Finding Mistakes In Your Research

I was chatting with a client about the research I am doing and she mentioned an aunt that was not listed in what I have found so far. I was confused and wondered if it was a bonus aunt like a lot of families have. Nope. Not just a bonus aunt. Definitely her great grandparents biological child. I had worked on that line months ago and got complacent with my research notes. The aunt that I had missed was added to the research notes properly and I began to find more information about her.

This is definitely a reminder to always make sure when making your research notes you note exactly what you see in the document and don’t base it off of transcription done by other people if you can help it. Write out all that you see and compile the information separately.

One way to compare census records over time. These are especially helpful with pre-1850 Census records, but they can also be helpful with census after that as well. There are several spreadsheets that people have made to compare census records. One that I have recently found was shared by Dawn Bingaman over at Ancestor Roundup.

In this document you can list each census record by year and compare ages and other details that might be unclear otherwise. I likely would have seen my error above if I had been using a document like this. It is especially helpful for families with a large amount of children.

Dawn’s document can be found at her blog post here: https://ancestorroundup.com/census-comparison-worksheet-revisited/

It is ok to make mistakes when doing research. The important thing is finding ways to ensure you don’t make the same mistake in the future. And it is great that other researchers have already created tools to make our research easier.

Distant Ancestor

Old black and white copy of a portrait of Lewis Latham. He has piercing eyes, a large nose, a high forehead, and a large beard.

Above is a copy of a portrait of Lewis Latham. He was my 12 times Great Grandfather (14 generations from me). He was a Sergeant Falconer under King Charles I of the United Kingdom. Lewis was born in about 1584 and died a little before May 15, 1655.
His daughter Franches Latham (my 11 times great grandmother) is known as “the Mother of Governors”. She is the ancestor to at least ten governors, three deputy/lieutenant governors, and is related by marriage to an an additional six governors and one deputy governor. Frances was baptized in England on February 15, 1609/1610 (so was probably born a few days before the 15th). She died in September of 1677 in Newport, Rhode Island.
Genealogy research is easier in some parts of Europe compared to other parts. This is one of only a few of my family lines that goes this far back. If Lewis’s daughter hadn’t had so many notable descendants in North America I have a feeling I never would have learned his name, let alone seen a portrait of him.
I am at least thankful that I don’t have any ancestors with the surname Smith. It is one of the most common surnames in English and is also common in a few other languages in Europe. One of my favorite surnames in my tree is Shingledecker.
Which surnames are the most common in your country? Which surnames sound the most interesting, unique, or funny to you, no matter the language?

How I started. How it’s going.

Recently Paul Chiddicks over on bluesky (@chiddickstree) asked how we all got started on our genealogy journey. History has always been a topic that interested me even when I was a small child. I grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Along the shores of the Grand River, just south of the city, are Native American burial mounds (known as the Norton Mounds). There had actually been some in the main part of the city at one point. They were removed, but years later the city decided to recreate them as a memorial to the history. I saw the recreations at some point in my childhood and wanted to learn more. I remember taking out books on Native American history.

In high school I was appointed to the Grand Rapids Historical Commission as a student commissioner. While a student commissioner I was involved in several history events in the city, but most importantly was mentored by Dr. Gordon OIson, city historian, and Jo Ellyn Clarey, another historian. With the help of Jo Ellen I organized a history speaker series during Women’s History Month in my high school that was well attended. I started out a history major in university. It was in my first year of college that I started doing genealogy research on my family. Those early years in online genealogy research were so different than they are today. There were no online repositories like there are today. It was all based on what you could find from other researchers who had done research in archives.

Life took me in another direction for awhile, but after a few journeys around the world I found my way back to genealogy and family history. That was in 2011, not long after my mom died. I got pretty deep in my own family tree, but then realized that I wanted to help others find their ancestors. I’ve volunteered with WikiTree, created a One Place Study on the neighborhood that I grew up in back in Grand Rapids, finding my first paid history research work. I especially like building out people’s Mothers Lines because history has forgotten our mothers so often. My favorite thing I’ve done so far is build out family trees for friends and acquaintances who didn’t know their family history because of the Holocaust and the Transatlantic Slave Trade and it’s aftermath.

The year is almost over, but it’s been an ok year with progress that I’ve made in my research. For 2025 I will be working on spending more time doing my research and not get distracted. My history project plate is completely full, but when I get some of my friends research projects done and the information sent to them then I can start adding more projects, paid ones especially. Consistency will be the word for 2025 (starting now, though 🙂 ).

(Follow me on bluesky at @free2l and my podcast at @theirvoicespod)