Mistake
Where does one start with writing about “Mistake”. This prompt can take many forms and I know I have been guilty of making many of them over the years.
My top five “Mistake” list!
- Don’t take what is in other people’s online trees as GOSPEL. By all means use this information as a starting point for your own research. If you can’t find records substantiating the information treat it as PROBABLE not GOSPEL!
- Records can indeed be incorrect! During one of my searches for my parents wedding records I could not get a hit on the usual websites, when I entered my father’s name. But I knew they were married, I had wedding photos! After many attempts at all the usual places online I just entered my mother’s name. Voila ….. there they were with my father’s first name spelt incorrectly and a completely different middle name! My father’s name was Garvice Galvin Brandt. He was recorded in every place I looked as Gravice Joseph Brandt, so presumably a transcription error on the part of the government clerk when recording the wedding details for the first name and I suspect that my father who liked the name Joseph may have told a fib on the original document! So my data entry for Garvice Galvin Brandt just didn't show up on any searches.
- Don’t fall into the mistake of assuming that you have found the right person, especially on the first record found. My mother’s mother was Florence Briggs. Her husband Stanley had a sister Florence who never married. So when looking for records of my grandmother in her married name there was much confusion until I looked further one day in the collateral line and found my grandfather’s siblings! There are of course many other occasions where I have found ancestors with the same name, it can be very confusing.
- Not keeping a Research Log. I know I should, but in saying that, I still find many of my searches are rambles down whatever Rabbit hole I come across. Yes I find myself reading things and thinking “ I have seen this before’ but then again many times on one of these rambles I have stumbled on something wonderful. I do try to set myself a goal when researching and I do try to stick to that said goal, well, most of the time at least!
- Names, dates and places aren’t the “Be All and End All” of a Family Historian or a Family Tree. Stopping to tell an Ancestor’s story can be just as rewarding. Sometimes you may not know their actual story, but facts can be told in ways that can create a picture for future generations. As long as you are clear when writing these Creative non-fiction stories that they are indeed creative but based on some facts.
