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Originally Posted by Oddsock  My 2 cents...not an expert by any stretch of the imagination.
I've gone back to the early 1600 on one side of the family but struggle with the side that is Jewish going back to Poland, German and Russia. Started on genes reunited, which had some very helpful people who actually helped me find my father and brother.
The site I use the most is ancestry.com, found the site the easiest to use. Found a cousin on there also. I believe the basic is free or was when I joined years ago, a couple of years ago we paid for more features/ access. Hubby said I'll get it free from now on anyway, as they've made some sort of deal with LDS and it's free for them.
Good luck with whatever site you join, try several for the most info. It's great fun, when you find someone new. Also don't just believe others on line,who've done the same work, you will find some people, make mistakes and then waste time going back with the wrong family. Check records where ever you can. Try similar sounding names. We have the name Ehrlich, it's been spelt Erlich, Erlish etc..
Before starting, it's a good idea to talk with family and get as much info as you can, especially from the elderly members. Wish I had this option, especially with family members who changed their first and last names due to the abuse they had to deal with when moving to a new country.
Also double check the records. If the records have been (can't think of the word) archived by a member of the public, check it, sometimes a name is misspelled or plain old wrong. Found this to be more of an issue when someone outside of the UK thought they knew street names,places in the UK. If you archive stick to what you know, please. |
My ex-husband has always researched his and others family genealogies as a hobby he took up from his grandfather, but he's a bit of a purist and has traveled a good bit to complete research or fully check out a reference or lead. He's even check out grouped family cemetery headstones to be sure the Christian family names, dates of birth/death are consistent to further fact-check the person he's tracking.
I remember he long ago decided that there are far too quick presumptions & improper conclusions drawn due to inadequate research, rushing to complete the investigation by genealogy services, due to the proximity/propinquity of people of same/similar Christian and/or surnames, age, appearance or occupation; and that there are many, many errors in old records, including government, church, cemetery, medical, old newspaper records, etc., due to sloppiness, abject lying in listing NOK, misspellings, a person officially or unofficially changing their name, use of aliases, poor handwriting in official documents, poor condition of the actual records, or mistakes in mixing up one name or person with another.