Ne-Do-Ba

1. Develop a Research Plan.

2. Check Your Logistics in Advance.

3. Be Flexible!

The death notice, obituary, death certificate, and tombstone all have the same date of birth for great-grandma.

What you most likely have is one person who gave the same information four times.

Remember that before you think that just because four sources "agree" that they are correct.

know what you are looking for

You need to imagine the document you are looking for and enter search terms that you assume are on that document.

Look for categories of records and sources rather than individual documents.

The simple answer, always attribute any copy. The second part, never copy an entire work even if the work is only one paragraph or one sentence long. Rewrite in your own words. Last, you can always ask permission to reproduce a work.

A record provides evidence of a fact, and we get so focused on the one piece of evidence that we fail to examine the context of it. This can throw off the conclusions we take from the evidence.

Ask yourself:

When was the record created?

We tell them that those stories are not fact until we have the records to back them up.

It's only natural that we believe what our mother, father, or any other family elder for that matter, tells us about our family history. Unfortunately some of their stories get distorted over time.

Now imagine that game of telephone is happening, not over an hour but, over decades. Oh, and someone in the "telephone" line was 8 years old when it was their turn and they only heard the story the one time. Your Nana may have had the best of intentions in passing the story along to you. She probably believed every word of it but if you base your research on that and toss aside any records that don't fit the family legend your real family history will never be found.

Each report evaluates the town’s existing historic properties inventory, highlights significant historic buildings and settlement patterns, and presents threats to these resources. A bibliography lists key secondary resources.

The most important piece of advice I can give is to NOT make assumptions! Create working theories if you like, such as your guess that the older men could be brothers. That can be your working theory. But don't assume it's correct. Work to prove or disprove it.

It's okay to guess. It's okay to form a theory. But after you've formulated a guess or theory, you have to look for evidence that supports it. Because good Genealogy is based on facts and evidence, not guesses or unproven theories.

the one where an "ancestor" usually the wife of someone back a few generations, is supposed to be an Indian. Not surprisingly, some of these stories turn out to be true.

Unfortunately, this type of inquiry is usually without merit or the interested individuals are unwilling to spend the time and the effort to do a proper investigation that will be accepted by the particular tribe.

Don't believe all that you hear, but use all that you hear to investigate the facts.