To Copy or Not to Copy

"My __________ has already done all my family history there is nothing more for me to do."

There are a few out there who may think where do I start when someone else has already done it for me?  Or they have done all the easy stuff and all that is left is the hard stuff.  First of all, you are not alone.  There are many who are in the same predicament as you.  I am going to tell you a secret. Repeat after me FAMILY HISTORY IS NEVER DONE.  Yep, that's right it is never done.  For one, think of the definition of family history work.  Perhaps the genealogy has been done, but the stories behind your ancestor are waiting to be discovered every day.  As technology becomes more advanced, as documents, papers, books, and records are becoming available every day online, so are possible clues to your ancestor's life.  Perhaps you researched all you could about an ancestor 10 years ago and couldn't find any more.  Billions of records are added every year, which means more data for you to search relating to your ancestor.  There are more and more websites available for searching all across the world.
I am amazed at how popular family tree websites such as Ancestry.com, familysearch.org, and findmypast.com are advancing their website to be more user-friendly.  Did you know that some already do the searching for you?  They give you hints of records in their database that have your ancestor's name and birthdate on it so that you just have to go check it and verify.  Then whamo, you can move on to the next step. Amazing!  

When I first started doing genealogy I was pencil and papering what I found.  Now you can have an online one that is public or private.  You can share with others.  You can even collaborate with others online to see what they have found or see where they have searched.  In the beginning of my genealogy journey it was about trying to find access to documents.  It was about traveling to a location to look in their libraries to see what they have and going through a full book to hopefully find your ancestor's name in it.  Now the hardest part is knowing where to start because there is too much information available. The hard part now is where to find it online from the comfort of your own home.  I love it!  I hope you do too or will come to love it!

So back to my title:  To Copy or Not to Copy.  If someone has done all the work should you just copy what they have done and start where they left off or do you start at you.  I think it depends on if you want to do just genealogy or if you want to also do the family history.  If you just want the minimal facts to get you to the next person, then I would say go ahead and copy.  (Be aware that people do make mistakes.  I would at least reccomend verifying the dates and names and relationships and to check for errors).  If you want to KNOW your ancestor and the life they lived, then I reccomend starting with you and your direct family.  You and your spouse and children.  Or if you have no children, start with your parents and siblings.  Then move on to grandparents and great-grandparents on mother's and father's side.  Get the minimal facts from the genealogy that has been done (birth date, birth place, death date, death place, marriage date and place.) and use that as a framework for your research to find out more about your ancestor.  Use the framework to ask questions, lots of questions.  Don't just look at a census report to find out the names of the person's children, but also find out what the head of the household did for a living.  Did they have relatives living with them at the time?  Ask lots of questions.  I will go more into detail about this in a later post.  

I will tell you though, that if you really want to KNOW your ancestor, you will want to start from the beginning and then go back.  For one, you will be able to correct mistakes along the way (yes, there will be some).  For another, you will start seeing connections.  You will start recognizing names in seemingly unrelated places.  Something special will happen.  I guarantee it!  As you come to KNOW your ancestor you will feel more compassion, you will be more forgiving, you will have greater understanding.