Growing vs. Strengthening your tree

There isn't a genealogist I know that doesn't love the joy of discovery.  It’s always fascinating to discover the parentage of an ancestor.  I don’t remember the last time I heard someone say with disappointment, “Oh bother… another set of new grandparents to record?”  It’s in the nature of the genealogist to want to know more about those that came before us, and so it is highly tempting to let our research become driven by discovery.  While “growing” our ancestral tree is an exciting and important part of genealogical work, I’d like to submit a side-by-side companion to “growing” your tree… “Strengthening” it.

In nature, a growing tree that has been buffeted by wind will grow strong and resilient, and can stand the test of time, but trees that are not tested during their growth will easily crack and split and may even come crashing down when struck by a powerful wind.  Has your genealogy been tested against the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS)?  You can read more about this important concept at: http://www.bcgcertification.org/resources/standard.html.  When you apply the GPS to your work, you are strengthening your ancestral tree so it can stand up to the pressure of peer review and future analysis.

When I was just eleven years old, I started my genealogy as a school project.  It was mostly built on what I was told by the adults in my life.  I wrote down stories and had papers with lists of brothers and sisters and grandparents.  I didn't even ask for dates when I first started, but then as I got older, I went back over my stories and lists and figured I should probably add birth and death dates to my collection, so I started writing my lists over this time adding dates.  When I was sixteen and had the use of my parent’s car, I drove to the local mall to find “how-to” books on genealogy, and it was there that I got my first taste of family group sheets and pedigree charts.  I was off again reworking my entire collection inputting my data on these new fabulous forms and that’s when I started to see gaps in my data... marriage information missing, a death date not asked for, maiden names missing, etc.  Back to the drawing board again, and more relative interviews ensued as I tried to collect the missing data.  When I was about seventeen, I discovered that I could write to the County and obtain birth and death records, which helped to fill in some of those missing gaps.  By the time I was eighteen, I was more concerned with how to manage my huge pile of records, family group sheets and penciled-in pedigree charts, than I was just about anything else, oh except for driving to the mall for more genealogy books and going to the nearby LDS Family History Center spending hours looking through microfilm and microfiche. 

During these early years of discovery, I was driven by the desire to fill in all the missing gaps in my data, and this practice persisted for most of the next few decades of my “grow your tree” phase.  It wasn't until I slowed down enough to realize that growing my tree isn't worth anything if I cannot prove what it says.  I had started collecting records in concert with the verbal genealogies, pictures, funeral cards and other information I’d collected, but they were just piles of evidence sitting in a box, and I didn't know how to properly record these sources.  I would ask myself, “Isn't it good enough that I used this one record for the information in my collection?  Aren't aunt Lorraine’s stories good enough to document when she got married and what high school she attended?”  I've heard it said in genealogical circles that, “your genealogy is mythical until it’s documentable”.  This brings me to the point of strengthening your tree.  I have just recently gone back and started doing an exhaustive search, beginning with my parents, and intend to, once again, rework my entire genealogy this time with the GPS applied.  At this point, it seems an overwhelming task as I've got approximately 28,000 people compiled in my collection, all of which have some documentation attached, but most of which haven’t been put through the GPS standard.  I’m taking my time and have started with those generations nearest to me.  While they are sometimes the easiest to document and get information about (most are still living), I’m taking extra time to apply the GPS even to these individuals because it’s going to give me the practice I need to tackle the really hard stuff later on when I've reached back into ages when records were scarce and online resources don’t help much.

I believe in taking things to the next level, and I must agree that taking your genealogy to the next level must include strengthening it from the bottom up, one generation at a time, thoroughly exhausting all avenues as your work one ancestor at a time.  Your tree should stand the test of time.  Be the one to step it up to the next level.

Curating your Genealogical Collection

A curator is the person responsible for the acquisition, interpretation and care of objects in a collection.  As genealogists, we are the curators of our own family history collection, and we must have good management skills in place to properly preserve it for and present it to others.

Curators are often described as resourceful, organized, meticulous, knowledgeable and passionate in what they do.  Serious genealogists usually can be described with these same terms.

Genealogists acquire records, stories, artifacts, and other items, all of which point towards a conclusion about their ancestors.  In the acquisition of knowledge, we cannot afford to leave any stone unturned.  We must attempt to recover all remnants of our ancestor’s lives through an exhaustive search.  If we do not find all possible records, our attempt at a conclusion stands a chance of being overturned by the evidence that has not yet been discovered.

