Some Basics

Some Research Basics

1. “Start with the end in mind.” President Russell M. Nelson (temple work to redeem the dead)

2. Start with what you know. Make sure it is in the FamilySearch Family Tree for temple work.
(Some researchers like to sort out the details on paper before adding it to Family Tree.)

3. Work backward in time, adding sources as you go, to document your family.

4. Remember that the same name will have different spellings, depending who wrote it. And names can change over time, Immigrant names are especially likely to change. And be aware of nicknames.

5. Often people born before 1850 could not read or write, even in industrialized countries.

6. The most important information after the name is usually the birth, as it follows a person throughout their life, While marriage and death information is important for those specific events, birth information may be used in all the records of that person.

7. You can estimate dates and places, if you are careful. Parents are typically 30 years older than their middle child. Look for records in places that they lived. Replace estimates with facts as they are found.

8. You can search the 7 billion FamilySearch historical records from any Person Details page. Also register for free accounts with Ancestry.com, findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com (available to Church members). https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/partneraccess/ Record your access codes.

9. The map is your friend. In rural areas of Europe, families often remained in place for multiple generations. A young man in a rural area usually found a wife within 7 miles of where he lived, if he had to travel by foot. If they lived by a county boundary, search on both sides of the boundary.

10. People were generally born at home. The “birthplace” may be listed as a nearby town or city.

11. Think of census records as a series of Family Group Records. Coordinate data across multiple censuses. (Remember that ages are usually approximate.) Often they help you find vital records.

12. The further back in time, the fewer records there are. Records of common people seldom exist before 1600 and almost never before 1500. Nobles owned all of the land, so they can be found further back in time through deeds and titles. Noble lines may connect to royalty.

You will occasionally make mistakes in your research, and some of those mistakes may not be corrected until the Millenium. Remember that proxy ordinances are opportunities that the deceased can accept or reject. If you make a mistake, you are not compelling someone to spend eternity with the wrong spouse or parents. As Sister Wendy Watson Nelson said at RootsTech, “I do my very best and then I move on.”

Some FamilySearch Basics

1. www.familysearch.org is part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was originally created as the Genealogical Society of Utah, organized by the Church in 1894 to help members with family history and temple work for the deceased, (Ordinances for the living go through your bishop,)

2. It is the only place to reserve temple ordinances for the deceased and to print cards for the temple. Your ancestors want to be there.

3. If the deceased person was born in the last 110 years, their ordinances can only be reserved by a member of their immediate family (spouse, parent, child, or sibling) or by someone who has permission from an immediate family member. If the deceased person was born more than 110 years ago this restriction does not apply.

4. The ability to add photos, stories, etc, is wonderful, but the focus should be the temple.

5. Family Tree is not your private family tree, it is a shared tree, so share nicely. It is not a competition.

6. Only you can see your living family members, Temple information is not visible to non-members.

Some DNA Basics

Nearly every cell of your body contains genetic coding in DNA, which you inherited from your parents and they inherited from their parents and so forth. The three common types of DNA tests are:

1. Y-DNA is passed from father to son. Y-DNA Tests are available to males only, looking for other males with matching Y-DNA, indicating a common male ancestor. (In our culture it usually corresponds to the surname line.) It is useful for distinguishing between unrelated families with the same surname, and finding matches with documentation that goes back further in time than yours.

2. MT-DNA or Mitrochondrial DNA is passed by a mother to her children. MT-DNA tests follow the direct maternal line, just as Y-DNA follows the direct paternal line. Because MT-DNA changes so slowly, it is seldom useful for genealogy. (Note that X-DNA research is different from MT-DNA.)

3. Autosomal DNA, sometimes called a “Family Finder” DNA Test. This is the cheapest and perhaps the most interesting. It tests all of your ancestral lines, not just one line as in the case of the two other tests. But it gets unreliable beyond the 4^th cousin level, because the amount of shared DNA decreases by half with each generation. It is especially popular with adoptees looking for biological family.

Which test is best depends on what you are trying to do. The slogan “The science does not lie.” ignores the fact that biological evidence is subject to interpretation. In particular, “ethnicity estimates” as given in Autosomal DNA tests depend on assumptions made by that testing service at that particular time. A DNA test might be a useful tool once you have gone as far as conventional research allows. FamilySearch makes no recommendation of any particular DNA test or testing service.
(The testing service FamilyTreeDNA,com has no connection to the FamilySearch Family Tree.)

Compiled by Bill Buchanan
Revised 3 January 2019