U.S. Ancestor Research
Your ancestor's stories are worth discovering and should be told. The exciting discovery of the various unique branches of your family tree may help you find out more about yourself and possibly even find long lost cousins who live in distant lands or just around the corner and you would have never known about them had you not done the family research project. You may discover that your talents were shared with an ancestor from many generations past. Perhaps you find you have an ancestor who shared your passions.
You are the family historian and you have a desire to find out more about your ancestors. That is why you are here. Most people who get into genealogy start out that way. The Internet has spawned a tremendous interest in finding out about our families ancestors and is the tool most amateurs use. There is a wealth of information available on the Internet. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. The bad thing is that many amateurs believe that ALL of the information is available on the Internet when only about 5-7% of the information needed to conduct a thorough research is on the Internet.
The other bad thing is because of the amount of information available, the researcher will find multiple information on a person with the same name yet the information is not about the same person. So it is very important for the researcher to be able to sift through and discern what is the correction piece of information for the person they are researching. In the process most amateur genealogists will hit one or more “brick walls” in their research. At this point, and because of limited time available to do their research, many amateurs do not continue their quest.
Can you trust the information? Many of the published family trees you find on the Internet and off, have not necessarily been properly documented. This means that it is possible for you and others to see and use family information that is incorrect and could lead you to spend and waste your time using bogus information. Some of the information may even be fraudulent. The only way to make sure your family tree information is correct is to document the source information that was used. By recording the source of each piece of information you enter into your family tree, you substantiate how you decided each piece of information was truly the actual information on your ancestor.
Online databases of information further compound the research effort. There are literally billions of names online. It is unusual to find a database that includes a complete list of sources and summarizes the assumptions and conclusions used to prove a data item. So you will most often find yourself in a position to need help verifying the data you find on the Internet.
Some of the databases allow you to have free access while others require you to pay a fee to have access to them. This can become expensive to the amateur part-time researcher and another reason to consider using a professional genealogist. We can help you. Whether you need help with getting around or through those “brick walls,” or just providing assistance in finding added resources for your research. We can also do the research for you. Using a professional genealogist will save time in completing your research goals. We can devote the time necessary to find and document the information you are seeking, if it is available. Keep in mind that no genealogist can guarantee results. Results are dependent on the availability of information. Contact us for a free estimate.
