Helping Hand
“Can you research my family?” Because of my job as the editor of this magazine, I occasionally field genealogy questions from friends and relatives. And every once in a while, I’ll take them on to keep my sleuthing skills sharp. (My wife’s grandmother calls this a “postman’s holiday.”)
Though the research principles are the same, working on someone else’s family tree has some key differences from working on your own. For example, you don’t have the same information to build a research foundation on, nor do you have a lifetime of family stories to guide and inspire you. Because of that, it’s much easier to bark up the wrong family tree when the ancestors aren’t your own.
My most recent “client” is a friend (we’ll call her Morgan) whose family is scattered across the Eastern United States. She knew her roots went back to Italy, but didn’t have much more information than that. Another is May, who never met her birth father and wanted to learn about her paternal ancestors who have long been a mystery.
Based on research for those and other “clients,” I’ve put together a few tips for researching someone else’s genealogy that will help you have a successful consult—whether you’re helping a
