Quote:
Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly  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. |
Totally agree, Jeanie
My father has managed (so far) to track back to the 1600's (as has Sandy) - and all of it has been within 'our own Country' - he was able to actually visit gravestones, look at church records etc. etc....
But there are many, many iffy bits - still quite a bit of guesswork - and loads of Downton Abbey bits (for instance, my dad was a high-flying aviation lawyer - and his g-g-g-g- grandmother was a scullery maid, God bless her
)
Apart from that, I think he, too, started on good old ancestry.com.