Genealogy Tips
For a true beginner in this hobby there is not much that can be done online. There are a few things that are necessary to begin this project that will very likely continue for the rest of your life.
The first thing, that I think, you must do is find a genealogical program and become familiar with it. Personally, I like Personal Ancestral File from the LDS church. No, you don't have to be a church member to use it, you can turn off all the temple fields if you like. It does not have all the bells and whistles that come with Family Tree Maker or one of the other commercially available programs. But then again the price is not quite as outrageous either. Also when it comes to updates the program can be used to check for a new version and download it. It will also create an adequate web site (my genealogy section was created with it). It is free for the download and I recommend highly that you try it. The developers of the software monitor the mailing list at PAF-5-USERS-L@rootsweb.com so there are ready answers available to most all questions about the software. Also there are web sites dedicated to this program, see my links page.
The next thing that a person needs to realize is that the web is not the complete answer in researching your family tree. You can find some records online, but compared to what is out there in the courthouses and libraries, it is a drop in the bucket. Most of what is on the web can be adequately used for clues, the primary evidence has to be gotten first hand.
Primary evidence, secondary evidence and circumstantial evidence what does it all mean? Primary evidence can be best described as any information that the subject could have known FIRST HAND. For example, I have a will in which the signer, Adam Rupert, refers to his children by name. When he comes to the child that I descend from it reads: "I give, devise and bequeath to my grandchildren, heirs of my Elisabeth, having been intermarried with Henry Loutzenheiser, since deceased, namely Mary, John, Daniel, Adam, Jacob, Samuel, Benjamin, Margaret, Litte, Elisa, Ester, Henry and Lewis Loutzenheiser's...". In this one line he proves 2 generations of descent as well as the daughter's spouse, for me. The will opens with "I, Adam Rupert, of the County of Columbiana in the State of Ohio" and closes with "In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty-seventh day of April, Eighteen Hundred and twenty-nine." This proves that Adam was in Columbiana County, Ohio in April of 1829. That is a lot of first hand evidence.
Other primary evidence includes census records, and birth records. Death records are not always primary depending on who the informant was. A family bible is first hand evidence if it is in the hand of the person it discusses and is contemporary with his life.
Secondary evidence would include obituaries, contemporary county histories or family histories.
Circumstantial evidence includes statements that hint at what you need but doesn't come out and say it exactly. For an example of this type of evidence see this page. It shows how a proliferation of circumstantial evidence can be accepted as proof of an item of contention.
For those of you who I have talked to about the letter that my immigrant John Urwin received from his nephew in Durham Co., England, please click here to view or down load the letter as a jpg. If you would like to view the deductions that I have gleaned from it and the leads that I have followed up on it, please go here. This message and the one immediately following have this information.
More to come ! Please check back soon.
