Description

This booklet outlines some of the issues that throw up barriers to family history research.

What is a pitfall? Look it up in a dictionary and you will find that it is defined as … a concealed pit as trap for man or animal, an unsuspected difficulty or danger or an error into which it is easy to fall.

Somewhere there may be a family historian who claims never to have encountered a pitfall in their research, but most of us, if we’re honest, will admit to being bruised all over by the number of falls we’ve taken whilst our family trees have been growing.

By reading this booklet you will be more aware of many of the pitfalls waiting to entrap you!

Contents:
The need to be well organised
The sanctity of the published word
Assuming facts about the past from present
The problem with indexes
Relationships of similar names
The spelling of your name is dependent on chance
Problems with dates and the calendar change
Taking things at face value
The desire to maintain respectability
The propensity to falsify one’s age
Same name, same place, same time
Interpretation of terms
Never consider a place in isolation
Understanding old forms of handwriting
The family tradition or myth
The yearning for notoriety
The coats of arms craze
Faulty, false and fraudulent pedigrees
Failing to understand the historical context

Author: Graham Jaunay
Year: 2012
ISBN: 9781921956102
Publisher: Unlock the Past