Ten Genealogy Research Suggestions

So, you are new into genealogy research?  Been doing it for a while?  Ready to publish your content perhaps and you want to use one of the big sites to push your line out and publish it.  The following are some suggestions based on things that seem to make sense.

• If you are going to publish something, publish it once, update it often, but don't publish a new copy every time you publish.  Or remove the old copies once you are happy the new copy has made it onto the site.  There are tons of published lines that people have re-published over and now you can find them with all their various levels of updates on these places.
• Be aware of how your lines get published.  One person published a line for each surname in their file not realizing all the common names got published each time she did this creating copies of the same individuals over and over and over for all the surnames she did this for.
• Source your data.  Many years ago, I decided that I must be changing the same bit of data back and forth depending on which source I looked at.  By sourcing your data, you can prevent this from happening.  You will also realize that Great Aunt Whats-her-name really does have multiple birthday dates floating around.  Now you can find an authoritative source and settle that once and for all.
• Avoid creating queries off the top of your head.  You mix up names, mis-quote dates and in general provide a very poor reference for people to respond to.  Dates and related information are all important in having a meaningful conversation with another researcher who may have just the tid-bit of information you are seeking.  Personally, I like copying the data directly from a report from my database.  This keeps things straight and you don't have to make it up.
• Copyright is a major issue that people seem to get confused about.  You cannot copyright data.  You can copyright how you present that data and your written stories about events and people in your family histories.  Do not get upset when other researchers copy that data.  If you are copying that data, source it and perhaps have a conversation with the individual who found it about what you intend to do with their content. 
• Share! Share! Share! You never realize how much important data is found, filed and then disappears when you become history.  If you don't share what you've found with your family and other researchers, bits and pieces of that history and the connections you were able to make based on that data are lost to everyone forever.  If you have a life-time of collected family history, make sure you specify what is to happen to those files, pictures and collections after you die.  If your family doesn't take them into their home to preserve and cherish them, they may end up in the dumpster and the city dump.
• Can't find Uncle Billy Joe?  Try finding Uncle Joseph William.  All too often, people named in one sequence switch their names around for whatever reason and became entirely different people.  Uncle Billy could be William, or Joe, or Joseph in some records.  It all depends on how they were called in life.  If they were here to ask, you'd have the whole story.  Since they are gone, you just want all the puzzle pieces you can gather.
• Label pictures as you get them.  Look through pictures you have that you know who is in them and document them.  If you don't want to mess with the originals, scan them and do the markup on your computer.  The originals will remain intact and the digitized copies can be printed and copied to other media for family and other researchers to have.
• Use your digital camera often.  Don't have a digital camera, use your phone's camera.  When researching, don't bother finding a copy machine, simply point and shoot.  Be aware that you don't want the flash to go off, so make sure you have plenty of light or set the camera ISO at a high enough speed it doesn't require the flash.  The digitized pictures should be off-loaded when you get home and sourced so you can remember where you found them later. Don't have time to hook your phone up to your computer?  Email the pictures to yourself and load them later.
  
• Review your files regularly.  All that research time and you got files and files of findings.  How much of that is data you never quite connected to your history?  Every time you make a connection, something in your files is sure to hook up as well. 
  

Good Luck in your research efforts.  Here is hoping you find some nuggets you can use to assist you in your search.

Regards,
Robert J Becraft

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