Genealogy is part luck and part skill. It’s luck when you find your family history on the Internet or in a book, and it is correctly done. It’s skill when you do the work yourself.

There are four skill areas that a good genealogist should develop. Research is the first skill. This means being able to locate the records that have the answers to your questions. Many people begin with the Internet where there are thousands of free and fee sites. When you exhaust the Internet, there are millions of rolls of microfilm available for loan through the Family History Centers. It takes a bit of practice to learn about all of these resources.

Evidence analysis is the second skill. This means being able to look at a document and analyze the information that is in it. How valid is that information? Can you tell who provided the information? Was that person in a position to know the facts? Would they have any reason to fib?

The information on a death certificate provides a typical analysis example. The date of death may be correct because the informant probably was in a position to know the facts. The date of birth is less reliable information. Ask yourself if the informant had first hand knowledge of the event. Was he or she actually at the birth? You need to ask if the informant had a good memory. Time has a way of dulling memory. Part of the analysis is to look at documents for clues to the next step. Is the cemetery listed? Look for cemetery records. Is the funeral home listed? Contact them.

Kinship determination is the third skill. I think it may be the most difficult one. Sometimes the information that we find does not answer our questions. We need to read between the lines. We need to put pieces of evidence together.

The last skill is writing up what you have found so that it makes sense to you and to others. It’s a crucial skill because if you don’t write up what you have, all of your work will be lost.

© 2006

Connie Lenzen, CG