I’ve written before about my cousin John Black, who died at
the age of 90 in 2014. As the
family historian of his branch of the family, he was part of my inspiration to
pursue my own family history. I
did, however, adapt his advice to accommodate current technology and Internet
resources. Sometime around 2005, I had a conversation with him about
information I had found searching the web. He said “you can’t trust anything
from the Internet!” To say that he was “old school” would be a tremendous
understatement! In his 80s, he was
not an Internet user (he sent letters to me by postal mail, typed on a manual
typewriter), but he had certainly heard stories from other genealogists about
the danger of taking data from Internet sources. He had valid reasons for his
distrust of the Internet, but that was just part of the story.
The Internet can be a source of good information as well as
bad. As with any type of research,
data found from something other than the original source should always be
verified. For me, I consider
“original source” to be a somewhat fluid thing: reproductions of original
documents work for me, as well as transcriptions or abstracts from trusted
sources. Published research (private or public) conducted by genealogists and
researchers of good reputation is also considered solid. But a lineage taken from an online
family history service or private website should be taken with a grain of
salt. I have developed the
following process to validate the data I find online.
Don’t just accept what you find online: verify, verify,
verify! Particularly if the
information seems too good to be true or leads to a whole line of noble or
famous ancestors. It’s not to say
that many people aren’t descended from those lines, but not every famous lineage
published online is real. In fact, there are some individuals who approach
their family history with the specific goal of making their pedigree as “important”
as possible by populating it with famous names, substantiated or not.
NEHGS in Boston, MA |
Some people with this mindset will find a link that could
tenuously be made if one makes assumptions with no proof and the link gets
published in their online family tree.
Others simply fabricate the connections. Once published, others researching the same line then pick
up these incorrect connections. Assumption
(or fabrication) becomes belief and belief becomes assumed fact. Yet, other published connections
to the famous are correct and valid.
So how do we determine which are correct and which are erroneous?
Sometimes an individual’s published online tree does provide
a source citation or a data point that can be easily confirmed. I learned how to best approach these online
family trees when I had a consultation with a professional genealogist at the
New England Genealogical Historic Society (NEHGS) in Boston
(www.americanancestors.com).
Portion of Darius Dirlam's (my 3-great-grandfather) handwritten eulogy to General Sherman, an old family friend |
I wondered about the origins of my maternal grandfather,
Joel Dirlam. We knew that Dirlam
was a German surname and that the family had been in Ohio for several
generations up to the birth of my grandfather, but we knew nothing about the
immigrant ancestor. There is a
town of Dirlammen in Germany and we’d always assumed that the family originated
there. But I could find nothing beyond
my grandfather’s great-great-grandfather, Sylvanus Dirlam (still, an impressive
line of eight generations from Sylvanus to me). His son, Darius Dirlam, was buried in Mansfield, Ohio where
he died in 1919. Darius was a
judge and lawyer in law practice with John Sherman (brother of General
Sherman), who was later to become Secretary of State. But I had no information on Darius’ father Sylvanus other
than his name. This was where my
information ended.
13 Generations of Dirlams |
The professional genealogist who helped me, Rhonda McClure,
searched for Sylvanus on one of the family history sites, found a tree in which
he was included and printed the information it displayed for his
parentage. The online tree
indicated that Sylvanus was born in Becket, MA to John Oderick Dirlam and Sarah
Snow. Rhonda then switched screens
and searched the NEHGS digitized records of Massachusetts and immediately
located the birth record for Sylvanus, thus proving his record. We then set out to prove the birth
record for Darius. We then looked
up John Oderick Dirlam’s record and were able to trace him back to the Hess-Kassel
region of Germany, to the north of Dirlammen. As it turns out, this immigrant ancestor came over as a
Hessian mercenary, hired by the British to fight against the colonists in the
American Revolution. As Rhonda
McClure dryly pointed out, if I wanted membership in the SAR, I shouldn’t
mention this ancestor.
The process she demonstrated was systematic and extremely
helpful to me. I honestly didn’t
know how to begin to find information on an unknown ancestor. I was scared to just jump into the
online family trees and take what I found there verbatim – Rhonda showed me how
to use that information as a starting point and how to then verify it
independently. I’ve used that
process ever since that day.
When I set out to research a new ancestor, I follow these
steps, generally starting with Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org:
1.
Search for any records available online,
starting with birth, marriage and death records. This will generally return a series of abstracts or copies
of records that are not the original. If you’re using FamilySearch.org (a website run by the Mormon
Church), their records will often provide a microfilm or reference number,
which can then be used to order the films for viewing near you. They have their own reading rooms around
the country as well as arrangements with libraries and societies to which they
will deliver the films for review.
2.
Search for other types of records – if the
ancestor falls in a published census time frame (essentially 1800s through
1940), not only the US Census but state census information can be helpful. Depending on the specific census year,
you’ll find birth year, birth month, total number of children women have had
(in case you worry you’ve missed a sibling along the way), addresses, etc. Other records include online
obituaries, photos of gravestones at Find-a-Grave, etc. These secondary records can be quite
informative. (See my earlier post about the Unknown Relative which relates how
I made contact with distant cousins through Find-a-Grave.)
3.
If I can’t locate the information I need from
these sources, I then look to see if the ancestor is listed on an individual’s
family tree. If I find such a
reference, I look for entries with citations – do they link to a source for the
data provided? If so, that helps
(as with the search, above, for Sylvanus Dirlam) to point me in the correct
direction. If there are no
citations, the information at least provides me with a starting point to go
back and search again, using the information found on the tree as the starting
point.
