Genealogy … Some Thoughts … My Approach

Some thoughts on my approach to tree building, deciding what to work on next, making a plan of action, keeping track of my investigations, and 'seeing the wood for the branches' ...

Tree Building

I generally work on the principle that the wider and deeper I can make my family tree then the better equipped I will be to build my tree back in time. This is because a broad base to a tree provides a better foundation for building back with confidence. For this reason, I spend more time building across and forwards in time than I spend in building backwards.

DNA-related information used in conjunction with oral histories and traditional sources of documentary evidence is really important to this. Connecting DNA matches to my tree supports the development of the collateral lines in my tree, thereby strengthening the base. Drawing on oral family histories and traditional sources of documentary evidence helps to build out people’s lives and life stories in the context of their place and time, where this is possible. This is important too.

It’s all about how the full range of evidence comes together as a body of evidence. Does it support existing conclusions or does it challenge them? It’s about looking across what is sometimes conflicting evidence and weighing it up to consider whether or not the body of evidence is sufficient to draw a solid genealogical conclusion or merely suggestive of a possible/speculative conclusion requiring further investigation.

Deciding What to Work On Next

When deciding what to work on next, sometimes I am influenced by a new DNA match of interest that pops up. I then work with the DNA evidence in conjunction with the more traditional documentary evidence to see what I can learn.

Sometimes things happen in reverse. I start with the brick wall I am trying to solve and, in the absence of clear evidence to build back, I set about looking for DNA-related evidence that can help. This usually entails formulating some sort of hypothesis on the basis of whatever scant evidence I do have and then using the DNA-related evidence alongside more traditional sources of evidence to test the hypothesis. In this case, taking a step back in order to see the 'wood for the branches' can be useful (see below).

Making a Plan of Action

Many family history researchers will stress the importance of developing and following a research plan. This is good advice which I try to follow. That does not mean that I document a detailed plan in writing before starting an investigation. A plan that is too detailed, if rigidly adhered to, can get in the way of flexibility. In my view, flexibility and open-mindedness are really important to effective research. I often find myself following a hunch which then turns into an hypothesis about a relationship that I then set about testing. Hunches are one of the important tools in a genealogist's tool box. I wrote a case study about following a hunch here.  In this particular case, the investigation was inconclusive. The evidence left me leaning towards ‘probably wrong’ requiring me to change tack once again and search for more documentary evidence.

In my experience, it often becomes important to change direction when the evidence suggests you should. Family history research is a learning journey and solving genealogical puzzles requires a certain amount of adaptive expertise. Often I just end up going where the evidence takes me, especially when working with DNA-related data. Written research plans and flexibility are not, of course, mutually exclusive but flexibility does require a plan to be continually adapted and modified.

This is why my research plans tend to be more of a brief overview. Sometimes I write my plan down. Sometimes I just carry it in my head. My research plan generally answers three key questions:

• What is my research question? That is, what, specifically, do I want to find out?
• What are the available resources that I can draw on?
• What action steps will I take? That is, how am I going to go about the task?

The challenge is to stay on task by keeping the research question front of mind because it is really easy to be distracted by some other interesting avenue of inquiry that presents itself along the way. I need a well focused research question to keep me on topic. However, while keeping the research question firmly in mind, the resources I draw on and the action steps (and/or the order of them) that I take in investigating the question will inevitably change along the way as I respond to what I find.

Keeping Track of the Investigation

How many times have you paused an investigation for a while, then picked it up later to find yourself unnecessarily covering the same ground twice because you have forgotten what you had checked out the first time around? Yes, on occasion, I have been guilty of that too. These days I try to discipline myself to write down, or somehow document, the steps I have taken during and after an investigation and keep my notes in a well organised electronic filing system. This is something I know I need to get better at!

Seeing the Wood for the Branches

One of the bi-products of building trees with a broad base is that they become quite large. My tree has 24,160 people, including about 570 DNA matches that I have connected to my family lines. My husband’s tree has 5,304 people in it, including about 85 DNA matches that have been connected.

I find that it is important, from time to time, to take a step back and look at progress in terms of direct line information. Just how complete is my tree? Where are the gaps?

This helps me to decide where I should focus next by reminding me where the brick walls are. In addition, by considering the level to which the tree is complete, I can take a more realistic look at where my DNA matches may connect. Say, for example, I have found a common ancestor with a match and I know how we connect genealogically, can I be sure that this is the genetic line down which the DNA has travelled to us both? In the absence of strong evidence based on the triangulation of a significant number of matches, and depending on the level of completeness of my tree, I can't be sure of this because I may be genealogically connected to the match in more than one way and just not know it yet.

So, from time to time, I put my head above the branches and check for tree completeness using the 'Tree Completeness' function at DNAPainter. 'Tree Completeness' is just one of the functions provided by the Ancestral Trees tool at DNAPainter.

In terms of my direct line (my ancestors), here is what DNAPainter tells me about my tree completeness:

Similarly, here is what it tells me about the tree completeness of my husband’s tree:

Probably what I need to do next, in relation to my own tree, is revisit the brick walls I have around my 3x Great Grandparents. This would entail revisiting my files and notes about what I have checked before and considering whether there is a useful avenue for further investigation. In relation to my husband’s tree, I probably need to take another look at his 4x Great Grandparents.