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Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Jumpstart Your Family History in Ten Steps: Initial Thoughts

Since at least 1915 books have been written and classes held to teach people how to do genealogy or family history. There are probably hundreds of books that go through the basics of getting started, so why do I want to add to the pile of accumulated instructions already out there, now online and still being published in books? Here is the reason.


This is what has evolved as the "Research Cycle." It is supposed to tell a "new researcher" how to get started in doing family history. Hogwash. Pure Hogwash. Oh, maybe not even pure Hogwash. But Hogwash nonetheless.

Why are we still using this misleading and totally out-of-date diagram to represent how we are supposed to start doing family history? Because we are dutifully following the tradition started back in 1915 or whenever before we had the internet and computers. We are still slaves to the genealogy notebook and the three ring binder. We still print off Research Logs and work our way through piles of paper. In short, we are mired in the past.

By the way, where did I get this diagram? I got it from the first page of the link on the FamilySearch.org Family History Research Wiki to "New to Genealogy, The Research Process." Why do I know how to start doing family history when the methodology is so entrenched? Who am I to question the wisdom of the ages? I guess my answer is that I think a lot and find things. I have been thinking about genealogy (If you like you can substitute "family history" for genealogy and "genealogy" for family history anytime I use either term since they are absolutely the same thing) for a very long time and writing about it nearly every day for the past eight years or so. I am also basically an iconoclast, not in the religious sense, but in the sense of one who attacks cherished beliefs or institutions and there are few cherished beliefs more entrenched than the methodology used by "traditional genealogists."

It might seem obvious, but it apparently not so obvious to the genealogists who talk about the Research Cycle, that we live in the middle of what is variously referred to as an Information Revolution or New Information Age. Let me start with this statement: we do not now have to decide what we want to learn about our family. There are millions upon millions of family trees online on websites that have made that decision for us. Today, I do not even have to select records to search. There are several very extensive websites (programs or apps) that will automatically begin searching billions upon billions of records the second we provide them with a minimal amount of family information. We certainly do not have to obtain and search those records. Hmm, we finally do come into the old Research Cycle when we evaluate and incorporate the information from the records into a family tree. Oh, I entirely skipped the part about identifying what we know about our family. Really?

The reality is that I can build a family tree without bothering to know or learn anything about my family. The biggest challenge today is not starting the Research Cycle but filtering through the absolutely pervasive pile of family history garbage that has already accumulated. In essence we are not so much researchers but scavengers. We sit in the junkyard and try and sort through the piles of garbage that have already accumulated. According to my rough calculations, there are presently more names in online family trees than there are people on the earth today. Granted there are a lot of duplicates. Granted there are huge numbers of living people who are still not in the piles. Granted we don't automatically have access to all of the names. But when we look at the piles, how do we know that our own pedigree is not already there online just waiting for us to pick it out of the pile?

I have sat in classes and conferences while I listen to the genealogical illuminati detail how they solved some deep genealogical mystery while I am sitting there thinking how did this person know that someone else had not already recorded that exact information in an online family tree somewhere? Especially when those same genealogical illuminati disdain and mostly ignore online family trees.

What we need is one place where everyone can put all their family information and then we can sort out the good from the garbage and come to a consensus about what is and what is not known about every family in the world. Far from going through some esoteric Research Cycle, our real job today is to sort through genealogical garbage. If we deny our junkyard heritage and think we can start our own "clean" set of records we are simply taking the risk that we will be spending our lives duplicating someone else's work.

Oh, you say, you have moved through all the detritus and are now out in the pure world of research. You are the exception because of your extensive background and knowledge. You are the expert. You are out there exploring the wilderness and cutting down the forest and ploughing new fields. You are the exception because you have learned the mysteries of the higher knowledge of genealogy. What is more, you have published your findings in the hallowed journals of the genealogical profession!

Hmm. What makes you think you have any more clothes than the Emperor? Can you "prove" that your conclusions have not already been recorded in one of the billions of family trees?

Is there a solution? Yes, there is. We need a place where all of this accumulated genealogical information can be organized and accesses by anyone willing to look at it so I can tell if you have already solved my great genealogical mystery and you can tell if I have done the same for yours. I can tell you right now, you are not going to like my answer. You will claim that I am not enlightened and further more I am certainly not one of the illuminati. So how would I know what you do not know?

Beats me. But I am convinced I do know. The solution to these problems is the FamilySearch.org Family Tree.  Presently, it may appear to be more of a problem than a solution: but that perception is short sighted. How can one family tree claim to be the solution for the ills of the genealogical world? Well, right now not even those who think they know something about the Family Tree can see that it is the ultimate solution. Rather than acknowledging its status as the solution, they see it as one more part of the problem. The truth is that the FamilySearch.org Family Tree is the unified, universal family tree and it is rapidly evolving into the "go to" place to determine what has and what has not been done in the larger genealogical community.

