Whether you have been doing this for 30 years, or you just started last week, Crista's presentations are great. I'm in the first category (and am probably a bit of a snob about it, to be honest), but I never fail to learn something from her videos. I hope that the folks at Ancestry realize what a valuable asset she is!!

To open a link in a new tab, you can simply click the center "scroll" button on the mouse (yes, it's actually a button). It's quicker than right-clicking and selecting "open link in a new tab." You can also use this method to quickly close tabs. Great video!

Posted in 2012 but still a wonderful overview of mistakes in 2017!

Great video!! I have just found a new love for genealogy!! I got the ancestry.com free trial a week ago, and I already have almost 200 people in my tree! I just had to get the world explorer edition! I have found out that my great great (etc.) grandfather held the royal throne in Northern England in the 1400s. And whats even better is that my mom got the Ancestry.com DNA test!!!! Im so excited to see what she is, because there are a couple rumors about the osage great great grandmother, or the African American great grandfather!! So many things to explore, but with the help of your videos ive accomplished so much more than I ever expected!! Thank you very much. I hope you reply!!!!

One thing I can attest to is that people make assumptions just based on a similar name. I have an ancestor (Walter Burris) that lived in Missouri in 1810s. Everyone assumed that another man with the exact same name that first married in Virginia in 1787 was the exact same person. Unfortunately no one took the time to actually research the middle years between and research each separately going backwards from Missouri 1810s and forwards from 1787 Virginia forward. I quickly figured out they were two different men and using tax/court records proved the Missouri man was in Kentucky from 1800 to 1809 (then MO 1810+) and the Virginia man was still in Virginia until 1820. Then using cluster evidence was able to trace the Missouri/Kentucky man to South Carolina and back to at least 1769. There are over 200+ trees copied on Ancestry that have these two men merged as one.

Another very important mistake people make is that they fail to properly merge duplicate children. They might notice that parents are duplicates and merge them, but then don't bother to merge the children, so that you end up with a family with 20 children, many with the same or similar names. It kinda turns the family into useless junk unless you've got enough other information to decide which children should stay and which don't belong.

Thank you so much for your kind words, Mark!

Watching... you said google, I thought "hmm... I never google my 1800 brick wall family member, BOOM!!!" Brick Wall broken.

I saved a record, deleted the entire record, then found the right information and added it all back. The worst case scenario is researching the wrong family

@karentucker2161

4 жыл бұрын

I had to do that too.

Yes it’s an old video..but I’m just getting started. And it’s new to me ..thx so much

nicely done thanks

VeryGood information

Good vid....thanks! :)

Yeah, that first mistake is something that I nearly made because some of my ancestors last name kept alternating between Meadows, Meadors, and Meador in the hints and documents, same with Dixon and Dickson.

I was actually surprised to find so many different spellings for my last name! I've also come across a members 1st name is spelled so many different ways that it makes it hard to know if you for sure have the proper person. especially when dates don't line up well at all. a couple in my family where their 1st name is spelled many different ways is Jonas and Silas and Phoebe as well.

These are great but it would be nice if the video quality was better

Christa, I've been doing genealogy research about 30+ years but just watched my first video of yours. I very much enjoyed it. Where do you broadcast your live videos? I can't seem to find them. Thank you! Kathy

My Irish part of the family on both my Great-grandmothers parents generation they where 2 spellings ‘Dooling’ and ‘Dowling’ and ‘Bowen’ and ‘Bohan.’

@marcybowen6124

5 жыл бұрын

Bohan 1880 to Bowen, circa 1910, Medford MA from Co Roscommon Ireland. Any connection?

I have saved this vid and the followup. I view it every once in a while just to remind myself what NOT to do.

My surname is Dorshimer. I have 20 some variations of it and 6 of them are used today.

I have gone down many rabbit holes looking for family only to find out I was following the wrong family.

QUESTION: I'm compiling info and making a hardcopy book. MAY I publish the "documents" I find in the Appendix in my book with linked credit given? My dad's death certificate for example.

Very good overview of common mistakes. Still valid for 2018. However, I do not care for the current version of FTM online. The Version used in 2012 was much much better!

My girlfriend recently got re-entered into the census - she listened to this video with headphones

my name donovan can be spelled so many ways o'donovan donavan donavann many more omg😂😂

Crista, very informative thank you. Just one small problem, the screen you were showing is blurred and not focused. As I have never seen an Ancestry form this would have been useful.

@AncestryUS

6 жыл бұрын

Sorry about that, Wilf. Some of these older videos do appear blurry on newer screens. I am reshooting them as I am able. What screen in particular were you looking for clarity on?

@wilfhoward2602

6 жыл бұрын

Haa, could be me then, I have a newish Dell screen. I was just wondering what the ancestry format was in relation to family tree and how easy you could link on to people and read information, and its general capabilities. I have a rootsmagic program just now and wanted to compare. Thanks, Regards Wilf.

