A lot of people wonder how to handle family trees they find online. The ones at FamilySearch.org cause some problems because things often get changed and erroneous information added at times.
The July/August issue of Family Tree magazine has an article, “The Giving Tree,” about that topic. The author gives these seven ways to fact-check any online tree you encounter there, but these can be used on any online tree anywhere.
1. Make sure the person who created the tree is actually a family member, and check out their data.
2. Try not to automatically add information, which I know is a big problem with trees on Ancestry.com. Just because something pops up, it is automatic and could be for a totally different person/family.
3. Check out impossible information, especially if the facts don’t make good sense.
4. References, are any actual citations included? Some people find those tiresome, but they are really the most important part. You don’t want to start any false data being included.
5. Check out any linked sources to be sure they were copied properly and really are what they are purported to be.
6. Decide on, not just accept, any attached sources, see if they support your family’s story, and if not, don’t allow them to be attached.
7. Submit edits. You can attach a change to an existing tree and give your reasoning. If you follow these points, you should be able to make the best judgment call about any online tree you come across.
History Pin
Historypin.com is a fairly new, free website to use in order to gather together various historical images, tie them to places your family might have lived, whatever you want to do with the information. So, try it out and see what you think.
New York City Vital Records online
The New York City Municipal Archives has done an about face in recent years and launched a major digitization project, eventually to include over 13 million birth, death, and marriage records from all five boroughs of the metro-New York area. There are lots of ways to search. The website is a bit tricky: a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov. So, check it out. The website says they are 76% complete.
Contact Kenneth H. Thomas Jr., P. O. Box 901, Decatur, GA 30031 or kenthomasongenealogy.com.
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