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The Common Room / Starting from scratch
« on: Sunday 19 February 23 21:39 GMT (UK) »
Hello,
I started researching my family tree in 2008 at the age of 15. As you can expect I did all the usual stupid things and by 2014 I realised that my tree was so full of errors and mistakes and guesses that cleaning it up would be laborious and more work than fun. So I made the decision to start from scratch and start a new file (at this point I was 21).
Now I am almost 30, and I am looking at my tree (22k individuals) with a similar feeling to that which I had in 2014. I have noticed various errors and mistakes that I made in my early 20's and before I refined my research abilities to the level they are at today. There are facts which I have recorded that I have no idea where I got them from and I'm frustrated with myself for not making the effort to record that information. It's not horrendous, but I just feel like if I started today I could build a cleaner and more well referenced tree than the one I started nine years ago.
Yes, I'm tempted to start from scratch again.
Just wondered whether anyone else has ever done similar, and regretted it? Or perhaps did so and realised it was a good decision? I am 50/50 whether to start again, or put the work in and go person by person, branch by branch, and do a full scale clean up.
I started researching my family tree in 2008 at the age of 15. As you can expect I did all the usual stupid things and by 2014 I realised that my tree was so full of errors and mistakes and guesses that cleaning it up would be laborious and more work than fun. So I made the decision to start from scratch and start a new file (at this point I was 21).
Now I am almost 30, and I am looking at my tree (22k individuals) with a similar feeling to that which I had in 2014. I have noticed various errors and mistakes that I made in my early 20's and before I refined my research abilities to the level they are at today. There are facts which I have recorded that I have no idea where I got them from and I'm frustrated with myself for not making the effort to record that information. It's not horrendous, but I just feel like if I started today I could build a cleaner and more well referenced tree than the one I started nine years ago.
Yes, I'm tempted to start from scratch again.
Just wondered whether anyone else has ever done similar, and regretted it? Or perhaps did so and realised it was a good decision? I am 50/50 whether to start again, or put the work in and go person by person, branch by branch, and do a full scale clean up.