Question

Help me find matches to my family that are correct way so i can learn how to do it the right way

Comments

Help:Profiles This page may answer some of your questions

EDIT: If you go look at the profile you did for Elizabeth (Honeycutt) Smith (1813-abt.1883) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree you will see on the right side of the page a section named Research and if you click on Here is a likely matching profile for Betsy on the FamilySearch Tree: L6T3-7Z8. and then sign in with your wikitree email and your wikitree password, you will see the profile mentioned 

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In addition to the very good suggestion of Susan: use good sources and list them. That makes the dates and locations precise. Then matching up names from the same area with data becomes a lot easier.

It also attracts people that do research to the profiles and they can compare their records easier.

Answer 1

Tammy,

It can be difficult to find sources that lead you to finding other family members who are in a census (for example).  Clues are key, and attaching those sources builds your case on why the profile you are mending, or adding is correct..  Just how you find those sources is also problematic.  I use a software on my PC called RootsMagic (it has a free version).  The use of software helps us search records such as familysearch where 100,000+ records are available for review and attachment to your tree.   Perhaps you have a family member on Ancestry, and it's fine to share and work alongside your relations to build out your tree. No additional subscription is needed.   Ancestry has lots of sources to attach, and later reference once you add your new relatives on Wikitree.  Hopefully one of your new relations is already on WikiTree, and you can then attach your tree to one of the main branches within WikiTree.  This is key, as getting you attached to the main tree, will if you choose to do so, share your DNA so you can review if you in fact match others who claim they are related to your common profiles.  DNA is another helpful tool to point you to distant cousins and perhaps you will find a common surname to tell you how this person is related to you.  It's a lot of work to find a 3C so stick to a first cousin until you really ready for a 10,000 piece puzzle.

Always site a source when you can.  Look on Find-A-Grave to help build out your tree and get yourself connected to the main trunk of WikiTree.  It's hard doing this alone, but maybe with a little work, and once attached, a relation on WikiTree will see your work, and be happy to build along side you.

Census records are a great way to find who is in a family and when.  You will see lots of mis-spellings as ordinary people went door to door writing down what they heard.  Not all had great penmenship or a very good education, but at least we have a record.  Marriage records, birth records, Find-A-Grave..  All are great at trying to point you in the right direction, and helping you build your case.  A case that can be reviewed by others, not to frustrate you, but help you stay on the rails if a wrong record is leading you to a dead end.

Hope this helps you on your journey..  Enjoy!

Comments

Thank you so so much! I will follow your advice thank you

Answer 2

Patients, and more patients, some days you may get a couple problems solved, then a few days nothing, then you go a week or two nothing, then all of a sudden bingo you fine a gold mine of information. And for a week you are grabbing all that you can, but watch out you can over see so much that you miss some clues. So recheck, then check again. Even older dates, time line, who was born first , or you older then your mother or father, look for every detail.. also it was common 50 or so years ago that a 14 year old girl will marry a 40 year old man, some states they could marry as early at. 13. With parents consent. My grandmother was 15. If most of your research is your family remember what the old foxes said when setting around on the front porch. Above all as of 40 years ago a lot of low income people never went to school or maybe the 5th grade.  My own mother went to 5th grade. My uncle got as far as 6th,  my grandfather could not read or write. Example my great grandmother remarried a man named Cannaday. The census takers though she said Kennedy.  When she and her husband died, my grandfather could not read or wright. She was (and John). We’re buried under the name of Kennedy plus her maiden name was spelled 4 different ways.  It a mine game, search out of the box.