Common Mistakes in Genealogy Research #1

One of the most common mistakes people make when researching their family histories, is assuming that their family name is only spelt one way and discard records and information which include variations to the spelling of the surname.

In an earlier post I have talked about the variations of my grandmother's surname, McCluskey - these included the variations of McClusky, McLusky and even McListy. While the first two variations are quite obvious, I ignored the McListy variation for some time... then one day I looked further into the information these records held and had enough corroborating evidence to know that it was my grandmother's family in those records. 

If I had totally ignored this variation, there is one whole branch of my grandmother's family that I would never have known about. I am still waiting patiently for the release of the 1911 Scottish Census and it will be interesting to see what variation of the name pops up there.

Variations of surnames turn up everywhere in my family tree - even my maternal grandmother's surname has two variations - Barratt and Barrett. I have yet to find any other variations, but I am also struggling to get past my great great great grandfather in that line, so perhaps I need to be widening my search to include other variations.

So, if you are stuck on a part of your tree and nothing seems to be coming up in any of your searches, perhaps you need to expand to other variations of spelling - this might just hold the key to the next branch of your family tree.

Genealogy Addict

For those genealogy addicts out there, this would have be the perfect shirt. As soon as I saw it, I could relate to it (and I'm sure my partner could too!)

Once you are on a roll, it is terribly hard to tear yourself away from the research - hours and hours in front of the computer, scribbling down notes, comparing it to other information you have, bits of paper everywhere, numerous cups of coffee... sound familiar?

Coffee Computer Genealogy by jmkgifts

Visit jmkgifts to see the huge variety of genealogy designs they have available on a wide range of products.

New Links List - Free Resources

Genealogy for All is keen to create easy to navigate lists of links to the resources found throughout these pages. The intention is to not only provide links to each of the site and available resources, but also be able to provide some information about them.

So, while the pages of this site will provide information on each of the sites, Genealogy for All is creating link lists on the left hand side, which will be available on each page. So if you want to quickly click through the links, they are easy to find.

We have created the link list for 'Free Resources' which will be added to as the 'Free Resources' page grows. Other link lists will be added as those resources grow.

 

Free Geneology Resources - Rootsweb.com

The 'Free Resources' page has been updated to include Rootsweb as a resource for your family tree research. This is primarily a community for people to connect who have common ancestry.

There are a range of resources, including Rootsweb Surnames List (RSL), the World Connect Project and user-contributed databases. As with all user-contributed databases, it is important to verify the information through official records (if possible) - just because it is on the web, it does not mean it is correct.

I have used it on a few occasions as part of my genealogical research and it has helped point me in the right direction for looking for more information. While some of the information has been correct, there have been occasions when it hasn't. If you keep this in mind, there is no reason why this cannot add to your family tree research.

Information Exchange

Genealogy for All is keen to provide links to places where people researching their family histories participate in exchanging information. This can be particularly helpful and assists in keeping the costs down in tracing your ancestors... and you may just find a long lost relative in the process. 

Genealogy for All is keen to build a resource for these information exchanges, so please feel free to let us know of any resources you are aware of and we will be happy to add it to the list.

Visit the Information Exchange page to see if there are any which may help you in your research of your family tree.