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Be Sure To Record Your Roots Research

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By SHARON TATE-MOODY

Tribune correspondent

Published: November 30, 2008

In preparation for a class I'll be teaching, I polled enrollees to get a feel for their experience level. One lady responded, "I hope I am not too inexperienced for your class."

I told her I'd rather have students who know nothing about genealogy than to struggle with changing bad habits. But her remark got me thinking about the errors most commonly committed by beginners. Here are a few things I'd like to see you beginners avoid:

Not recording your source. This is probably is the most-often committed mistake. I almost cry every time I look at my earliest research. I took notes and failed to write down the name of the person I was interviewing! Remember: An important part of documenting the reliability of your sources is to ask them how they know what they're telling you. It's impossible for other researchers to assess your source's reliability if you can't name the person or record. So when you interview a relative, be sure to record the person's name, address, telephone number, relationship to you, and the date and place of the interview.

Not questioning sources. One of my mentors is genealogy guru Helen Leary. Seared into my brain is a lecture in which she said that any information provided without a source is just gossip.

Do NOT treat people's stories as facts until you have verified them. To make that verification, you must have a source. Then you must question the validity of that source.

For example, if a source for a date of marriage was Aunt Mary, you have to know a bit about Aunt Mary before you decide how reliable she is. I have an aunt who embellishes the smallest of details and whose stories get more interesting every time she tells them. In other words, her reliability is poor. I always make sure I've found other sources for her "facts" before they go into my reports.

A first step is to ask whether the source had any reason to falsify or distort the details. Could a marriage date be fudged a bit to hide a child conceived before nuptials? Did Uncle Joe really ride off into the sunset or was he sent to prison for some criminal offense?

If getting a military pension required the recipient be penniless or suffering from a war injury, you should bet his affidavit will paint as bleak a picture of his life as possible. If a widow is very elderly and gives a date of marriage 60 years ago, and it conflicts with another source, perhaps her age and the passage of time are suspect.

On the other hand, if the source was an official one, the information probably is valid. A marriage record can be expected to provide a correct date for the event. A death certificate, signed by the medical examiner or an attending physician, is a reliable source.

But a good researcher still doesn't take anyone's word. If Cousin Mary gives you a date of marriage for your great-grandparents and says she got it from the marriage license, your work isn't done until you see that license.

Not expecting a long haul. A friend of mine got interested in his family history a few months ago. He asked my help in planning his first research trip back to his ancestral county. It quickly became evident that he thought this trip would involve walking into a facility and finding one or two records. Now, how much fun would that be?

You can't do your research in one trip to one facility. Research is a process.

Perhaps even more naive than my friend's beliefs are those of the computer-savvy generation: They think everything is online. You must visit courthouses, study microfilm records, tramp through cemeteries, read history books, interview relatives, etc.

Character Program

Those of you who enjoy dramatic programs will want to attend December's meeting of the South Bay Genealogical Society. Speakers Dorothy and Charles "Chip" Churchill will present "Captivity & Sufferings of Freegift Patchin during the Revolutionary War."

Patchin enlisted in the Connecticut Troops in 1776 at the age of 18 as a fifer. Indians took him prisoner in New York in 1780 while he was on a scouting detail. The Indians held him in Canada for two years. After the war he became a brigadier general of the New York militia.

The South Bay Society will meet at noon Dec. 16 at the SouthShore Regional Library, 15816 Beth Shields Way, Ruskin. Reservations are required and must be made no later than Dec. 9 by sending a check for $13 to the society at P.O. Box 5202, Sun City Center, 33573. For additional information, contact Rose Huggard at (813) 633-0868.

Sharon Tate Moody is past president of the Association of Professional Genealogists. Send your genealogy questions and event announcements to her in care of BayLife, The Tampa Tribune, 200 S. Parker St., Tampa, FL 33606 or wmoody3@tampabay.rr.com. She reg

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