Becoming a Genealogical Detective


by Robert W. Marlin

One of the most appealing aspects of my genealogical research as been the opportunity to play detective.  At time I think of myself as a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, using my own deductive reasoning to try to get into the minds of my long-dead ancestors…My insatiable curiosity drives me to want to understand everything I can uncover about the people who are responsible for my very existence.

…there aren’t any iron-clad rules about how to approach your research.  Whatever make you comfortable and productive is the right way for you to go.
Since then I have reached the conclusion that there is one thing that I now consider a cardinal rule to be followed, preferably at the start of your genealogical research.  That is, you should always START WITH YOURSELF.  This means you shouldn’t start your research with your grandparents.

Do not accept any undocumented information as fact.  

…family history and genealogy should be more than just collecting documents and filing them away.  Most of the people I have mentioned were dead before I was born.  However, I have conjured up a mental image of how many of them looked and lived their lives.  In a few cases I later received photographs of some of these ancestors and found them to look very similar to the images I had conjured up.

The bad news is that even with all the information that is currently available through computers, one aspect of genealogical research has remained the same.  That is the ability to think creatively and consider ideas that you can attempt to prove.  This ability is not something that you can learn in school or on the Internet.  However, developing you(r) creative ability will allow you to take the information available in documents you uncover online and creatively use it to uncover more facts about your family history.  This creative ability is not something that is normally apparent to newcomers.  It is a skill that develops over a period of time.

Source:
Robert W. Marlin, Family Chronicle, November/December 2000, pages 45-47

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