What if you disagree and think I am wrong? So what. I'm not. The Family Tree (note the capital letters) already became established as the de facto standard on June 27, 2016, the date that it finally became fully operational.

How does the existence of the FamilySearch.org Family Tree change the way we start to do genealogy? That is what this series is all about. So stay tuned.

10 comments:

  1. I agree. Here's the only problem I have. If I go to whatever source and find they have John Doe as my grandfather and I didn't know that, I can take that information as a possibility only until I see there are enough good sources to confirm that information. But even then, it is better than nothing, isn't it? Do I accept it even if it doesn't have good sourcing? Do I keep a separate family tree on my RootsMagic for example and there continue to find where other corroborate the information or I can verify the source documents? What if MyHeritage tell me that out of 163 trees, 145 say this is correct but others day differently? Do I still know? In the end, the public tree is the only way we can make any reasonable progress but I would still like to be reasonably assured that the information I collect is correct. Thanks again for your thoughts and efforts!

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    1. You have gone right to the heart of the challenges of working with the Family Tree. The key is sourcing. Even if what is in the tree "fits" and is logical, without supporting documentation, the entries have to be considered tentative.

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  2. Sorry but you have cut to the heart of why there is so much garbage on internet trees and many LDS trees in particular, because people have not followed the basic research principles.
    They are not rules but principles for good research.
    The circle (Research Cycle) you displayed still holds good in internet times.

    1) “We do not now have to decide what we want to learn about our family”

    Very well I wish to know about my mother and her ancestors. I don’t know where to start so I will jump in with details about my grandfather and find tree with him on it as he is deceased and should show up on various trees.
    I manage to follow trees for him back to Noah but I still cannot find anything about my mother’s ancestors.
    Why? Because I did not decide what I wanted to learn!

    2) “Oh, I entirely skipped the part about identifying what we know about our family. Really?

    Yes, really, if you want to find ancestors you must at some time identify them that by definition means you must compare what you know about your family with what information is supplied online.
    There is no point in following information of John Smith born in New York when your father John Smith never left England all his life.

    You have to get the basics right before you can discover more about your family other wise you become knowledgeable about another persons family or worse about an amalgamation of many corrupted lines.

    3) “What we need is one place where everyone can put all their family information and then we can sort out the good from the garbage and come to a consensus about what is and what is not known about every family in the world. Far from going through some esoteric Research Cycle, our real job today is to sort through genealogical garbage. If we deny our junkyard heritage and think we can start our own "clean" set of records we are simply taking the risk that we will be spending our lives duplicating someone else's work.”

    I have often had that very thought but in reality that is a duel edged sword. Yes, a single accurate tree would be excellent but it would have to be accurate.
    The reason for this is very simple.
    It is very easy to be misled in genealogy, if a source such as an online tree, as suggested, provides certain details it seems many “researchers” find it difficult if not impossible to ignore that information and some even delete accurate information they have discovered in favour of the false information.

    I fail to seem what is wrong in us “duplicating someone else's work.”
    To many of us genealogy is not about “the finished tree” whatever that means as for me a tree is never finished it is always growing (in many cases not only at both ends but in the middle as well). The joy of genealogy is not in the finished article but in the research itself.
    In addition if we do not duplicate someone else's work, how do we know it is correct?

    Cheers
    Guy

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    1. Thanks, you make some very good points. But I am not through yet. There are two main issues: the need for each person to "redo" all of the previous research and work and the need to verify the information in online family trees. These are the two main issues which you seem to recognize also. Thanks again.

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  3. You said re "the challenges of working with the Family Tree. The key is sourcing". That is only one side of the coin. At the risk of coming up with a phrase for its sound rather than its logic: The key is not sourcing. The key is stupidity.

    We both of us despair at the unthinking merger of 2 people who live on opposite sides of the country just because the name is the same. I had a 4G-GM who, from possibly fallible memory, had been merged with someone else of the same name from another county (in England). The fact that in the middle of her life she was (a) committing bigamy and (b) was regularly travelling back and forth between Cheshire and Derbyshire to have alternate children in each county, didn't seem to mean anything to the inputter. Both the Cheshire and Derbyshire families were sourced from parish registers but clearly no thought had gone into whether or not her life was plausible. I had to create a new version of my 4G-GM in Cheshire, move all children and her husband over, re-add the sources and then delete all trace of her from the Derbyshire woman. (The time had long, long gone when an un-merge was available).

