Tips and Tricks

Tips, tricks, and ideas to help with your genealogy research. Explore these posts to find new ways of researching for those elusive ancestors and breaking through brick walls.

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The Importance of Correct Information in Family Trees

No doubt I’m being repetitive but, there are folks out there who post incorrect information on online family trees saying they have an ancestor who was Native American. NOT! They think this because they do not understand what they are looking at. I’ll use my ancestors as an example.

The 1851 New Brunswick census has Moses McCubrey (McCoubra) as Irish (in this case it is where he came from but, he was born in Scotland), his wife do (ditto) for Irish, 1st son do, and 1st daughter as Native. That means she was born in NB. The neighbor in the next family is a husband who is listed as native. He was born there. You have to dig deeper and get more information, and facts, and have an understanding of what you are looking at. Hopefully, you can find a bona fide Native American in your line, good for you.

I have suggested to those who are new to genealogy to try and find a local genealogy group they could join and/or, take a beginners class/course.

A few years ago I helped a man from away who had been doing genealogy for two years. I helped him with his local relatives. As he looked at what he had posted online, he said “oh, I have to take that down”, twice. He had pulled things from what others had posted. Use online trees as hints, not the truth until you see the cited sources with your own eyes.

Also as a reminder, look for a 1904 Postal Census as they list everyone at the address and they give the ladies’ maiden names. They also list people getting mail that is from away.