We have all done errors in our genealogy work. But the thing is, we have to learn from those mistakes. One error might lead to other errors. And suddenly we have a branch of a family-tree that does not belong.

One way to see to it, that this does not happen, is to do FAN-research. And to do exhaustive research. In Norwegian genealogy research we have the Church books with recorded christenings. And the names of the sponsors are included. Here one can check if these people add up. Do they have the same patronyms as the parents? Are they siblings of the parents? Are the farm names from the area where the child is born? And so on.

Wrong spelling

I have found a match for someone I searched when I misspelled the name. But the best way is to spell it right. When we do research in another country, it is difficult to spell. It often does not look like anything we have seen before. My great great grandfather’s sister was Ingeborg. She was named after her grandmother Ømjer! I would never had guessed that.

For personal names and place names, there are help to be had. Use dictionaries, databases, wikis and more. One example is a work of Oluf Rygh, he “collected” Norwegian farm names, and this was published in a 17 volume series. And it is accessible as a database. In a project for a client, I encountered the name Olerud. I searched for it, but the number of matches were few. But the name was also Olarud, Ola, a boy’s name, being frequently more used in everyday life. And Rygh’s database tells me Olarud, used to be Ollerud in 1667.  

Persons with same names and birthyears

There are many Ole Olsen, but sometimes there are two with names that are seldom used. So do that exhaustive search! My great-grandfather was one of seven brothers. I was in a hurry when writing a blogpost and trusted the Bygdebok (Farm book). It said that there were eight brothers, 4 x Hans, 2 x Ole and 2 x Henrik. That was one Hans to many. The author of the Bygdebok added the Hans probably because his father had the same name as the father of seven. They were brothers!

When looking at trees on MyHeritage I find that there are errors in the marriages of these seven brothers. So, check the facts. Remember that hints on Ancestry and Smart Matches on MyHeritage will duplicate your errors if people copy your work with your errors.

Wrong assumptions

Starting my genealogy, I did research on the Ingeborg mentioned above. I was inexperienced and added “her” marriage to my tree, even though the date was not in accordance with other information. I thought the pastor who recorded this might have erred. I built a branch of the tree for her until I worked more with the family and found that she had left her place of birth together with her parents.

The technicality of doing research is one thing, getting background and learning history is also important. And one element that I stress, is share and learn from others.

Writing this piece, I am inspired by the blogpost that author Gena Philibert-Ortega wrote on GenealogyBank. Both will be presented on Mondays with Myrt April 1. 2024.