    What was missing was the prompt: "How do you know that this woman of this name in the source is the same as that woman of the same name in the tree?" And the means to record the answer. There is a sort of place where that prompt is, but it's so badly worded that I didn't recognise it for ages and - worse - realised that I'd been wiping out previous entries in that box under the impression that my text sat on top of previous entries, instead of which it simply replaces it. (Thanks here go to some of the patient experts on https://getsatisfaction.com/familysearch)

    The idea that FSFT is the de facto standard when its product (both the data and the method) is riddled with so many issues is - err, challenging. The data I referred to above. If the methodology worked, then it would be worth persevering with. But the communication / co-operation aspect seems a dead duck whenever I tried it. On the one line of my related families that did go off to Utah as Mormons, there is plenty of stuff already in FS FT. However, it's beset with the problem that someone, in order to distinguish all the people of the same name, decided to stick their mother's maiden name in as a middle name. I raised discussions on this where it impinged on my direct ancestors (as my priority) - no response after a year, so I now just delete the middle names, adding a discussion point explaining why. It's difficult not to be sarcastic when you explain the same issue multiple times. And where, if FSFT is about family history, is the ability to record stories against the relevant event rather than as a stick-on extra? Or cite sources for non-vital events?

    Does this mean FSFT is doomed? No. Right now, for me, the signal to noise ratio and the lack of anyone to co-operate with, mean I'm wasting my time dealing with anyone who isn't already in the tree. But I hope that the methodology will evolve to the extent that I'm not fighting the system.

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  4. I completely agree that Family Tree is the solution to the current confusion of on-line family trees. Let me give just one example.

    Gundvor Johannesdatter Dale has 16 family trees on My Heritage. About a third of them are marked as private so you can’t get into them to see if any sources are attached. Here is a combined list of all the sources on the remaining trees:

    Source citations
    Source: Smart Match™

    Which goes right to Guy’s point, “if we do not duplicate someone else's work, how do we know it is correct?”

    Gundvor has a single entry in Family Tree. Here is the list of sources there, each of which has an active URL link to either an index or an on-line document:

    Sources
    Gunnvor Johannesdatter Dale Confirmation Record
    Haldor Haldorsson Nordvik and Gunnvor Johannesdatter Dale Marriage Record
    Gunvor Johannesdr, "Norway Marriages, 1660-1926"
    Torgils Gitlesson Gaupholm and Gunnvor Johannesdatter Dale Marriage Record
    Gunvor Johannesdr, "Norway Marriages, 1660-1926"
    Gitle Olavsson Gaupholm and Gunnvor Johannesdatter Dale Marriage Record
    Gundvor Johannesdr, "Norway Marriages, 1660-1926"
    Gunnvor Johannesdatter Dale Death and Burial Record - Ministerialbok
    Gunnvor Johannesdatter Dale Death and Burial Record - Klokkerbok
    Gunnvor Johannesdatter Dale in the 1865 Norwegian Census
    Gunvor Johannesdr in entry for Synneve Torkelsen, "Norway Baptisms, 1634-1927"
    Gundvor Johannesdr in entry for Haldor Haldorsen, "Norway Baptisms, 1634-1927"
    Gundvor Johannesdr in entry for Ole Gitlesen, "Norway Baptisms, 1634-1927"
    Gundvor Johannesdr in entry for Gundvor Torgil, "Norway Baptisms, 1634-1927"
    Gundvor Johannesdr in entry for Brite Torkelsen, "Norway Baptisms, 1634-1927"
    Gundvor Johannesdr in entry for Kristi Torkelsen, "Norway Baptisms, 1634-1927"
    Gunvor Johannesdr in entry for Synneve Torkelsen, "Norway Baptisms, 1634-1927"
    Gundvor Johannesdr in entry for Kristi Torkelsen, "Norway Baptisms, 1634-1927"
    Gundvor Johannesdr in entry for Brite Torkelsen, "Norway Baptisms, 1634-1927"
    Gundvor Johannesdr in entry for Gundvor Torgil, "Norway Baptisms, 1634-1927”


    Which answer’s Guy’s question. We either spend 10 hours, 10 days, or 10 years, depending on the complexity of the situation, repeating research that has all been done before or we spend 10 minutes confirming from the actual sources used that previous research looks correct and move on from there.

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  5. I think you post is very interesting and raises important questions. I have linked you post in my Friday Finds at http://martinroe.com/blog/index.php/2016/11/04/friday-finds-week-44/

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  6. This is definitely in my top 10 favorite posts. I know that when I have to read it word for word to my husband! Look forward all 10 of the steps!

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  7. This is excellent information. Thank you. My wife and I are the Family History Consultants for the Niceville 2nd Ward, here in Florida. It is my intent to publish this link to our ward Facebook page in an attempt to help spread the information. Thank you for taking the time to do this for us.

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