How to avoid the most common mistakes of beginner genealogists

Part 1. Ouch, I didn’t write it down! Where have I read this?

You are enthusiastically throwing yourself heart and soul into the archival documents that seem relevant. You are so glad about a possibility to find an ancestor or relative. You are bitterly disappointed to have looked through something without finding useful data. And you celebrate your success if you have found a new ancestor. Amongst all these emotions you may forget to write down the number of the microfilm, the title of the book, the url of the page. Later – believe me, you won’t remember – you can rack your brains or work twice.

How to avoid it:

It is best to always immediately an very precisely list on your computer or in a notebook the title of the book or the archival reference code of the document

• which you requested for research in an archive
• which you plan to read
• which you have read, noting also the page number of a hit
• which you have copied (it is very annoying to have one page of a register without knowing the year, isn’t it…)
• which you started and want to finish
• which you know is relevant or not worth to look at anymore
• which you heard about and want to discover next.

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We wish you the best of luck in your research,

Judit and István

Historia Translation

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