@AncestryUS

6 жыл бұрын

The interface between Ancestry and Family Tree Maker is pretty smooth. I use both daily and sync between the two.

I'm learning lot from this video, but your monitor images are often too fuzzy to read. Is there something I can do to fix this or was it in the way it was recorded? Thanks for all the help!!

@AncestryUS

7 жыл бұрын

Patty - Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, the really old videos (and this one is 5 years old) were record this way. I have been going through them as I can and re-recording them with new screen shots. So, make sure you are subscribed to the channel so you will be notified when new videos are uploaded. (Crista)

I have at least 5 different spellings being used today in 2020.

Sue - We haven't had this reported as an issue. Try a different web browser and see if that resolves your issue.

The biggest mistake in genealogy is attempting to research a specific ancestor in isolation as if they had no close relatives like brothers or sisters. You MUST consider people with the same surname living near them as close relatives and are therefore research proxies for your own ancestor. **** I have one direct ancestor that lived in Missouri early 1800s and everyone just assumed he was the same person seen much earlier in Virginia. He was not. Had other researchers considered the THREE other similar aged men with the same surname that he could be associated with they would have discovered the family was actually from South Carolina (not Virginia). Two hundred something Ancestry trees still carry the erroneous info that he was the same person seen in Virginia and have him attached to the wrong family.

There is no sound on the videos. I have good speakers, but no sound. The sound is fine on everything else. Thanks

would I be wrong to assume about an ancestor if a record I found has about the same year of birth or death and same place of residence?

@AncestryUS

7 жыл бұрын

A record is ONE piece of great evidence. Keep collecting evidence in order to come to a conclusion.

Are there transcripts or do I have to watch the video?

My last name is Dreifke and I've found ancestors that spelled it as "Dreifka" or even "Drake"

My own GG Gpa used incorrectly in other people's Ancestry trees over and over again. Their guy (same name) was born in 1815, and mine was born in 1837. It's an entire generation difference, so one wonders, who just accepts the "fact" that their GG Gma married a man who is two years old?

QUESTION: What do I do with/ or/ about incorrect information located on a document? Ex. My ggf was Jesse "Moran" Snow; the death cert. for his son lists John David Snow's father as (Jesse "James" Snow) [not "Moran"].

@AncestryUS

5 жыл бұрын

Resolution of conflicting evidence is an important step in the genealogical proof standard process. You can learn more about it here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/jJqGlNuFo7vbaJs.html

QUESTION: I have a "Cherokee" Indian in my family. She was a baby left on a white family's doorstep. The child was named after the householder, "new mother" Sarah: .... One morning in 1749, a woman named Sarah Standard discovered a baby girl in a basket on her front porch. The infant was a full-blood Native American, Cherokee Indian. The family kept, and adopted her as their own, calling her ‘Sarah’ after the new “mother”, and giving her their surname. She was raised as a White woman. It was this very same Sarah Standard who grew to adulthood, fell in love and married Jesse Snow. Precious little is known about Jesse and Sarah Snow. Though she was born in South Carolina and he in North Carolina, they must have gone to Missouri at one time for some ‘unknown’ reason; by the late 1820s Sarah had given birth. They were the parents of two sons on record; yet, only one’s name is known: 1.) Moses Moran Snow ........... QUESTION: HOW do I validate this? How do I find out who she was? Is she lost? [any possible leads of Indian records? A common thing that happened?

@AncestryUS

5 жыл бұрын

The first thing you should do is figure out exactly where the Standard family lived in 1749. It is a place where the Cherokee were also know to have been living at the time? If not, that is a pretty good piece of evidence that the story may not be true. Next, you should question whether or not the child really was "full-blooded." By 1749, the Cherokee had been mixing with the Europeans for more than 100 years.

I've been trying to trace my family tree but can only get to my great grandparents on my mothers side only. My parents are Central American so don't know where to start as records seem to be spotty or non-existent at best. Any advice?

@AncestryUS

8 жыл бұрын

Use the Ancestry Card Catalog to determine what records exist for the specific Central American country of interest. This video explains more about how to use the Card Catalog: kzread.info/dash/bejne/hqJ3o6Shoai4e6Q.html

I wonder do you ever get Cohan, as in the Irish-American George M. Cohan?

can you tell how to and what buttons to push when youre looking for someone in the library of congress. ive been on their and cant seem to , just not pushing the right buttons. also does anyone know where i can find Quickie marriages in elkton md.

@AncestryUS

8 жыл бұрын

Joan, Unfortunately, we can't help troubleshoot any issues you're experiencing on the Library of Congress site. We did a quick search for marriage records in our database for Cecil County, Elkton, MD and have a collection titled "Cecil County, Maryland, Nottingham Quaker Meeting Records, 1730-1825," but this may not be what you're looking for. We recommend visiting our Family History Wiki which has a comprehensive list of where to find records across various states/counties: ancstry.me/wwWx9G Enjoy!

