The Year Ahead – October 23

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

October 23 – Outline a narrative covering your ancestor’s life. Analyze and resolve conflicts, look for additional documents, identify gaps and confirm your sources.

My genealogy software package, Family Tree Maker has a timeline function. It takes all the facts I have inputted for a person and allows me to view them. I use this often for finding gaps or to see conflicting information. I also know they have a similar function on Ancestry. If you use a different program, check out to see what they have to give this type of function.

This is a collateral relative and thus I don't include all the information. For my direct line relatives, I will have residences included from census records and city directories. This helps in case, I am missing a birth record for a child, I could see when they were born and perhaps a census records and city directories can help me determine where the child might have been born. Keep in mind, that some times women left the home and went to their mothers, aunts or sisters houses to have babies. 

The biggest conflicts I am finding are the dates being reported in someone’s obituary doesn’t always match up to the actual records that I find. I find birth and marriage years off by one or more years. Lesson learned here: Don’t rely on only one source for information. Usually, the record closest to the event is most accurate. However, even official records can introduce errors, humans are flawed by nature.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!