Avoid This BIG Genealogy Mistake

Genealogy is like putting together a puzzle with an unknown number of pieces and no picture, but it is fun. I try to build on work others have done, but do try to verify their results as well. A lot of people will add someone who is a likely match without doing complete research as you describe in your video. A likely match is a starting point, not the end.

As a retired (well, mostly retired), one of the My Heritage site problems is OTHERS. If I find a person that is, in fact correct. And IF, I do my normal checks, i.e. Name dob, dod, and cities, then I accept, I get a drop down of up to 12 people that I know nothing about. So, when I accept a person, I accept the drop downs unless I subject each to the same filters I list above and that is hard to do because you may not know them or their info. So, I accept, then get a discrepancy report showing a litany of people. The main problem? It is the individuals that post their genealogy and either by wrong procedures, or placements, show someone's son as being his father as well. Be careful, people.

Try this. A fellow on Ancestry has me in his tree because his great aunt was born 29th Feb 1912 in a city in the Usa. My mother was born in that city 29th Feb 1912. Both women were given name Mary and both had same last name. But my mother married someone with last name Fraga, his relative married someone called Viera. Here is problem he says its same person who married twice. I know my mother didnt marry twice.

Here is a situarion I was in and how I proved my theory correct. All of the trees I have seen on Ancestry and elsewhere, have David Prothero’s wife Mary listed as Mary Williams, because on the 1851 and 1861 UK Censuses have David’s mother-in-law is listed as Elizabeth Williams. I was not convinced Mary’s maiden surname was Williams because the only marriage record, I could find was David Prothero, Turner marrying a Mary Lewis June 11, 1826 in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales (FMP). Right time, occupation, and place as the oldest two children (David and John) were born in Abergavenny. For a while, I’ve been thinking how to prove this theory, then I found the 1862 Death Registration, I thought might be our Elizabeth Williams, so I purchased it from the GRO, which stated the “widow of David Williams, Agricultural Labourer”. My thought before looking at this record, was that maybe Elizabeth re-married. It is looking more like it. Then I searched for a marriage record between David Williams and Elizabeth [left surname blank]. On FMP, I found a marriage record that stated “David Williams, Widower and Elizabeth Lewis, Widow” married on Aug. 14, 1834. I am getting closer to proving my theory, I thought some people may not think this was enough proof, so then I thought David and Mary had children born after civil registration, which started in 1837. I looked at the 1851 Wales Census and found the youngest child, Henry and purchased his birth registration from the GRO and his birth registration stated his mother was “Mary Prothero formerly Lewis”. From the evidence I have presented here I am confident that I have proven beyond the Genealogical Proof Standard that Mary’s maiden surname is Lewis and not Williams.

As an "amateur genealogist" for my family, I have some perplexing dilemmas. They revolve around documentation. The issue applies more to myself, rather then my wife. I am Asian Indian by background. Record keeping until maybe the early to mid 1900s in India was sloppy at best, if there was even a record. My mother, and my father, both Baby Boomer age, do not have birth certificates. They have a court issued legal affidavit made of their birth. That is how they exist. They have no birth certificate. Add to the fact that everything in India was verbal, slowly, everything is being lost as far as family history, as nothing really was written down. People are aging, and as a result, passing away, taking that knowledge with them. People's memories are sometimes not so great. Additionally, for India, until the arrival of the British, the use of surnames was not a normal thing. This is in addition to the fact that people also sometimes carried the name of the place they were born as part of their name. Also, worth noting, that due to how society was in India at times, the records are sometimes very incomplete for women. Men seem to have more complete records, when it comes to India. Additionally, with this lack of paperwork in the past for India, marriage and census records are sometimes non-existent...not unless someone when to court and had an affidavit done, with two witnesses, noting the existence of a marriage. This was common all the way until the present time, and still is at times. My mother was born Valmiki Srinivasachar Prabhamani. Valmiki was my grandfather's title, as he served the Maharaja of Mysore. Srinivasachar was grandfather's personal name. Prabhamani is my mother's personal name. When she immigrated to the USA in the 1970s, her name ended up being Prabhamani Valmiki Iyer. She "lost" the name Srinivasachar on her US paperwork. My father, born Mahadeva Ananthsubramaniam Lakshmanan, immigrated to the USA in the 1970s, and his name was changed to Laxman Subramaniam Iyer. He did not know his surname until the day he departed India for the USA (surname was not a normal thing). Mahadeva was his grandfather's name. Ananthasubramaniam was his father's name. All of my father's paperwork in India call him M A Laxman or M A Lakshmanan. Also, note the Anglicization of my father's personal name (Lakshamanan -> Laxman). That is what happens when in school, my father went to Catholic school as a kid, when the sisters and father could not pronounce your birth name. They Anglicized it, and you had no say in it. So my father's school records in India, including his university degrees in India, listed his personal name as Laxman (not Lakshmanan...what his parents and his Legal Court Affidavit for his Birth in India says). In the USA, when my father immigrated, his US paperwork lists him as Laxman (and he legally has the name Laxman in the USA). ------------------------------- My wife is from Vietnam. While Vietnam has copious amounts paperwork and bureaucracy, some of the normal social rules on names do not apply. They are different. For instance, when a woman marries in Vietnam, she keeps the surname she is born with. She does not take the name of her husband's family (think Mrs Smith being the wife of Mr Thomas...very rare in Vietnam for Mrs Smith being the wife of Mr Smith). There is no legal mechanism in Vietnam to have your name changed. Also, the fact that it is quite common for all people to carry surnames of both parents makes things interesting, when tracing back. For Vietnam, this makes things very interesting and complicated, especially when people immigrate. Here is a personal example. My wife is a dual citizen (1 US Passport, 1 Vietnam Passport). Her US Passport lists her name as "Thaiduong Copham Iyer". Her Vietnam Passport lists her name as "Co Pham Thai Duong". Iyer is her married name, and legal name in the USA (she acquired that name when she immigrated to the USA and ultimately naturalized as a US Citizen). Regardless, Vietnam still legally refers to her as Co Pham Thai Duong (not Thaiduong Copham Iyer). Additionally, for Vietnam, in the past, prior to 1975, the paperwork for things like marriage and census were sloppy, if they even existed. Best to hope for a court record or an affidavit. Even then, the issue in Vietnam is that many couples just did not have any paperwork, assuming it was done prior to 1975. Today, there are still cases like this among certain people. The marriage is effectively "common law" in Vietnam, although, Vietnam law does not recognize common law (it only recognizes civil law...court law). Hence, today in modern Vietnam, most marriages and related are done as "civil law", with a court record that exists somewhere. ------------------------- So, there are many things that if you are in Asia, it is just a bit more complicated, and a little bit more difficult. Sometimes they are not traceable. Sometimes it is different naming conventions between the USA (West) and Asia. As I was born and raised in the USA, my legal name is Rahul Laxman Iyer. All of my paperwork says that name only. I have all of the "correct" paperwork, including an official birth certificate issued from a place in the USA. If I was born in India, my name would appear quite different. I probably would have had Ananthasubramaniam Lakshmanan Rahul as my name. Then again, I was born and raised in the USA, so my name is Rahul Laxman Iyer. Note, my name has the Anglicization in my middle name.

