Along with the Internet came Ancestry.com and that's a tremendous place to be once you get that far into it. But, don't neglect your own education. You need to learn to do your own research -- how to find it, how to interpret it and how to cite it.
Every once in a while I break out one of my beginner books and flip through it. It helps remind me of how far I've come, and also reminds me of basic thoughts and techniques that I almost forgot. Today I am going through The Complete Idiot's Guide to Genealogy by Christine Rose and Kay Germain Ingalls. On page 27 is a great tip:
"Always try to take notes in a manner that minimizes recopying. Each time they are copied, the chances of error multiples."Usually I find errors happen when I am in a hurry or I'm so aware of making mistakes that I over compensate and screw up.
I like to keep my handwritten notes in a three ring binder. However, I hate to carry around a big old binder. I like writing in spiral notebooks with a full size sheet of paper, that has the spiral across the top. This page HAS to have 3 holes punched in the margin. I only write on one side of the paper.
Actual writing -- well, this presents a problem. I like to write with mechanical pencils. But pencil smudges. But I'm one of those people that can't stand to see any mistake scribble scrabbled out -- although back in the '60s we were taught the acceptable method for correcting errors made in ink. I was ecstatic when the came up with erasable pens.
The point is, if you scribble scrabbled your notes, and scratched things out and didn't use your best handwriting -- even though you were in a hurry -- there's a good chance that you might have to copy those notes over -- at least part of the notes...like dates, the correct spelling of a name, a middle initial -- the list goes on and on. It's kind of like the telephone game -- how you start things one way and they go so far in another direction when it gets back to you. Scribble scrabble notes can really screw up not only your family tree. but if your tree is on line -- it will screw up their trees too. I know, people need to do their own research or at the very least their own validation, but they don't.
Just to drive this point home, get into any of the Federal Census and don't stop at the extracted information but go all the way into the page itself. And read it. See the letters and numbers that look confusing because they were scribble scrabbled by a tired census worker. Take that to heart and try to make your own handwriting clearer. Remember that some of this information is going to survive after your gone. Be THAT person who everyone loves because they wrote so clearly.
