The genealogy mistakes that keep you stuck.
Most people get stuck for the same few reasons: they copy someone else's tree without checking it, take a matching name for the right person, search one spelling, trust an index, follow only their direct line, look in the wrong county, and don't write down where a fact came from. Each one has a simple fix.
The seven.
- Copying a tree without checking it. A tree is someone's conclusion, and it may be a mistake copied many times. Treat it as a lead, then find the record behind it.
- Taking a matching name for your person. One name in one town can be two people. Check the age, the spouse, the children and the neighbors before you add anyone.
- Searching one spelling. Clerks wrote what they heard, and indexers read what they could. Try other spellings, initials and the surname alone.
- Trusting the index. An index is someone's reading of a page. Open the image of the record itself when you can. It often says more, and sometimes something different.
- Following only your direct line. Your ancestor's brother's death certificate may name the parents you can't find. Genealogists call this the FAN principle: friends, associates and neighbors.
- Looking in today's county. Boundaries moved, and records stayed where the county was at the time. The FamilySearch Research Wiki has county pages that help you work out which one to ask.
- Not writing down where you found it. Six months from now you won't remember. A citation lets you, or anyone, go back and check, and it's part of the Genealogical Proof Standard.
And one more: stopping at what's online.
A lot of family history was never scanned. See records that aren't on Ancestry or FamilySearch.
Or just ask.
Tell Ancestral Fire one name, and it reads your tree, searches FamilySearch Family Tree once you connect it, and tells you what it found, with the source behind each fact. A real answer:
What doesn't the tree know about Patrick?
Your imported file records Patrick's birth around 1823, immigration to Boston around 1847, work as a cooper, and death in 1858. A note says he died of consumption, but the file has no attached birth or death record or 1850 census to verify details; his parents are named Patrick and Mary Johanna, but their dates aren't given.
From the Kennedy family's published tree: what an answer looks like when it says what it doesn't know.
Do it now: run your file through the free GEDCOM checker.
See a whole conversation on How it works, or what it finds in one family: The Kennedy family tree, from Wexford to Dallas.
Keep reading.
- Best family tree software, free and paid. To draw a quick tree, use a free browser tool like Family Echo or our family tree maker.
- Is AI genealogy accurate? What to check. It can be, when it answers from records and says which ones.