How to Research Your Family Tree

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This page written and copyright 2008 by Will Johnson, All Rights Reserved.  You may email me at [mailto:wjhonson@aol.com wjhonson@aol.com]
 
This page written and copyright 2008 by Will Johnson, All Rights Reserved.  You may email me at [mailto:wjhonson@aol.com wjhonson@aol.com]
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The countyhistorian is a website created and maintained by Will Johnson, [mailto:wjhonson@aol.com], Professional Genealogist.  I charge $25 per hour, with a two-hour minimum.  I accept money order, check or paypal, and for this rate, you must email me.<br>
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Alternatively, some people have requested a method of contacting me directly, and immediately, or to pay by credit card or debit.  For that I have set-up a connection through Keen.com.  On that site, I charge 65 cents per minute.  You may contact me that way by clicking the below button.  I am generally available for phone contact, from 2PM to Midnight, Pacific Standard Time (California time), Monday through Friday only.  I believe that Keen allows payment by credit card or debit as well as paypal, or even check.
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If you attempt to call during other times, you will get a screen that allows you to arrange a callback time with me.
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<center>I am a professional genealogist. Contact me, if you'd like help in tracing your family tree, by clicking the below button.</center>
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=Documentation=
 
=Documentation=
When amateur genealogists are researching their family, they tend to put little to no emphasis on documenting what they find.  The belief that the finished product is the goal leads to fabulous trees and reports with no authority to back them up.  When the next researcher picks up the thread, they have little idea where and when to look and end up repeating once more, work that has been done ten times already.
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When amateur genealogists are researching their family, they tend to put little to no emphasis on documenting what they find.  It is enough for them that they have found some exciting detail, which they write out in full, without noting when and where they found it. The belief that the finished product is the goal leads to fabulous trees and reports with no authority to back them up.  When the next researcher picks up the thread, they have little idea where and when to look. That researcher ends up repeating once more, work that has been done ten times already, in trying to find the underlying evidence for the claims.
  
When your Aunt Nellie tells you "my grandma's name was Pattycake", you don't write in your notebook "my great-grandmother's name was Pattycake".  What you write is, "my Aunt Nellie, in an interview with me on 20 Aug 1969 told me that my grandma's name was Pattycake".  You want to record the source for each purported fact, not just the bald fact.  This lets others have confidence in the type of research you do, the carefulness with which you do it, and that the end-result can be credited.
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When your Aunt Nellie tells you "my grandma's name was Pattycake", you don't write in your notebook "my great-grandmother's name was Pattycake".  What you write is, "my Aunt Nellie, in an interview with me on 20 Aug 1969 told me that my grandma's name was Pattycake".  You want to record the source for each purported fact, not just the bald fact.  This lets others have confidence in the type of research you do, the carefulness with which you do it, and that the end-result can be credited.  It also, lets them know, not to spend days in the courthouse looking for a record for "Pattycake", since the source was a personal interview.
  
 
And remember remarkable claims require remarkable documentation.  If your great-grandmother was a "full-blood Cherokee Princess" you'd better have very excellent documents stating just that.
 
And remember remarkable claims require remarkable documentation.  If your great-grandmother was a "full-blood Cherokee Princess" you'd better have very excellent documents stating just that.

Latest revision as of 12:35, 27 January 2010

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