A few words of caution to new researchers
As many researchers will tell you, family history research can be a rewarding, enjoyable, consuming and sometimes an unbelievably frustrating hobby. Before venturing into this series of articles, I would ask any new researcher to keep a few things in mind as they start to venture into their family tree. This isn't intended to put anyone off, but there is a massive amount of mis-information out there and I have seen dozens of new researchers let down, disappointed and sometimes angry, often because of assumptions they have made when starting out.
Take your time
Whilst the thrill of the hunt is certainly addictive, it is best to remind yourself once in a while that, for the most part, our ancestors have been gone for a very long time indeed. In an age of almost instant access to everything, many find the idea of waiting few weeks, months or, in some cases, years to gain access to records inconcievable and, in the thrill of chasing a lead, patience can be a difficult virtue to master. It may be annoying, and often is, but the delay will not hurt anyone and it is a reality that needs to be accepted. If you have hopes of complete your family tree in a couple of weeks you are being unrealistic and I'm afraid you are almost certainly going to be left disappointed.
There are thousands of researchers who have been hunting for ancestors most of their adult lives, starting long before the internet age. Treating themselves to annual archive visits, doggedly working page by page through hundreds of un-indexed census returns and asking various bodies for information almost exclusively via the postal service. Many of these researchers have, over the years, managed to build incredibly detailed, verifiable bodies of work without the benefit of modern technology.
New isn't always best
There have been some wonderful advantages in access and communication with the dawn of the internet and the digitisation of records, opening up the field to millions who would never have considered the hobby before, and I'm not suggesting that these avenues should be ignored in the spirit of some kind of genealogical purity. But often the cost of these advances has been patience, accuracy and, on occasion, common courtesy. Essentials when you remember that, in reality, it is a never-ending quest and you never know who might be able to help you crack the next brick wall.
Claims you may come across when looking through the vast array of commercial websites, are that you can research your family tree exclusively online and, in some cases, that for a period you can research your family tree for free. In the UK this is simply not true, many millions of valuable records still only exist in archive offices and even the most basic documents, such as birth, marriage and death certificates, can only be obtained by post or in person. In theory it is true that you could build a very shaky tree, based mostly on assumption and guess work, for free and exclusively online. But would you want to?
The reality is that if you want to build a family tree and you are willing to devote your time and effort to it, then there is little point in starting if you don't care about its accuracy. For the most part, the records that are available online cannot be assumed to be 100% accurate and are almost always lacking in useful information. The only way to be certain of accuracy is to check the original records, which in many cases means paying for copies of the originals and receiving them by post or taking trips to local archive offices.
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