Tapping Into Someone Else's Family Tree

by Miriam Caldwell | More from this Blogger

29 Jun 2009 05:34 PM

There will likely come a point where your family tree will join into someone else's online. In fact many of the sites allow you the option to compare your information with other people's in the hopes that you can save yourself some work. However it is important that you verify this information before you had it as your own.

First there may be someone with the same name, birth year and birth place as your ancestor, when in fact it is a different person. This is not as uncommon as many people may first think. If this is the case, then you are looking at the wrong tree.

Another problem you may run into is that the research that you find may have been done sloppily or incorrectly. My mother-in-law is a big genealogy buff and she has run into several different people (and different lines of the family) that have listed the wrong information down. It may be little things such as confusing sisters or getting marriage dates wrong, or it could be major such as listing the wrong person as the ancestor.

Before you absorb someone else's family tree into your own research you should take the time to verify the information. If the information is available online through census records this is not that much extra work. If it is not you may want to contact the person and ask him for his sources. This can also help you if you want to extend the research back past what they already have.

If someone calls or contacts you to verify information or ask where you got your resources, you should take this as a compliment rather than an insult. This is just an opportunity to get know someone else who loves genealogy as much as you do, and you may learn some additional tricks to add to your methods.

Learn more about Miriam Caldwell

Miriam is a SAHM mom of three children. She has a daughter who is seven, and two sons, four and two. She loves being a parent and spending time with her children.

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