Here’s the next in my occasional series of bite-size Quick Tips. Click on the Quick Tips tag for my other Quick Tips. Because I tend to write longer posts, I wanted to provide a quick-to-read (and quick-to-write) post every couple of weeks on a small topic that pops into my head. This is one that I think trips up new genealogists quite often!
Don’t rely on online trees
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with online genealogy research, in my view. It’s how I do most of my research, in fact. Websites like Family Search and Ancestry provide amazing, reliable information and the hunt for images of original documents is thrilling.
The problem comes when people take information found on public trees on those sites and assume the information is accurate. A tree is only as good as the genealogist who put it together. And unfortunately if someone has posted wrong information it’s often copied and may appear in many other trees. That can give it a patina of reliability. But unless it’s backed up by a solid source, I suggest using it only as a clue.
You’ll avoid heartache and headache down the road if you rely on solid source documents, not family trees, for your research.
Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash
