| Anyone who does research will testify to how | | | | Do not accept carte blanche research from |
| frustrating it is to follow leads up blind alleys. In | | | | sources you don't know. What I mean by this is |
| terms of genealogy, this could mean following | | | | really the types of research that one often sees |
| wrong family lines. Anyone who has had a go at | | | | advertised, offering to write up your family tree |
| genealogy will undoubtedly be familiar with this | | | | for a fee. Beware of these types of offers. The |
| scenario. It could be that you have been given a | | | | type of research upon which these tress are |
| bad lead or perhaps misread some information | | | | founded are often questionable. Save your money |
| that you have found. Either way, it mounts up to | | | | and do the research yourself. That is after all, |
| a lot of wasted time. | | | | part of the fun of genealogy! |
| So how can this pitfall be avoided? Far from giving | | | | If your family has spread it's wings across |
| you a clever answer, I don't believe that there | | | | borders, be very careful when collecting facts. As |
| are any, there are some general tips that I can | | | | one example, dates can be written differently |
| give that might help you with your genealogy | | | | depending on where in the world you are at the |
| research. In fact the general principles could be | | | | time. Easy mistakes can be made under these |
| applied to any type of research. | | | | circumstances. The date 05/04/75 means |
| The first thing you should always do is keep a | | | | something different to people in the USA than it |
| track of all of your resources, every book, every | | | | does to people in the UK. |
| article and every web site. And get detailed | | | | Do not make assumptions about any piece of |
| information too. If your source was a book for | | | | information that you might come across. Stick |
| example, get all the detail down to the ISBN | | | | with the facts that you yourself have collected. |
| number. If your research is by word of mouth, | | | | One small assumption can lead you in all sorts of |
| write down names, times and dates. Genealogy is | | | | directions that you didn't really want to go down. |
| all about information, so backing up your facts is | | | | Remember that we refer to things differently |
| critical. | | | | now than we did in years gone by, so when |
| Following a similar theme, you need to organise | | | | something is taken from letters 100 years ago, it |
| yourself and your research. File everything and file | | | | might not mean the same thing to you as it did |
| things where you know how to locate them. You | | | | to your forefathers. |
| will find yourself back tracking continuously, so | | | | Join up with web sites that have expertise in |
| make that side of genealogy as painless as | | | | genealogy. Talk with like minded people and get |
| possible. | | | | the benefit of their experience. Not only will they |
| Check your facts. Not just the literal snippets of | | | | have tips of their own to share to help you, they |
| information that you pick up, but also the logical | | | | will have access to sources you might never have |
| order of things. Do the facts that you have | | | | thought of. It is well worth your time talking to |
| collected make sense? Apply common sense to all | | | | other genealogists. |
| of your findings and question them. | | | | |