Rookie Mistakes: Difference between revisions

[[Image:Rookie Mistakes.jpg|frame|right|250x220px]] <br> A list of rookie mistakes, their consequences, and how experience ''teaches you to do it better''.&nbsp; A self-improvement checklist.<br>

We love new family history researchers. They add enthusiasm and idealism to our community. We offer this list to help them.<br>

This is a wiki-list. Feel free to add more ideas as you think of them. Please help us ALL improve our skills by explaining what experience teaches genealogists to do better. When adding to this article, remember that we ALL started out as Rookies.

Beginning researchers customarily focus on individuals to the exclusion of the family, the family dynamics, and locality or cultural influences.. When working on research goals, they collect the typical base information for single individuals but may overlook secondary information such as jobs listed, how many of their extended family are living with them, or how often the individual moved (possibly just to find work). 

 

'''''Consequences:'''''  Superficial information can be used to generate a beautiful pedigree chart but overlooking some of less obvious information can result in a book with very little on each page. Understanding an individual’s relationships with parents, spouses, children, friends, and extended relatives can unearth clues that lead to other ancestors or that could break down the inevitable [[Solving_Tough_Research_Problems—Overcoming_Brick_Walls|brick wall]] in your research.

'''''Experienced researchers''''' know that most people are a part of a household and a social unit which could also be extended to include the surrounding community, their extended family, and even their religious or social affiliations. These individuals are part of their parents family group until they marry or create their own household. By collecting information regarding all individuals and all the relationship information associated with each other (such as siblings and others living in household), more data points are available as evidence or clues in uncovering other information. .  

== Rookies are inclined to be poor note keepers&nbsp;<br>  ==

Rookie family group records have a tendency to have meager source citations, and are limited to births, marriages, and deaths. They are often so enthusiastic that collecting tons of information is their priority.  They often start their family history project without learning how to get organized from the start  and this will create a snowball effect as more and more data is collected.  Their research logs often consist of small slips of paper tucked into the pages of a spiral notebook. They have a tendency to make handwritten copies of sources. Their copies of sources are scattered and poorly organized. Finding a particular document may take hours if they can find them at all.

'''''Consequences:''''' Poor organization and note keeping often results in redundant searches, missed documents, overlooked clues, poor correlation and analysis, incorrect conclusions, dead ends, and false connections. One of the Research Wiki’s goals is to provide a knowledge base that will assist newcomers in the most effective methods to [[/Principles_of_Family_History_Research|start]] their family history endeavors.

'''''Experienced researchers''''' [[Document AS YOU GO!|document '''as they go''']], keeping up-to-date well-[[Cite Your Sources (Source Footnotes)|sourced and footnoted]] family group records, along with detailed [[Research Logs|research logs]]. Veterans researchers make [[Copying Sources|photocopies of sources]] whenever allowed by the repository and they [[Adding a Custom Event to a PAF Family Group Record|add all events]] including things like each census, military service, and family moves to their [[Family group record: roadmap for researchers|family group records]]. One of their primary goals is to stay well [[Organizing Your Files|well organized]]. Thanks to their research log they can have any document copy about the family in their hand in moments. They use their records, especially the family group record, as their best source of ideas about where to search next because of all the clues they have packed into it and they use their research logs to document their research strategies as well as the sources searched.  

== Rookies can jump to conclusions which aren't supported by evidence<br>  ==

Rookies are often too quick to draw conclusions without enough strong evidence. For example, when rookies find records for individuals with the same name, they may assume the records represent the same person when they do not. For instance, a census record showing William Bescoby born about 1811 in Lincolnshire, England, and a marriage record showing William Bescoby married in 1835 in Lincolnshire, England can easily appear to be about the same person. Without doing additional research, a rookie may conclude these two records represent the same person. But further research in census and other records would have shown they do not.  

