Frequently Asked Questions

The answer to this depends entirely on the “paper trail” that a family left and the availability of surviving records. Some families can be traced back 10-15 generations while the trail of others’ disappears after 3 or 4 generations. Records from some locations are more readily accessible while others are closed.

These websites are wonderful tools to help you research your family history. They provide lots of different databases of primary information from which you can gather a lot of information. Many times, these databases have been “indexed” for us. BUT, I often discover that this work has been very poorly done – misread names, misread places, missed records. My suggestion is to search the primary records yourself.

That said, these websites don’t contain anywhere near all available information. Often, with simple searches. you will discover sources which provide a wealth of information on your family but you might have to dig for it.

I caution my clients that these websites make it far too easy to click to add new family members to your online family tree. I look at these “family trees” and often discover that errors in one tree have been blindly copied to everybody else’s tree — incorrect dates, people with the correct name from from some place very far away, people linked who cannot possibly be related etc. Had one of them actually looked at the original records or done some thinking, they might have found the error. Check everything!

If you are interested in researching your family history and need some help, contact me. I’d be pleased to help.

There are now many companies which offer to analyse your DNA, tell you all about your ancestry and even some genetic diseases to which you might possibly be predisposed.

DNA analysis is extremely helpful in proving familial connections (ie in the cases of adoption or paternity/maternity), locating long-lost kin, or, more recently, helping convict criminals in cold cases. Otherwise, “having your DNA done” is really just a fad which some describe as a “toy” or a “parlor game”.

You are far better off researching your ancestry yourself or with the help of a knowledgeable researcher. This will be a far more fulfilling process than simply finding out that some ancestor of yours from hundreds of years ago came from “X”. While this process requires time and work – searching generation by generation using proper research techniques – you will develop a much fuller picture of your family: their stories, occupations, where and how they lived, where, when and why they moved, and the diseases from which they died.

With the rising popularity of Genealogy or Family History Research, more and more people are posting their information on-line. This is great for those who are trying to connect to other people researching their trees, too but one must be careful. Some of this information might contain typographical errors, or might be hearsay, supposition or just totally wrong. Even sites in which someone (even professionals) are reading documents and transcribing them (like Ancestry or FamilySearch) are subject to errors. People will often “cut-and-paste” information from one site and put it into their own site thus perpetuating the errors. One must check the original records to ensure accuracy and to weed out mistakes.