Research Tip of the Week

Always look at records or images of records whenever possible

It is convenient to take the quick route and take information from the transcription of a record. This is a mistake. The actual document often has information that is not available on the transcription.

When I pull a document to source a fact, I look at the entire document. I have found valuable clues in looking at the neighbors listed on census records and witnesses listed on marriage or death records just to name a couple places you can locate valuable information that might not be on a document transcription.