I would disagree with Paul’s list of top ten “sins” of a genealogist.
My suggestions are :-
Sin 1: Not talking to relatives about their memories and experiences.
I don’t mean interrogate your older relative but take time talk to them, chew the fat and just talk, don’t be too concerned to keep the conversation on topic but let it ramble here there and everywhere. You will be surprised what you will learn
Sin 2: Only using civil registration and census to get back to 1837. Though these sources are important they are limited, get used to using church records including baptisms, marriages and burials tied in with wills newspapers and other records to help your research. This is imperative as when you reach 1837 if you don’t learn to use all available sources when easy to use sources are available for you to check your assumptions you will be lost when trying to search pre 1837.
Sin 3: relying on transcripts, transcript can be helpful as a finding aid but always, always without fail try to seek out the original record. Be aware many Parish Registers have been copied either in full or in sections (disregarding Bishop’s Transcripts), sometimes there are multiple copies of a Parish Register for a particular month or year. Compare as many copies of such registers as possible and also remember to check out the Bishop’s Transcripts, hopefully every copy will record the same information but you may be surprised how they vary.
Sin 4: Concentrating your search, this is a useful technique if you are researching locally but if like most you are researching in a distant archive use the scattergun approach. Printout, or download to usb every instance of the names you are researching, do not even try to read what information is given, just print and download as much as you can in the little time available.
The “experts” will tell you this is counter productive and will cause you to follow the wrong lines but I disagree. Your time at a distant archive is your most precious resource, when you get home you can spend hours months and years going over what you have saved. If you have spent all your time pursuing one name you may come back with only two or three records of interest.
I visited Kew with a young lady who had lectured Family History for 10 years, her uncle was also and experienced researcher of many years but a certain ancestor had always alluded them, they had even engage a local professional researcher in the past but the ancestor was never found. On the train back home the young lady found the elusive ancestor popped out of the reams of printouts she had taken, family mystery solved.
Sin 5: Assuming records are always correct, all types of records from Birth, Marriages and Death registers through to records written in stone are open to errors always search for alternative records to confirm any and all details.
Sin 6: Not rechecking one’s research in later years digital copies of more and more records are becoming available every year and more private archives are becoming accessible as well check previous work every few years to see what has become available or what is now available in a more legible format (for example microfiche records may now be supplied in a clearer digital format which can be enlarged).
Sin 7: Falling into the trap of existing family trees, it is very easy to look at a sourced online family tree and follow the given sources without checking to see if there are other records that could fit the bill. The human mind can easily be convinced a record is correct if a source is displayed but the family historian still needs to confirm that the record given is the correct record.
Sin 8: Assuming everything is online, only a tiny percentage of records are online. The vast mass of archived material will probably never be digitised.
Sin 9: Assuming everything online is available to all, many records held in a digital format are in private online collections and not generally available. There are also a huge volume of unindexed record images that require browsing image by image to access, many of these may not be indexed for decades.
Sin 10: Perhaps the gravest sin of all, compiling a list of “sins” of a genealogist.
Cheers
Guy
