I have been doing genealogical research for 20 years now. I am far from being a professional, and there are scores of people who are better at it than I am. After all, I’m entirely self-taught. I just sort of learned what to do along the way without any input from others. Because of this, there are going to be things of which I’m not aware, or maybe I do things a bit differently than others. In short, I’m not here as an expert. I am just your average person who happens to have a passion for genealogy. And yet, I feel like I may have something to offer a beginner; perhaps some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way will come in handy to someone stumbling across my blog.
This series is not meant to be an exhaustive, step-by-step guide to genealogy. You can find that most anywhere on the internet. Well, actually, you can probably find much of what I write about elsewhere. I’m still going to write a bit about some things that have helped make me a better genealogist. As human beings, we are ever-evolving and always learning; it’s a wonderful life long process—even when it humbles us. And I was humbled today when I realized that I had been focused for so long on one possibility that it totally blinded me to reality. I will save that for a later blog, but suffice it to say I learned a huge lesson today. I am definitely still in the process of learning to be a better genealogist.
My mistake also made me realize that maybe I should write out some of the things I wish I had known in the beginning—things I wish I hadn’t had to learn the hard way. If you happen to come across these lessons I’ve learned, I hope you find something useful. If not, maybe you can have a bit of a laugh at my expense as you read some of the not-smart things I’ve done. Or perhaps you’ll just feel better about yourself knowing that everyone makes mistakes no matter how long they’ve been doing something. All that matters is that we are willing to learn from those mistakes, and I hope that you can learn from mine.