There is a lot of uncertainty in genealogy. People may have put the wrong information on old records because they did not know the answer, misunderstood a question, or wanted to hide something. Mistakes can also appear in transcriptions, census entries, and tombstone inscriptions. Published family histories sometimes repeat stories that were never checked against records.
There is a lot of room for human error in genealogy research, and you will undoubtedly come across it, either in the work of others or through mistakes you make in your own work. Even the best genealogists will once in a while discover they got an entire line wrong based on one incorrect assumption, misinterpretation of a record, or by obtaining a faulty record. With so much room for making mistakes, how do you know you’ve gotten it right? How do you know if your genealogy research is successful?
Even a carefully researched family tree can need revision when a new record comes to light. The goal is a conclusion that the available evidence supports, with any uncertainty clearly explained.
These five habits can help you check whether your genealogy research is accurate. They work best together, with each conclusion supported by sources you can find and review again.
1. You Have Found the Same Information in More Than One Set of Records
Finding the same relationship, date, or place in independent records can strengthen your conclusion. But several records may repeat information from one source. Ask who supplied each detail, how that person knew it, and whether one record copied another. A record made near an event can be useful, but its date alone does not make every statement correct.
Compare the names, dates, places, and relationships you find in records such as:
- Birth and death certificates
- Old newspaper birth and death announcements or other articles
- Wills
- Military records
Look at each detail separately. A death certificate may contain firsthand information about a death and secondhand information about the person’s birth. Check the original image when available, and explain any disagreement instead of choosing the answer that appears most often.
2. Your Research Matches the Research of Other People
In the online age, you are bound to come across people who are distant cousins or relatives by marriage who are working on your line. They may have been working on it for a while, possibly just as long as you or longer. It is important to compare research with these people.
When another researcher reaches the same conclusion, ask to see the records and reasoning behind it. Ten online trees copied from one unsourced tree are still one unsupported claim. Agreement is more useful when researchers have checked independent sources and can explain how the evidence fits together.
If your conclusions differ, compare the sources, dates, places, and people involved. One of you may have found a new record, misread an entry, or combined two people with the same name. Keep the relationship tentative until the disagreement is resolved.
3. You Can Reverse Engineer Someone Else’s Work
Published family histories can offer useful clues, especially when their authors cite records. Treat their conclusions as a starting point to check, even when a book looks carefully researched.
Use those citations to find the records yourself. Read the full entries and nearby pages rather than relying only on an index or quotation. You may find a detail the author missed. Also look for records that could challenge the conclusion. Following the same research path is helpful, but it does not correct a mistake that both researchers overlook.
4. Test Your Assumptions Against the Evidence
When no record states a relationship directly, you may be able to build a case by combining clues from several sources. This is indirect evidence. For example, land transfers, probate records, and a family’s movements may help explain a connection that no single document names.
Do not confuse indirect evidence with secondary information. Primary information comes from someone with firsthand knowledge; secondary information comes from someone without it. Direct or indirect describes how the information answers your research question. Either kind needs careful evaluation.
Test your idea against other possible explanations. Look for evidence that supports it and evidence that could show it is wrong. A sound conclusion can rest on indirect evidence when the research is thorough and conflicts are resolved. If important questions remain, record the idea as a possibility rather than a fact.
5. Get DNA Evidence
DNA is a valuable tool for checking family relationships and finding connections that records alone may not reveal. It can provide strong evidence of a biological relationship, especially between close relatives. However, a DNA match by itself does not identify a particular ancestor or prove every generation in your family tree.
If you have a suspected but unconfirmed ancestor, comparing your DNA with willing living descendants may help you investigate the connection. The various DNA testing companies estimate relationships from the DNA people share. Different relationships can share similar amounts of DNA, so compare your matches’ family trees and historical records to work out how you are connected.
Testing additional relatives can provide more evidence, but it does not automatically make a conclusion correct. With the autosomal DNA tests commonly used to find cousins, distant relatives may share no detectable DNA. A missing match alone therefore does not rule out a distant relationship. DNA results can be highly accurate, but testing errors and mistaken interpretations are possible. Use DNA alongside well-documented records, and investigate conflicting evidence before deciding that a family line is correct.
A Checklist for Checking Your Evidence
The Genealogical Proof Standard from the Board for Certification of Genealogists has five parts. Use these questions as a practical review aid for one specific question, such as who an ancestor’s parents were:
- Have I searched thoroughly? Check the relevant records for the person, place, and time, including unindexed or offline sources when needed. Keep a log of searches and results.
- Can someone find my sources? Give complete, accurate citations for the facts you use. Include the details needed to locate the same record again.
- Have I compared the evidence? Consider who supplied each detail, how they knew it, and whether sources are independent. Put dates and places in a timeline.
- Have I resolved conflicts? Explain disagreements in names, dates, and relationships. Do not ignore a record because it does not fit your tree.
- Have I written my conclusion? Explain how the evidence supports your answer. If a major conflict remains unresolved, keep the conclusion tentative and identify the next research step.
A Worked Example: Two Different Birth Years
This example is fictional. A death certificate gives Sarah Miller a birth date of March 12, 1884. A county birth register and a church baptism entry both give March 12, 1882.
You first check the images and use the parents’ names, address, and later records to establish that all three entries concern the same Sarah. In this example, her father reported the birth in 1882, and the baptism entry was made a month later. Her daughter supplied the birth information on the death certificate decades afterward.
You also check whether the church and county received the information separately, rather than one copying the other. After searching other likely records and ruling out a second Sarah, the evidence favors 1882. Your note can explain that the early entries carry more weight for this birth date than the daughter’s later report, while citing all three records.
Keep the conflicting date in your notes. If you cannot establish that the records describe the same person or explain the conflict, leave the year uncertain and continue researching.
You do not need a perfect family tree to make good progress. You need to know why each conclusion belongs there. Save your sources, explain your reasoning, and leave uncertain connections open to revision. That gives you and the next person who studies your family a much stronger place to start.