In regards to the search, we must consider that the Internet has a vast quantity of online records and information, but the Internet doesn’t contain everything, so we must also apply our knowledge of “offline” records and resources, and we must be willing to accept that driving to an archive, making a phone call to a funeral home or writing a letter to a genealogical society is a skill just as important as knowing how to effectively use search filters on a website.

An effective search for ancestor doesn't mean that we only search for that individual… it means we also research the people in their lives.  Our ancestors probably didn't lead solitary lives.  More than likely, they had ties to others in their lives like parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, children, spouses, grandchildren, work associates, neighbors and other people all of whom can give us clues about our ancestor.  Many times clues appear in a brother’s immigration record, a cousin’s biographical sketch or other not-so-obvious places.  Broaden your horizon and research the whole family.  They have a way of telling you things about your ancestor you’d probably never guessed.

An additional facet of an exhaustive search includes all those people that your ancestor could be confused with.  When researching my 3^rd great grandfather, John Ford, an Irishman, with a common name, in Chicago during the late 1800's, it was imperative for me to research ALL John Fords in that city during those years.  I had scraps of information to go on, but the better I understood the other men with the same name, and their families, the more distinct they all started to become.  I eventually was able to clearly tell them apart so as not to accidentally confuse their records with the records of my ancestor.

We must also seek out knowledge about the places they lived by researching those areas, studying geographical and political maps and studying the laws in place that affected them and the records created about them. As examples, what may have been a county border in 1870 might not be the same boundary in 1880, or the family being researched had nine children but their birth locations alternated every few years between Wheeling, West Virginia and Bridgeport, Ohio.  It may seem unlikely that you've got the correct family until you realize that only the Ohio River separates these two cites and a bridge connects them.  What seemed preposterous is now completely possible.

It is important to record the provenance of an item to document its journey from its original source to its current owner.  This is true for records, pictures and all other items.  Many of us have scans of images or have other acquired items but we have no idea where they came from.  Don’t lose the chance to document an item’s provenance.  As diligent genealogists, we seek to properly document our collection of records by accurately recording their sources but we often forget about other items in the collection.

Genealogists interpret the information in their collection with an open-minded analysis of all acquired data after an exhaustive search.  It’s rare when that data doesn't contain conflicts, so the genealogist must thoroughly examine all evidence with the following questions.

·         How close the record was to the event?

·         Could the informant have had motive for providing the answers they did?

·         How many of the records were provided by the same informant?

·         Is the record transcribed, transliterated or translated from the original?

·         Did the record come from a primary or secondary source?

These and other tests help us interpret that data before us so that we can come to an educated “conclusion”.  Often we are faced with an overwhelming urge to compare the collection of data with preconceived or perpetuated notions of the truth, but we must guard ourselves from this, as it will have a tendency to skew our perceptions when we judge the evidence.  If Grandma Judy told you her sister was married in June 1928, but documentation consistently points to July 1929, it’s possible that Grandma just forgot the details, but it’s also possible that Grandma is protecting a family secret by stating her sister was married well in advance of her first child’s birth, which may not be the case.  It’s good to have a starting point for reference so you know where to begin searching, but when analyzing your data, be careful not to disregard something just because it doesn't match up with what you “believe” to be true at that point.  Once you've had a chance to collect and analyze all available records on your ancestor, take the time to write out why it is that you believe what you do.  Reconcile the differences in the records and provide as astute assessment of the facts as you see them.  This is your “proof” statement and making it available to others for their review will help you test it’s strength.

Genealogists care for their collection.  There are many ways to do this.  One type of caring is to preserve and manage the data in a written form or software database which is backed up.  Another type of caring is to scan documents and pictures so they are protected from tragedy or natural disaster.  Can you quickly find ALL relevant pictures, mementos, records, and databases of your family and grab them at a moments notice if a tornado were bearing down on your home?  Not many of us could do that.  Scan and back up your data to several secure locations.  A bank vault, a relative’s home, and the “cloud” are some secure location ideas that will help preserve your data.  At least you won’t have lost all of your hard work, some of which may never again be able to be reproduced or found again.

Another type of caring is sharing your work with others.  Curators of a museum care for their collections by making sure they are shared with the public.  What good is a collection if you are the only one that will ever see the hard work you’ve put into it?  As your work is compiled, be willing to share it with others, warts and all.  It will always be a work-in-progress.  Don’t worry that it’s “not done”.  It may never be “done” but be sure that there are people that would love to see your collection and that will forgive you if something is amiss.  A little family vetting never hurt.  Welcome it.

Make it your goal to be a resourceful, organized, meticulous, knowledgeable and passionate curator of your own genealogical collection.