Genealogy is pronounced like gene - alogy in English, you say the word differently, You are very knowledgeable though I have to say about Ancestry. In England we would say Co Wen enphasis on 'o' dialect can maked a difference as in American.

How about Southern nicknames?

I have Cowans And McCowans in my tree. Do you think there's a relationship between the two?

@CristaCowan

Жыл бұрын

You'd have to trace them back to find out if they connect. Not all people with the same surname are related.

Is it possible to find a person with no information other than his name, place of birth. That I cannot confirm

How do you get census images?

@maryricketts7337

8 жыл бұрын

+Freddie Slaughter I used to go to the local library and request them. You have to know the state, county & census year. They came on microfilm and you use the microfilm reader in the library. Not sure if census have become more convenient these days.

@Niawen2011

8 жыл бұрын

+Freddie Slaughter FamilySearch.org is probably the premier source for free genealogical records. You'll find them at: www.familysearch.org. Click on Search / Records at the top of the page. Individual search results will contain a link to the related citation and census image.You'll also find a link for a free account and it's worth the time to sign up. Certain features, such as the ability to export search results to Microsoft's spread-sheet format and save them to your computer, are available only when you're signed in. This approach can save considerable time, since it's easier and faster to merge, sort, filter, search and highlight spread-sheets while offline, rather than using the online search feature. Each entry in the exported spread-sheet contains a link to the related citation at Family Search.The Church of Later Day Saints (the same people who produce the Family Search web site) also maintain Family History Libraries at many of their local churches. A number of commercial web sites (newspaper archives, military records, etc.) can be accessed for free from LDS Family History libraries, but only by using the FHL computers. Most of the FHL machines will accept USB data sticks, allowing you to save copies of whatever you find. USB sticks are pretty inexpensive and you can probably get by with an 8 Gb stick to start with.Internet Archive has numerous PDF's of original census folios, military records, passenger & crew lists, Indian censuses, family histories, parish records and so on. Everything is free, but be kind and remember Internet Archive when they conduct their annual fundraising drive. You'll need the free Adobe Reader from get.adobe.com/reader/ to view PDF files. I prefer working from original PDF scans since they contain fewer errors and often allow me to find a family member, even if the census enumerator misspelled a name.To obtain census materials from Internet Archive, go to: archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22United+States.+Bureau+of+the+Census%22 or to: archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22United+States.+National+Archives+and+Records+Service%22. Be aware that the censuses at IA are numerous and that search results present them in no particular order among other records, so finding what you need may be a challenge in itself. (I saved copies of every results page, then organized and condensed all of them to a single HTML page. Even after culling broken links, etc., there are still over 18,500 individual results spanning the 1830-1930 century.The census PDF's at Internet Archive are simply images of original census pages, so you won't be able to copy text directly from them. You can, however, save an entire page image by using the tools furnished in Adobe reader. A big draw-back is that items are scanned and uploaded to Internet Archive without any processing. Consequently, images often contain faded ink, taped repairs, water damage and mold. In most cases, such "defects" are negligible. In others, pages can be cleaned up somewhat in any of several free image editing applications. Some pages simply cannot be read. However, each image will contain the information needed to access a clean copy from an alternate source on the Internet. Another drawback is that the census PDF's aren't indexed and contain no links to individual pages, nor can they be searched electronically. The up-side is that you'll be dealing with original records, meaning that possible data transcription & entry errors are minimized.In general, you'll find that it's much easier to obtain individual census pages from places like Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org That said, had I not downloaded the Internet Archive copy of the 1860 census for the small town where my family lived, I never would have seen that my great grandparents grew up as sweethearts, just 4 doors apart. That little gem made all of the extra work well worth the trouble.I hope this helps.

I signed up for ancestry Com. Can't locate site. Help

@reginamadlem

6 жыл бұрын

Gigi McNair Type in ancestry.com it will go directly to the site. Then bookmark it.

Blurred badly on the actual forms

@VanessaAllen111Madison

7 жыл бұрын

very blurred on forms so couldn't read at all

I don`t know a joan endsley...attached to my name??

Saw where there is a serious mistake in your record of me. How can this be corrected?

McKay, MacKay, Mckay, Mackay. Arrg!

Hi

I’ll spell it how I want and have people have an issue with then they have for something wrong with them there’s more Importent things to worry about 😂😂😂😂 lastly your keep pronouncing it gene ology and is gene A logy so get ya self correct first hun

@CristaCowan

2 жыл бұрын

Well, seeing as how I'm the Corporate "Jenny-O-logist" here at Ancestry and have been doing "Jenny-Ology" for almost four decades now, I think I'll just keep pronouncing it the way I have my entire life. 😉