In memory of Pardon Tillinghast Clarke. I think this should be one of the first videos and topics that any genealogist in training, and experienced genealogists alike should consult and master. Never. Never would I have imagined there would be TWO contemporaneous Pardon Tillinghast Clarkes. 14 months apart. and less than 10 miles apart. And because I didn't reconcile a few anomalies (I chalked them up to record errors), I wrote the coolest little historical layout and essay and disseminated it to family as a first chapter in a planned series, with the goal of getting family interested. Months later, while doing the official write ups for Wikitree, I realized: THERE WERE TWO PARDON'S. I summarized the differences in the two and posted them to familysearch and wikitree. But whoda thunk it?

That's one of my biggest grievances with Ancestry. I hate how they have to duplicate the person if they have dual roles.

One set of my 2nd great grandfathers wereJames Jones and Elizabeth Smith. There were at least three other couples with the same names in the same area. We are experienced enough family genealogists to know to look for all the things you have mentioned but with these two, oh lordy! 😢

As an amateur genealogist who's been working on my family tree for a couple of decades, this was such a satisfying story, with all the evidence falling into place! When I first got into online genealogy, I started pulling in all the family trees i could find, without really checking the source information, and quickly found my tree had all sorts of errors -- names of people that I knew personally that were misspelled in other people's trees, dates that didn't line up, so many problems! I eventually dumped the whole thing and started over, being MUCH pickier about what I add to my tree. I really enjoy watching your videos -- I learn a lot from you!

Amy, I love the new setup!

Amy great video!! People who are starting out, this is one of the most important things to learn. It floors me when people say the name matches it must be so.....😂

Wow. This is a great video, Amy. It's helpful and a game-changer when trails go cold. Thanks for posting it! Stay well.

The "leaf" on Ancestry needs to be thoroughly researched, as it may not be a true link.

It's for the reasons noted that a lot of the information that comes up as hints on Ancestry end up in the Undecided pile with the 'I don't know how to verify this information' notation. I don't use information on other people's trees without verifying their research before adding it to my trees anymore. I made huge messes at the beginning of my journey and am still working to fix some of them! I'm not sure why things like, "A person cannot have been born in 1902 and be on the 1900 census" don't register with some folks. :(

People naming their children after themselves has been a headache for me.

People on Ancestry have taken over my great great grandmother’s identity and used her married name as her maiden name. They then marry her off to someone else, and have her death listed in Texas. I have the family records and know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she was born, raised, married, and died in Tennessee. The death certificate even shows her death at the home of my great grandfather in Nashville. Because of this, I am unable to do research further back in her line. It’s very frustrating.

I think it was more common for women to return to maiden names after separation from husband or as a widow. Most of the women I'm tracking from that time period seemed to have done that. Not all... but most. Maybe it depended on their culture and identity. The Quaker women definitely appear to have returned to maiden names. And my ancestor who started me on my current project was married twice (but not long for either marriage) returned to her maiden name when she was single. Also... for that matter, I'm not even sure if she was actually married to her first... S.O. There is neither marriage nor divorce record. I'm tending to believe they had a cohabitation agreement, instead. But those records are a mess. I haven't spent enough time on those.

So many people have added kids to my great grandfather Samuel Black. He has an uncommon middle name. I know every place that he’s been to (Indiana and Nebraska). I know that he was married twice, divorced once (my great grandmother was his 2nd marriage. His first wife had been his cousin and none of their 3 children survived past toddlerhood/infancy). I’ve seen people add children born elsewhere and not in Nebraska (where his first 3 children and my grandma and her 3 sisters were born. Also none in Indiana). I’ve made notes on him and have contacted those that kept adding children to him to recheck the sources.

The danish change their last names. They are naned for their father adding sen or dotter. And way back women didn't have any thing in their name it all belongeg to their husbands.

I have two Achilles (Killis) Woodys on my tree... One is my 4x great grandfather, the other is a cousin. Both born in the same year, one stayed in Tennessee, one went to Missouri-he disappeared around 1850 when the other established residence and showed up with a different wife in Tennessee, where they show up on censuses there in 1850. I personally think my Killis died a pauper in Missouri as his wife was an indentured servant for the next decade, but there's no documentation and burial record.