How to Find the Original Sources for Genealogy Records

You always want to search for the original record. Believe it or not, Ancestry, FamilySearch, and MyHeritage do not have the original records. In this episode I’m going to show you how and why you should find the original records for your ancestral research.

📝📝📝THREE DIFFERENT WAYS to find the HANDOUTS!

OTHER VIDEOS
🔴 Hard to Read Census Records: Solved

🔴 Copyright Laws, Find Court Records, Adoptions & Evidence of Marriage for Genealogy with Judy Russell

🔴How & Where to Research Newspapers for Genealogy and Family History

TIMING
0:00 Intro
1:05 Why find the original record?
1:40 How to find Census Records
2:57 Source Information on Ancestry
3:21 Original Data and Microfilm Number
4:11 Citation info on FamilySearch
4:45 FamilySearch research wiki
5:30 Ancestry and FamilySearch together
6:41 Public Marriage Records
8:17 Birth Records Online
8:51 FamilySearch Film Number
9:43 Drilling down on Family Search
11:39 SSDI
13:18 Find a Grave
14:05 Find a Grave Photographer
14:39 Add Flowers on Find a Grave
15:23 Find the Cemetery
16:41 Memorial ID Number
17:30 Handout Info
18:25 Outro

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Best YouTubers for genealogy are Genealogy TV (of course), The History Guy, Ancestral Findings, Family History Fanatics, Geneavlogger, Legacy Tree Genealogy, Genealogy TV (of course), Ancestry, FamilySearch, Useful Charts, Dear Myrtle, and 23andMe.
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[dianapocalypse]

Did you enjoy this week's video? Don't miss How & Where to Research Newspapers for Genealogy and Family History

Keep on climbing your family tree!

-Diana, Genealogy TV Team

[nightfx-eve]

That little tip about the Family Search Research Wiki is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks this is going to save me a ton of time.

[lordperilous]

Connie I am so glad I stumbled on your channel! Great content and I feel I learned some very valuable information. I used to do genealogy back in the early 200's, but life side-tracked me until recently. I have the benefit having worked for a PI, and I am in the computer security business which means I am very good at finding slivers of data and correlating to get to the truth.

One of my big pet peeves has been when Ancestry shows me information without a document or artifact. Now I know a few more ways to find it! I have recently been relying on social media to fill in some gaps as well (I bet you have at least one episode on this).

Now I have to bing your past episodes! haha. Keep up the great work, so that even us hunters can get better!

[johnlmoore]

Enjoy learning more from u Ms. Connie. thank you ma'am

[annw]

I'm glad you mentioned FamilySearch. They are an excellent resource, as well as being free to everyone.

[craftystash]

Omgoodness...you did it again...I find NEW info EVERY time I watch you 😲

[TheChrisEMartin]

It really makes sense to go back to the original records. I have found so many transcriptions on the family history web-sites have names that are spelled wrong - either genuine mistakes, or the transcriber couldn't read the handwriting in the original record and just guessed wrong!. The other thing I have found more than once - (and this is in relation to the English side of my family) is that for English parish records where sometimes the village priest recorded marriages, burials and baptisms all on the same page in the original church register, is that the transcriber has mistakenly recorded a record as a burial when it was actually a baptism! Looking at the original images of these records allow you to check these things and, as you say, you often get additional information than included in the transcription..

[sherryledbetter]

Thank you Connie!! You're so knowledgeable, and your information is always so helpful.

[fcgn]

Thank you Connie. I learned a new tip today about searching the index by film number.

[tammywilliams]

Oh gosh… I never knew there was so much to click on in the Find a Grave. I’ll need to revisit all of those !! Thank you again.

[randywallis]

I want to thank you for this video. I found out a ton of information that I was not aware of. 👍👍
Thanks
Randy

[jackiemedeiros]

Your videos are always so helpful. Thank you Connie

[wendybond]

Thank you Connie. You always have such relevant content.

[carlaporath]

Great information...I always learn something from your videos!!!!

[nancybennett]

Hi Connie, I just watched your video from Feb 4, 2022 about not loading mistakes from Ancestry. You can see the documentation in others peoples trees that show up in your hints. If you click on the ancestors name on the other tree, it will show you the facts that member has collected on that ancestor. You can also view their tree. I hope this helps.

[suzannemcclendon]

Thank you for this video. Over the last week, I've run into "No image available" more times than I can count on Ancestry. How can they even consider it a source if they don't let us see it? There's no way to know if the transcriber or the OCR thing properly transcribed it if you can't see it. Thanks for telling us how to find them so that we can verify the information ourselves, with our own eyes.

[amyprice]

Everyone thinks my 4th GG name was Amarytha McCracken but in looking at the record it was actually Amaryllis McMackin. The mistaken transcription has become the standard in online trees, unfortunately. Amazing the difference a few letters make.

[BillTxn]

While researching part of my wife's family, I found relatives to one individual's memorial in find a grave with separate memorials but who were not linked to the first person. I clicked on "Suggested Edit" to inform the editors at find a grave that there were more family members who could be linked. In another situation, I found a duplicate of my own paternal grandfather's memorial with scant information and a wrong nickname attached. Again, using the "Suggested Edit" button, I was able to clean up the erroneous duplicate.

[karajames]

Hi Connie, I watch your show every week since I found you during COVID and have learned so much from you. Question: You mentioned during your show today about digging deeper for birth certificates. How do you go about doing that besides taking a trip to all the health departments and then they are not free. Also, what year was it a requirement for the parents to fill out a birth certificate? My half brothers grandpa is listed with a different last name in the birth index of the 1800's (don't remember the year off the bat) and no one in the family knew he was born under a different name. Is there any other way to find this out? Thank you, Kara

[desertpatient]

Thanks bunches...too funny...as I was just dealing with this for the first time as I really want to try to get a marriage certificate