'''''Experienced researchers''''' should realize that solid evidence from multiple sources is needed in order to draw valid conclusions about individuals and family relationships. Since all the needed information may not be available this means that a tentative conclusion is put into their research logs indicating that more sources are needed. They look for multiple records for individuals, including birth, marriage, death, and census records. They use these records to create a complete picture of individuals and families so that the conclusions they draw are strongly supported by the evidence.  The more sources you can [[Cite_Your_Sources_(Source_Footnotes)|cite]] the less likely your conclusions will be over-turned later by yourself or someone else.<br>  

== Rookies may assume an ancestor’s name has only one correct spelling  ==

Rookies may reject sources that show the ancestor’s name spelled differently than expected. They often insist the family has always spelled the name just one way. They may be uncomfortable with variant spellings because they assume different spellings are a sign their ancestors were uneducated. They overlook the possibility that it was was an immigration clerk not understanding a foreign language, a census taker writing down a nickname or misspelling a surname incorrectly, or an indexer having difficulty deciphering someone’s hand writing or even making a typo error when entering the data.  There are so many possibilities that it was not the family) that spelled the name differently. Another possibility is that it could also have been the family itself that changed the surname.  Spelling changes are also often the result of pronunciation differences in languages, the need of their ancestors to hide their national origin due to discrimination issues, or even something as simple as changing the spelling to conform to the way others spell the same name (like Schmidt and Schmid).

'''''Consequences:''''' Missed sources, missed opportunities, missed clues, incomplete and stunted genealogies as well as a missed opportunity in understanding the reason why such changes took place.  

'''''Experienced researchers''''' would find it unusual if they found only one spelling in all of the records for a particular person. They expect and actively seek out as many [[Name Variations in United States Indexes and Records|variant spellings]] of the name as possible. Experienced researchers look for names under middle names, initials, abbreviations, and [[Traditional Nicknames in Old Documents - A Wiki List|nicknames]]. They should actively use the [https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list ''International Genealogical Index''] to find alternate spellings to surnames and they often use [[Spelling Substitution Tables for the United States and Canada|spelling substitution tables]] to figure out even more possible alternates spellings of the surname.  

== Rookies frequently have vague research goals  ==

Rookies often have little focus mainly because they rush or are rushed into doing their family history without having the proper training at their disposal. When questioned about the person and event they seek, a rookie may not have anyone specific in mind. They just want to find ancestors as quickly as possible. Furthermore, they are often without basic family group information when they start to ask their questions.  

'''''Consequences:''''' A lack of focus means a rookie is unlikely to stay on task. They often don't know where to search. This lack of focus often results in a lack of progress and they tend to be easily discouraged when not trained about what to expect.  

'''''Experienced researchers''''' work on [[How to Get the Best Research Advice|one specific event]] in one person’s life at a time. They can name the person and event, such as, “I want to document Katie Beller’s birth.” The nature of the event suggests a variety of sources that might have information about that event. Furthermore, research veterans carry with them a [[Family group record: roadmap for researchers|well-documented family group record]] detailing that particular ancestor so the researcher can review the clues. If unrelated information pops up during their research they would enter it in their research log and mark it for future investigations. They tend to continue to research that one event in one person’s life until they have exhausted all currently available options  Unsuccessful or incomplete investigations should then marked for future exploration in their research log.  

Rookies move to a different family too quickly before finishing most of the research on the family they started. This is often the result of collecting the [[Gather_Low-Hanging-Fruit_Sources|low-hanging fruit]] which in and of itself is not bad as long good recordkeeping techniques are pursued and follow-through on each item is anticipated.

'''''Consequences:''''' Clues about individuals are embedded in their connections to their family and associates. Failure to understand the family and community results in fewer clues and less evidence. Shallow research results in less correlation and analysis of records which can then become a set-up for poor conclusions.  

'''''Experienced researchers''''' understand the value of researching the members of one family until all the members are well-documented before switching to a new family. This becomes more and more relevant once the research starts to focus on finding missing information or when trying to extend the family lines further into the past.  Research may skip around a bit among members of the same family, but staying within a specific family tends to be an easier way to focus a variety of clues that could lead to answers.

== Rookies occasionally “start” their research on ancestors in the distant past  ==

The farther back in history you go, the less documentation you will find. Records were not always kept and over time it is common for what records there were to be destroyed or misplaced. By starting with more recent ancestors the researcher is more likely to find well-kept records. Rookies make the mistake of starting on ancestors with the least amount of records. This is often done in an effort to prove relationship to a famous ancestor or event.