Research Tactics: Lesson 3
What others have done
Print this Lesson“The spirit and influence of your dead will guide those who are interested in finding those records. If there is anywhere on the earth anything concerning them, you will find it.”
(Melvin J. Ballard, Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin Joseph Ballard, p. 230)
Discussion & Theory
What others have done
What research has been done by other family members? If possible obtain copies of GEDCOMs and/or paper records from relatives that you may know have done research. There are many sources containing files that can be checked for previous research. Fortunately for us, many of these are on a computer and can be shared digitally.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has provided help for us in working with Family History. Research on individuals and families compiled by others, such as family histories, biographies, or genealogies can save time. Occasionally, when using information from compiled records, you will find conflicting information. Always carefully evaluate the information you find.
- Keys to Correctly Identifying Your Ancestors.
- Ancestors are always identified by four factors: a name, a date, a place and a relationship.
- Does the ancestor live at the right time and in the right place?
- Ancestors can be linked to a spouse, children, parents, brothers, and sisters.
- Is the ancestor married to the right person?
- Do the names of the ancestor’s children match the names you have gathered?
- Ancestors can be identified by occupation, property ownership, and physical description.
- The more identifying characteristics of an ancestor you find, the greater likelihood you have found your ancestor from among their neighbors with similar surnames.
Always work from the “Known to the Unknown”.
Bring to Class This Week
- A flash drive with information on your chosen family to work with in class and to save those items you find during class.
- Your user name and password for FamilySearch (the same as your LDS Account)
Lesson Materials
Print out or download all of this material
- Lesson page — What others have done
- Conducting Family Interviews
- Family Myths & Traditions
- GEDCOM importing — Ancestral Quest
- GEDCOM importing — Legacy Family Tree
- GEDCOM importing — RootsMagic
- GEDCOM importing — MacFamilyTree
- Sourcing — Ancestral Quest
- Sourcing — Legacy Family Tree
- Sourcing — RootsMagic
- Sourcing & Media — MACFamilyTree
Helpful Links
- FamilySearch Trees
- Register for a FamilySearch Account
- Ancestry Family Trees
- Find My Past Trees
- My Heritage Trees
- Google Books
- Find A Grave
- US GenWeb
- Cyndi’s List – Biographies
- Sources, Citations and Documentation with RootsMagic
- Legacy Family Tree – Various webinars on how to add a specific record and document it
- Ancestral Quest – Quick Start Tutorial includes 15 short lessons including one on Sourcing
- Help Center/Partners
Homework for Next Week
- Print or download all Lesson Materials for Lesson 4 and read and/or print the links.
- Interview a relative or family friend (or at least make an appointment to do so).
- Bring your Salt Lake County (internet version) library card. If you don't have one, get one at your library.
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