Compiled Sources in Genealogy
Lesson 12
Compiled genealogies can be a great blessing or a great curse
depending on who did the compiling and when. A great blessing if your
record has been well researched and well documented. A curse if your
compiler was not careful and quick to repeat inaccurate or sometime
intended fraudulent information. There is no sure way of checking a
record if it has not been well sourced and documented. These compiled
genealogies never should be treated as the Holy Grail of genealogy
records. Consider them as you would any un-sourced record until you
can verify the information. A quick way to get a flavor of true or sloppy
compiled records is
1. Does what information you do have match up with this record ?
2. Are there numerous about dates and calculated dates?
3. Are children born before their parents birth?
4. Are children born after parents death ~ especially the mother’s and
more than nine months for the father?
5. Were children born after mother was 45 ?
6. Was the child christened before birth date ?
7. Are there large gaps between the age of children ?
8. Does the marriage date reflect a good age for the bride 16 to 20 for
first marriage and between 18 to 25 for the groom. This can vary of
course but a girl married before she was born or at age before 16
needs further documentation.
9. More than 15 years age difference between husband and wife
10. Surname of husband and wife the same?
11. Do the places of events match with known time frames and with where you know the family lived ?
12. Are the places correctly spelled and as many as possible jurisdiction recorded?
13. Did the places exist or did your ancestors live there when they did?
14. When plotting a pedigree chart do the generations line up within twenty years of each other ?
15. If you have ordinance dates
A. Are children baptized before eight,
B. Parents endowed or sealed before the marriage or proper age?
C. Birth date later than sealing to parents date?
D. Temple was not opened at time of ordinance.
E. Marriage ordinances preformed before 1842?
To check out all possible errors in PAF or Roots Magic go to print reports and select the “lists” tab and choose possible problems. You may want to preview the report before you print it. One patron’s error report was more than 170 pages! Never submit your compiled genealogy until you have checked it out in PAF or Roots Magic. You will want to combine all duplicates and get the correct and standardized places and dates as well. Check all ordinances and accept only the earliest one. All other are wasted.
Some reason why you may have such a large error report is because of fraud. Sad to say many have paid so called professional researcher who are only interested in making the customer happy and a large pedigree that goes back to Adam or King or Queen important always brings a thrill to the duped client. Some are just honest mistakes. Be cautious about genealogies published before 1950’s remember they did not have access to the records as we do now. Another reason is people are just lazy and will link their genealogies to others genealogies before checking for accuracy .
NEVER NEVER import an undocumented and uncorrected genealogy into yours. !!!!! ALWAYS make a separate file and use this as a place to get it corrected, documented and worthy of all acceptation.
If it is a large file (over 1000) split it into smaller files as this will make your cleanup easier. It is said the way you eat an elephant is in small bites ( if you are so inclined )
Now that you have been warned here are a few places to search for compiled genealogies.
Home see if someone in your family already has compiled your genealogy. Perhaps someone has put together a book and some histories.
Libraries ~ a local library where your ancestor lived. Go online or call the librarian to see if there is one available. They can also see if there is another library which may have the record.
University and college Libraries often have biographies and genealogies donated. BYU and the University of Utah both have great collections. East of the Mississippi the Madison Historical library. Check in their online card catalogues.
The Library of Congress http://catalog.loc.gov// then enter the name of the family you are looking for. Look at the siblings and other collateral names ifyou can’t find a biorgraphy on your direct ancestor.
http://www.familysearch.org/ has one of the biggest data bases in the world. Be careful with the information. That’s why the new.familysearch has been created to correct all the errors check the ancestral file online and the pedigree resource file and the old DOS files at the family History Center.
http://www.ancestry.com/ also a daily growing compiled database plus original record so you can verify the information.
http://www.rootsmagic.com/
They provide an index of all the names contained on their CD’s at
http://www.genealogy.com/cdhome.html .
http://www.mygenealogy.com/
http://searches.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ 372,595,410
names in family trees
http://boards.rootsweb.com/?o_iid=33216&o_lid=33216 message boards to search and to submit quires on your family.
Now there are good reason to start with compiled records
The information found may not have been published elsewhere.
The information may lead to related researchers.
The information may provide leads to other resources and starting places to research.
Sources of the data might be included, indicating a dedicated researcher who has left a road map for you to follow, and making it easier for you to locate primary sources and original records.
Just remember
Not all research is equal -- what one researcher might consider to be good research practices may fall short of another researcher's expectations, and people have varying levels of skills and expertise.
Genealogies compiled in the 19th and early 20th century and before are often less than accurate due to weak research and researchers' biases ( wanting to be related to Benjamin Franklin ).
Data submitters may no longer be alive, or they may not be reached at the contact address given, thus negating a valuable resource.
Most important of all -- the data may not have been thoroughly verified and sourced.
But you can and should
Use the information as a guideline to locating other information. Even if the data is incorrect, make note of the locations and sources listed (if any) and use that to make a research plan of your own. For instance, if I had a record that had your Mary Smith born Massachusetts and her birth information incorrect, I could make note of the locations listed for the family and check into town records to see if I couldn't locate the correct data myself.
Contact submitters for information. Do not ask for "everything they have on the family," but instead offer to share your research in exchange for the information you are missing. Ask particularly about sources and their research practices. If the researcher is someone who is happy accepting a typed family history his or her Aunt Agnes wrote fifty years ago, treat the information as you would any other data and verify it before you accept it.
Verifying data before you accept it as valid is a very important part of genealogical research. Many researchers go beyond the norm and won't accept a piece of data until it has been verified by numerous sources, but for the most part you should examine each fact, locate the origin for that fact, verify that the origin is legitimate, and document the source thoroughly. For instance, if I found a birthdate on a World Family Tree CD for an ancestor, I would first contact the contributor to find out where they found the information. Armed with that info, I would track down the source (birth certificate, town records, census records, etc.). If that source was valid, I would then rest easy about accepting the fact, and make a detailed source for it in my database program. If the source was not primary (for instance, a birth date given in an obituary), I would note the source and continue my search for a primary source, such as a birth certificate if avaliable.
So start with compiled genealogies but be smart by being cautious, look for clues, contact submitter and verify.
