Risk Factor on Research Roads

There are several different roads you can go down in family history research, differentiated by risk. Their individual appeal tends to match your personality style. But there are consequences from your choice.

The High Risk Road

Kwinana Freeway

There is the 'high risk' freeway where we get on the internet, get a 'trial' access to a major, commercial website, and jump right into searching for everyone on the planet who has the same surname, hoping we can make some sense of it.

These are called 'one name studies'. The commercial provider offers us the fast road to success, and we fall for it. Pretty quickly we become buried in information: "There are so many people with our name!" The risk is that pretty soon, we get discouraged and give up.

Sign Said 'Wrong Way

Or, we find a published family tree that sounds good, and without checking the research, plug it in to our fledgling tree, and spend the next six months researching the wrong family in the wrong place, and possibly in the wrong time period. We spend money on the wrong certificates, talk on social networks to the wrong relatives, get copies of the wrong photos, and visit the wrong ancestral home. 

Oh, and the right cousins beat on our door and give us a 'lesson' we won't forget! Because we 'led them down the garden path'.  The risk is that we will feel defeated, and give up.

This is called 'grafting other family trees', without checking the data.

If high risk is your preference, you might want to jump off now. But at least go here.

Medium-Risk Road

"Does not Play Well with Others"

There is the slower 'sub-arterial road' which some like to follow. At a more moderate pace we do 'due diligence' offline. We talk to Mum and Dad and older family members. We do collect family records; do track down any birth, marriage and death certificates; do assemble photos and diaries; and do get war records. We even fill out some family group sheets and a fledgling pedigree chart, as far as we can. We actually set up a 'research record'.   Excitedly, we get everything organised!  Here comes Sherlock Homes!

But, alas we also love the T-shirt "Does not play well with others". We even put Fido in one! Basically, we like "to get on with it"; on our own. Collaboration takes too long!

Caution

We are inclined to ignore those slow-speed signs: "Road Work Ahead": "It is night-time. There is no work at night time; right?!" We don't work well with the road authority and do drive straight into the arms of the Highway Patrol; and the multi-directional, ultra-sensitive radar does get us.

This is called 'tunnel vision'.

I know a person who spent two, hard years trying to find elusive ancestors, only to find a cousin had written a credible Family History on them! I should have proceeded more methodically.

Low-Risk Path

This is the approach recommended by all the Family History Societies, and if you know where to look on their site, the commercial web sites as well. It is the 'good part' of the above Medium-Risk way, but it is improved by incorporating 'working with others'.

As part of its "Learning Centre", FamilySearch Family Tree (free)  has a series of "5 minute" videos for the beginner (25 in  all) which mentors you along this path. You can upload photos of your ancestors to the site, so all can use them in their research.

 UKTV history channel offers a concise, written guide.

Ancestry.com is an American owned, commercial website which offers a simple, written guide for beginners, and could form part of a beginner's strategy, but it seductively invites you to put your tentative data into their system. It is easy to miss the advice to "draw a pedigree chart" first and, instead, leap straight into the electronic records.

The danger of this is that Ancestry immediately makes suggestions to you ("hints"), based on your tentative data entered into their system. If you are not careful you can go down the wrong path very quickly, by accepting these suggestions without proper scrutiny.

One way around it is to save a record to your "shoe box" (see graphic), rather than attach it to a person in your tree. This way Ancestry won't treat it as conclusive data and automatically suggest names to you ('hints'). FamilySearch Family Tree (free) has an excellent video on avoiding 'common mistakes' made by beginners.

Balanced against this downside of Ancestry is their array of downloadable forms and charts for establishing best practice for your research, including a place to record notes on your searches. Ancestry also offers video instruction.

The new technology available for keeping research notes at your finger tips is another topic.

Online is Not the Whole Picture

When attracted to major commercial websites, remember that In the first hundred years or so back in time, you will need to get birth, death or marriage data from civil registration offices, in the ancestor's 'registration district' (which may be different from the town or village in which they lived).

For privacy reasons, the images for this initial 100 years or so have not yet been turned over to online service providers like Ancestry.com or FindMyPast; not to free sites and not pay-for-service. There is an obscure way to to find out the exact commencing dates for the imagery on these sites. Search with a dead ancestor. Note the date-range of the collection.

Index is a Snapshot

But you will often find online snapshots, or "Indexes" on government websites; offering varying degrees of exposure of their civil records. In Victoria, Australia, you get only a glimpse of indexes before you have to pay! But there is an alternative source in this case.

You are going to have to pay government registration offices a fee for certificates; but online payment is common. That's where collaboration with others can help share the cost.  Start with the marriage certificate, which is a 'gold mine' and gives your research 'structure'. Fortunately, there is a way to narrow your search area, which is another topic.

British Genealogy Public Forums

The Low Risk Path is slower paced, but it is worth the effort! You will be in it for the 'long haul'! Once you have done the 'ground work', you are ready to find out if anyone else is working on the same family line as you. Check around the cousins. Try British Genealogy (free) or GenesReunited (free).

Oh, and Ancestry has User Forums too, but you have to pay over $200 AUS annually to use them.

Share information with others in the family, and save yourself duplication.

draw a pedigree chart

draw a pedigree chart