identify if the hint is for real or not. I see many cases where people show all sorts of sources for a person but the person they show is not the correct one as they didn't know who the correct person was. This is where it takes many years of research and colaboration with others to determine if you have the correct person. The best thing you can do is to contact others that are searching this same line and work as a group to see if what you have found is correct or or not. This can also lead to problems as I have seen one person(A) show one answer and nine others(B1..9) show a completely different answer. In this case, it is important to contact these people to determine all the facts because the nine may have all copied the results of B1 and that information was based on speculation with no sources or supporting documentation while person A has evidence to prove that their solution is correct. It is not easy and you need to cooperate with each other. In many cases today, people will not even respond to you when you try to contact them as they want to hide behind a barrier and not defend what they have as they have no sources or evidence and they don't want to admit they copied the information form someone else. In my case, if a person show sources and when I look at these sources they are correct for the person in question, then I use that source information for my evidence. If no sources are shown, then if I trust the database that has the information, then I may copy the information but show no source as the person who had the data showed no source and call his unsubstantiated data that needs to be checked to prove that it is correct or not. Not an easy task and takes many hours of serious research to determine the correct answers.

Good Luck in your searching.

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A. E. Krause

Last modified: 02 August, 2021