3 questions I would like peoples input on

[skyblueFF]

I just go down which ever avenue looks interesting.
 I do find some satisfaction though from finding all my great great grandparents and I enjoy trying to find out more about their lives, how they lived and what they were like.
Michael

[mrs.tenacious]

Hi,

1. Ultimate goal: no restrictions to add whatever I find.

2. No cut-off. I enjoy the whole process of finding out about my ancestors
    and their kin so much I couldn't bear to "close down" a tree just because
    I'd originally restricted it.

3. Can't limit this to one tip - actually there are so many - but two, for me
    have proven to be equally important: 1) never, ever assume anything, and
    2) speak to and record memories of family members, particularly the elder
    generation. They hold a wealth of information which will disappear once
    they've gone.

Mrs. T. 

[vic1]

1) for my own enjoyment - and to further my knowledge.
2)I will admit to investigating ( on the web) tenuous links and halves and steps.
3) keep proper notes from the very beginning.I didn't as i was looking for one person and then it mushroomed. it took me ages to find a link to some information I read when I first got bitten - I knew roughly what it was but needed to know exactly to eliminate a line of enquiry.

[Emjaybee]

Twas on the good ship Rootschat.

You have set sail on the Sea of Genealogy.
You will set course for unknown places but arrive somewhere else.
You will drift into other seas.
You will get blown onto strange shores.
You WILL go into in the doldrums.
You will arrive at Treasure Island and find nothing.
You will find and maybe meet tribes of strangers who will have many stories.
You will make lots of cyber friends and have an absorbing hobby for ever.


Yo Ho Ho and a family tree!

[Galium]

1) I don't think I have an 'ultimate goal' - that would imply that there is a point when there would be no more to do, and I don't really want that to happen.

2) No real cutoff, although mostly I don't research ancestors of people who married siblings of direct ancestors.  However, sometimes you find they are related from previous generations, and that can have its own fascination.
I discovered that a relative of mine married one of my husband's relatives, and although they aren't direct ancestors I found them interesting to follow up because it turned out that they had emigrated to America and were friends of Sitting Bull.

3) Don't assume that it isn't worth tracing where siblings of your direct ancestors get to.   Sometimes you will find them visiting other relatives in censuses, and occasionally this is the only way to take you to the previous generation.

[johnxyz]

1. I'm not sure I have an ultimate goal in mind. I took it up as a hobby on retirement and out of curiosity. It's addictive and I'll keep digging until I get bored. I'm fairly sure I'll never run out of avenues to explore.

2. I'm still at the stage of working backwards until I reach the point at which the data runs out, though for most lines I do have a limit on the number of generations back I'm prepared to go. So I'm not working forwards again to pursue cousins. I do try to record all siblings and half-siblings.

3. The 3 most important things are documentation, documentation and documentation.

[Rishile]

My original goal was to see what the internet had about me and mine.  It soon stopped being that goal and geneology took hold.

I go down all grandparents, gt grandparents lines as far back as possible, then their siblings.  If something interesting crops up I will stop and investigate as you never know when you could lose that opportunity.

My tip - enjoy!!  When you stop enjoying it - stop.

[mike175]

My research has concentrated on the direct bloodlines as far back as I can get. In principle I include all the immediate family of each of my direct ancestors, i.e. spouse(s) & children but not their later offspring.

However I often end up tracing parallel lines of cousins as they can provide clues to direct ancestors; for example, grannie might be living with one of the cousins in her later years.

So really, as everyone else has said, there are no rules . . . but I have followed the above guidelines for some years now and it has saved me from developing a 'family hedge' as one RootsChatter described it.

Of course the wider your search the greater the chance of finding a connection with someone special, but it is usually so distant a relationship as to be meaningless. Anyway we are all distantly related to Adam and Eve, aren't we?

Mike.

[geno500]

I have been looking at my family tree for alot of years now ,I traced the male lines back and the children if male I researched there marriages and recorded the offspring,this so I could help or at least place any info I got from somebody contacting me with the same name interest,if the children were female I recorded the marriage and where posssible a few of the children again to help ,as time as gone on and the big A has slowly taken over along with the other computer programmes,there has been a big increase in the number of people looking at there family history,I would say  at least 80 percent of these people are women,and they look at the family in a different way,they will search the female lines back even though the line changes every generation,this is of course great news for the big A and others but very soon they are researching everybody in the world,but I surpose if they get a buzz out of doing just that then great,it's all part of the game of looking for dead people.