7 Genealogy Regrets I'd Fix with a Time Machine (Beginners Must Read!)

If I could hop in a time machine and travel back to my first year of family history research, I’d do things VERY differently! Today, I’m going to be sharing the things I wish I’d done differently when I began researching my genealogy.

Number One: Learned About Methodology.

I know, I know… It’s the boring, dry textbook stuff. But honestly, I cannot stress enough how much I wish I had taken methodology more seriously. I know for a fact I have many mistakes in my Ancestry tree because, in those early days, I was just clicking away through hints with little thought. But by taking some time to learn things like:

• How many data points do I need before accepting a piece of evidence

• What constitutes a good piece of evidence versus a bad piece

• What methods can I use to differentiate between two people with the same/similar names

• What methods exist for when things get tricky
  

I would have saved myself a lot of time and energy that I’m now expending cleaning up a messy tree.

There are myriad ways you can learn methodology. Videos on YouTube, books and joining your local family history society – many of which offer beginner methodology courses.

Number Two: Family tree vs pedigree charting.

People may differ on this, but I personally think it’s better to go a generation at a time in a family tree chart rather than use a pedigree. But what does that mean?

In family history, the two most popular charting methods are the family tree and the pedigree chart.

The family tree looks like this:

Each generation is fully represented; siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles… everyone is included.

The pedigree chart looks like this:

The pedigree shows direct lineage only – so mother, father, and a single child.

Now, I wouldn’t get too lost in the weeds with the family tree when starting out, but I would aim to document all siblings for each generation. Going back later to move down the tree and add cousins and more extended kin networks.

The reason why I would do this, vs pedigree (which is what I focused on when I got started, just again clicking away until I could get no further back), circles back around to that all-important methodology point from above.

By utilising the FAN (friends, associates and neighbours) method, you would be surprised at how often a sibling’s or an auntie/uncle’s record set can lead to a breakthrough for the line or the individual you are researching. So having each generation fully fleshed out before moving up the tree can give you a more solid foundation.

Number Three: Research notes.

Again, this is gonna be a struggle for those of you who are like me and thinking:

But trust me. You will thank yourself later.

It will save you time. Let’s say you’re researching your great-great-grandmother and you’re trying to locate a baptism record. You can write down all the search parameters you’ve undertaken in a research session:

• Jane Smith

• Born 1885 +/- 5 years

• Location: Chester, England

• Specific record sets searched (e.g. Cheshire Roman Catholic etc…)

• Date searched: 10/10/2025

• Notes: record set not fully digitised yet

So in a few months (or years), when you go back to find those baptismal records for Jane, you can see where and what you’ve already searched. Giving you a leg up on where to start and stopping you from wasting time re-running the same searches over and over again.

Another way this can come in handy is creating a master list of sources. I personally do this using Google Docs. I have a source document that uses tabs: countries, then locations within those countries.

That way, when you come across that obscure blog on a Friesian corner of the internet that archives old photos from the rural farming community your great-grandfather grew up in at 2 am in the morning, you can log it to come back to at another day – and you won’t be kicking yourself for not writing it down (because no matter how hard you try and how thoroughly you scour your search history, you won’t be able to find what you were looking for! Don’t worry, I did in fact write down the obscure Friesan blog, but I have not been so cautious in the past).

Number Four: Record Keeping

Make physical copies of your research (or at least non-cloud-based or service-based copies). Print out your key documents, keep a hard drive (or two) with your research and notes, or use an old but true three-ring binder. Whatever your preference, just make sure you’re keeping your research in more than just a single electronic – or worse – cloud/service-based source.

Clouds can crash, computers can break, and accounts can be hacked. There are horror stories of genealogists losing years of work because they trusted digital technology a little too much. Learn from their hard lessons.

Number Five: Get outside your comfort zone.

Don’t rely only on the big three (Ancestry, MyHeritage and FindMyPast). As much as they want you to believe they hold the keys to the genealogical kingdom, there is a whole wide world out there just waiting for you! Libraries, archives, local history groups, bloggers, and YouTubers. This is just a small selection of the places you can look for your research (many libraries and archives have extensive digital archives you can access from anywhere). A great deal of my research (probably around 50%) is now conducted outside of “Big Genealogy” (is that a thing? Let’s make it a thing, #FreeTheRecords). Which leads me into number six…

Number Six: Free Doesn’t Equal Bad

Free doesn’t mean low quality. FamilySearch, Eowyn Langholf @ WikiTree, FreeReg – all 100% free, brimming with genealogical gold!

From FamilySearch’s full text search and complimentary help (yes, you read that right, you can book free 1:1 sessions with a FamilySearch expert to help you with any genealogy enquiries) to WikiTree’s powerful collaborative, well-sourced tree – you cannot go wrong with these sites. At the end of the day, the quality is in the records, not the price tags. Don’t snub these free sites under the illusion that the paid “premium” ones are better. I missed treasures early on by employing this way of thinking.

Number Seven: Don’t Go, Solo

Finally… don’t go it alone. Find local history or niche genealogy Facebook Groups (surnames, locations and more are out there. Trust me, if there is a family history niche, someone has made a Facebook group for it!). I found a Facebook group for those researching Czechoslovakian ancestry that included people willing to translate documents to help fellow genealogists.

In another Facebook group, I identified people in a set of old photos I had purchased at a garage sale in Perth, Western Australia. I saw a stamp on the back of one image that said Innisfail – found a small town in Queensland. Looked for a Facebook group – lo and behold, there was a History of Innisfail Facebook group, and from there I got identities for a dozen photographs. And I got to reunite people with lost photos of their loved ones, including one lady who recognised a photo of her mother, who was still alive and well at 102!

But outside of Facebook, there are many options. Join your local and national family history society, start blogging (or substacking), and many local libraries have family history meet-ups. Get out there, it’s a bigger community than you think – and everyone is always willing to help.

So there you have it. If I had my magical restart button, that’s what I’d do! Remember genealogy is a marathon, not a sprint – so start smart, on solid foundations.

What’s your big “wish I’d known?” drop it in the comments!

Knext Gen Genealogy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber on Substack:

https://knextgengenealogy.substack.com/

Substa

Or with a one-time donation via BuyMeACoffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/knextgengenealogy

Want to work with me on your family history? You can find my service and price list here.