New Year's Resolutions for Family Historians

1. Backup. Backup. Backup. There are so many available options now and there’s simply no excuse for losing data. See http://www.archives.com/experts/macentee-thomas/do-you-know-where-your-genealogy-data-is.html

2. Make a vow not to believe everything you read on Internet. It is a wonderful facility but for accurate family history follow up with original sources.

3. Bear in mind that even primary sources may not always be accurate and that ancestors often lied – or concealed the truth, if you prefer.

4. Make a note of all your sources while you’re conducting your research. Back these up.
It will save time and frustration later on.

5. If you join a mailing list, first lurk for a while to get a feel for typical posts. When submitting a post be as clear as you can and especially choose an informative subject heading giving name, date and location – not a pathetically vague ‘Can you help?’

6. If you are tracing South African ancestors, remember that NAAIRS, the SA National Archives online index, is just that – an index, a resource locator to be used in conjunction with other sources. If you do not find a reference to your ancestor on NAAIRS it isn’t the end of the world.

7. Avoid any attempt to make facts fit the accepted family version of the family history: clear your mind of bias or sentimentality and go methodically from the known to the unknown, acquiring documentary evidence of events.

8. Identify your goal and stick to it. Are you intending to write a family history narrative? Write it as you research in the form of a newsletter to interested family members. That’s one way of reducing a challenging task to manageable proportions.

9. Be realistic: don’t try to cover too many lines at once.

10. Get out of the aimless habit of being distracted by irrelevant material simply because it looks interesting. This is one of the curses of internet and wastes precious time.

Tollgate, Durban, built 1866. Mr Bird was official keeper of the toll. Price: 6d.

Accuracy in Family History Research

A quote from the Society of Genealogists Exhibition catalogue of 1937:

It is of importance that individuals should be encouraged to study the history of their own families: not in the boastful and snobbish spirit which produced such a spate of false pedigrees in the nineteenth century, but on the scientific lines of modern genealogical research which demands proof of every statement and the recording of every fact, whether pleasant or unpleasant, for whatever view may be held on the merits of such research, all will agree that unless it be conducted with accuracy it is entirely futile.

Do descendants really want the truth?

Most family historians would claim that accuracy is high on their list of priorities. Certainly, if at all serious about our topic, we spend time, energy and money in pursuit of BMD, Census and other records, seeking ancestry. Yet after years of pursuing my own as well as other people's ancestors it has become clear to me that not everyone is addicted to the truth. Far from it.

There are thousands of people who really prefer their version of the family history; who are happy to retain the myths and legends handed down from generation to generation and who aren't at all grateful to anyone who discovers that these stories not only have no basis in fact, but give an entirely false impression of the past. 

When offered the truth as confirmed by concrete proof, these descendants are disbelieving, their usual question being a suspicious 'how do you know all this?'.

Frequently, the new evidence is ignored in favour of the anecdotal model which like an old pair of shoes is well-worn and comfortable to slip into. Truth has hard edges. But if we are to expunge its grim realities from the family narrative our descendants might as well read the phonebook.

And how can carefully-conducted research hope to compete with 'what the psychic told my mother about our family history...' ?

Abandon hope all ye who enter here.

Death Notice in SA research

The Death Notice is a significant document for the family historian seeking South African ancestors. It should provide the following details: full name of deceased, birthplace, parents’ names, deceased’s age at death, occupation, place of last marriage, marital status, names of surviving and pre-deceased spouses, date and place of death as well as names of major and minor children. If the children were minors, their dates of birth should appear; if daughters, their married surnames may be given (which could be helpful for tracing forward to the next generation); if the deceased was unmarried, his siblings’ names may be listed – and could be mistaken for children’s names if the Death Notice isn’t carefully read.

There should also be an indication regarding assets – movable (i.e. property, land/buildings) and immovable (i.e. furniture, jewellery etc) – whether these assets exceeded a certain value (this varies according to era) and whether the deceased left a will. The informant’s signature is shown, as well as whether he/she was present at the time and place of death.

It’s important to remember that the fullness and accuracy of the Death Notice is in direct proportion to the knowledge of the informant – who may or may not be the next-of-kin. Sometimes the names of the deceased’s parents aren’t given, but are substituted by the word ‘Deceased’ or ‘Dead’. ‘Birthplace’ may be stated as ‘England’, for example, with no clue as to county.

The informant, even a son of the deceased, could have forgotten his grandparents’ names and in all likelihood never met overseas family members. Close kin were under stress of bereavement when completing the Death Notice form, which could make a difference to the quality of information given. In cases where the informant was a boarding-house owner, or some other stranger who happened to be present at the death, details given on the Death Notice might be sketchy.

It has been suggested that some informants gave deliberate misinformation in Death Notices. If this is so, it happened rarely. Usually the contents of the Death Notice will help you make considerable progress with your family history quest.