Genealogy is an interesting and fun hobby. You begin by just looking for family information “for fun” and as you continue it becomes more of a quest. Finding ancestors and family information can become one of the most important things you do in your life. It is difficult, if not impossible to understand until you have become mesmerized with this time consuming hobby.

While you are learning about the correct ways to research your family and the different sources that are available, you need to be aware of some research judgment errors. The volunteers and I see these judgment errors or oversights, as we help researchers in the library.

A few common mistakes made:

1. Skipping generations. For example, “ I have traced my family back to Charlemagne –I have a gap of a couple of generations in my chart, but….” Always begin to trace your family with yourself and work your way back in time not the opposite.

2. Believe what you find. For example, an older lady from Canada, came in the library one day, found a large amount of information about her grandfather’s family and refused to copy any of it because he “hadn’t been married twice”. Sometimes, you find out secrets about your family. It’s easier to copy the information and check it out later than not have it at all.

3. Check out a location fully. My husband and I once went to New Jersey to do some Drake family research and found once we got there that the library had moved years ago. We finally found the new location after spending precious time driving instead of researching. That same trip, we found the old Drake family home that was now owned by the local historical society. A wonderful old house that was only open a couple days a week, not the days that we were there!

4. Generations of the same names. Don’t be confused by several generations with the same names. It’s easy to combine different generations with one common name, which causes lots of problems. Pay close attention to dates. Also, don’t assume that John Henry Sr. is the father of John Henry Jr. It is possible that he is an uncle or cousin. Perhaps they are not related at all, but Jr and Sr are used to differentiate two men in the same town with the same name.

5. Spelling is questionable. For example: “This can’t be my family, it isn’t spelled right”. Kelly and Kelley, Harter and Herter, Talley and Tally, etc. Keep an open mind about the spelling of your family names. Just because it is spelled one way now, doesn’t mean it has always been spelled that way. Try to think of the different ways to spell your family names and jot them down. This might be the key to a missing link.

6. Problems with sharing. Genealogists are known for sharing information with other genealogists. Think about the information that has been shared on the Internet, for example. Most information is good, reliable data. However, it known that some people share un-reliable information. Whatever the reason, be careful and never assume anything is true without proof.

7. Indiana and Iowa. Census takers, oftentimes, had their own way to abbreviate names and places. If you think your ancestor was born in Iowa, because it was abbreviated “Ia” in a census, you might find that “Ia” really was used as the abbreviation for Indiana. Just because it is spelled one way now, doesn’t mean it has always been spelled that way.

- Linda Talley