4.
If I find multiple trees with the same ancestor,
but no citations, I look at other entries on their trees to see if they provide
citations for other people. If
they do, that’s an indication that they at least have some attention to
detail. This is particularly
helpful if multiple trees provide conflicting data! Tentatively accept the information that appears to be from
the most fastidious source.
5.
Once Ancestry and FamilySearch have been
exhausted, I have one more important website to check: AmericanAncestors.org,
where journals, abstracts and an increasing number of databases are being made
available. Once I’ve finished there,
my last step is a Google search to see what else may be out there on the
Internet. Google is particularly
good for obituaries, images and for finding Wikipedia references.
6.
I have a checkbox on my own pedigree charts for
all critical information, dates and places of birth, marriage and death. If I have located and saved the source
for the data, then I tick the check box.
If I can’t prove something, then I leave the box unchecked and I know
that it is unverified and could be disproven at some point. If a name is uncertain (or if the
relationship is uncertain) I just put “poss” (or “prob”, if there’s a strong
likelihood) in front of the name so I’ll know that this is an individual to
delve into further.
Portion of my Pedigree Chart #10, showing some confirmed data (tickmarks) and much data still to verify! |
I have accounts with all three (FamilySearch is a free
site hosted by the Mormon Church) and they each have their unique uses.
AmericanAncestors.org is the website of the New England
Historic and Genealogical Society and is wonderful for finding published
information from their own and many other genealogical journals. They also have many vital statistics
databases and abstracts of town records and many other types of data. They actively update their databases
weekly with access to new sources and updates to current sources. The new
databases are often made available to non-members for free at the start before
access is restricted. In addition,
they are slowly digitizing the books in their library and are always looking
for suggestions about which books to scan next to make them available online.
NEHGS website search screen. |
I’ll make my plug here: membership is well worth it,
particularly if you have family links back to pre-Revolutionary colonial America.
If you have New England ancestors who came to the colonies by 1635, they have
extensive information in their Great Migration database. But they are not just about New England
and have extensive resources for the entire country. And their physical library
in Boston is amazing!
Ancestry.com is a great source for vital statistics, census
data and other, more obscure information.
There are ships’ passenger manifests, links to other websites (Find-a-Grave,
for example) and many interesting records that could provide that one piece of
information you need to complete the puzzle (passport applications, military
registrations, etc.). Of course
you’ll also find many family trees from users, both those that are well
researched and their opposites!
FamilySearch.org, the Latter Day Saints site, is a useful
site for locating vital statistics – if I can’t locate the information needed
on Ancestry, I check FamilySearch.
They also have extensive microfilm collections that you can request –
they will deliver to a nearby library or reading center, where you can review
the film. If I am planning a visit
to NEHGS in Boston for research, I often request LDS films to coincide with my
visit and review them there in conjunction with my other research.
One of the charts drawn up by my cousin, John Black |
My cousin John was right to be skeptical of genealogical
information online, but his wholesale dismissal of its uses was a mistake, a
realization he came to as well, particularly after I discussed this very topic
with him. I do most of my research
online, which saves me time when compared with my various ancestors who spent
weeks at a time poring over court records or county vital statistics. But it is still not as easy as one
might think. Just as college
professors won’t accept “Wikipedia” as a source for information in a student’s
paper, we, as family historians, can’t accept “Ancestry.com Tree” as a source
for our own pedigrees. We need to
roll up our sleeves and delve deeper.
The time spent up front will save you time later on and will keep you
from eventually replacing bad information with good.
Takeaway
These are the search criteria I use as I look up records on
Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.
If I am missing one of these elements, I just skip the field:
·
Last name, first name
·
Spouse name
·
Location / year of birth
·
Location / year of death
This will often give me a very broad search result that then
needs to be culled – first I filter by birth and death records, which includes
vital statistics databases, Find-a-Grave and other sources. Then I’ll look at census records, if my
ancestor falls in the census timeframe.
Then I search for pictures – for two reasons. First, if the person who owns the tree has a photo of the
ancestor, it is likely that they will have better information, since they’ve
got some access to records. Also,
some people use a screen shot of a vital statistic for their photo record. On Ancestry, the site has made a
concerted effort to make the proofs more important and more easily reviewed,
with clear links between the statistic and the linked record.
I then go to AmericanAncestors.org, the NEHGS website, and
search their database. Here I use
the name as the search criteria and then select the “Journals and Publications”
category for my first search. If
appropriate, I will then search the “Great Migration” category (early American
ancestors who may have arrived prior to 1635). In these categories, their date fields are not tied to the
individual vital statistics, rather to the date of publication of the article,
so I leave dates blank. I then add
a connected person (spouse, parent, etc.) and remove all category selections to
search their entire database to see what might be found in other
databases. Next, I add in key
dates (birth, marriage, death) to further narrow the search and limit the
search to “vital records”.
Finally, Google!
As a last step, I do a general Google search, usually using the
individual’s name, a vital statistic date and a place name. This will often shake loose an
obituary, a family tree on its own website, Wikipedia pages, etc. It’s a lot harder to cull through the
Google results, as they are not specifically returned with a genealogical
filter, but it can return some valuable results. Once I’ve reviewed the general results, I perform an image
search, then a book search, to see what comes back from those two media.
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