Issues of Internet Genealogical Research

I'm a little last minute on this! Sorry! Darn real life always has its own mind! Anyway, we will be talking about internet genealogy tonight at the Heritage Hunting chat at Heritage Scrap.

Now that you have your pedigree chart started and have talked to granny and other members of your family, you are ready to start *looking* for more info. In steps the internet!!

The internet is a remarkable tool that most people feel they cannot live without anymore - I tend to agree! But it is not the only tool that genealogists have to use. In fact, you probably cannot find everything you want to know about your ancestors solely on the internet. However, you can learn a great deal.

Nowadays, you can get many *source* documents directly on the net. Many times you don't need to write to courthouses and certain offices and departments to obtain these documents - and then wait forever. You can view scans of these documents online in many cases. Some are even high enough resolution that you can save and print the documents for your files. Source documents are usually more reliable than secondary documents like census records, newspaper articles, etc. because they are *more official* and were recorded closer to the time the event actually happened. Many people were and still are much more truthful with official documents than say a census taker - a few years can be shaved from a person's age when its not quite so easy or necessary to verify.

Even when you obtain these *source* documents, you must use them as guides. They do not contain incorruptible, totally accurate information in some cases. Mistakes are made everyday by everyone. Sometimes informants are mistaken, forgetful, or even outright deceitful with the information given. Sometimes information is *lost in the translation* - especially immigration information. The recorder may not understand the immigrant, may not know how to spell the names or places, or may change things on purpose to make things easier for Americans to say and spell. Many immigrants have had their names changed at Ellis Island! Don't restrict your searches to spellings you are already familiar with in your family. This is where the soundex system comes in handy! Even among siblings, surnames were changed slightly. I have six Myerholtz siblings with six versions of spelling - some quite a bit different; Myerholtz, Mireholts, Meyerholts, and so forth, one even shortened to Meyers.

The same goes for the census records; in fact, census records are notorious for containing misinformation. You can have 5 census records for the same person, each 10 years apart, and perhaps have 5 different sets of the same information. Ages may change by more or less than the 10 years between census records. Places of birth often change. Even children's names change as they grow up, going from a pet name or middle name to a more adult version.

One really big pitfall with internet genealogy is the fraudulent or copied family genealogies. I've found different databases on places like Rootsweb's World Connect that contain nearly a half million records! These types of databases are often the product of the owner canvasing for *connecting* databases and adding another person's whole database based on one marriage or connection with their own. Doing this several times over soon results in these huge databases of families that may not all be related as portrayed. You can sometimes get a lot of information from these types of databases as long as you use them as CLUES and not info written in stone. You would still want to verify this info with other sources. There are even sites that charge you to tie your ancestors into European royalty and such. Don't fall for it!

Another huge mistake made my newbies and experienced researchers alike is the lack of complete source documentation. You need to be able to go back to the exact place where you obtained some piece of information. As you get more and more information, you may want to go back and refresh some piece of info or find related info after something else has been found. With the internet being so ever-changing, you might want to note as many web addresses and other information as you can to be able to get back to your source. Record all known sources if the web site has gotten the information from somewhere else. Many sites close, are withdrawn, or otherwise disappear from the net and you have no idea where or how to confirm your information.

These are just a few of the issues dealing with internet research. I'm sure we will discover many more in our chat tonight. Just always keep in mind that even though the internet is an extremely valuable source of much information, that information comes from people with their own issues.

I'll be back tomorrow with a chat summary and some links to help you with your internet research. In the meantime, come to the Heritage Scrap chat room this evening at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time for some fun and discussion of this topic!