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.