3 Mistakes I Made Early in My Research (and How You Can Avoid Them)

Unlike many people, I was just 12 years old when I started my family tree in Ancestry. Although I was a pretty smart kid with a knack for research, I repeatedly made mistakes that many people struggle with as beginner genealogists. It wasn’t until my university years when I became quite serious about genealogy that I realized how badly those early mistakes affected my research. It was bad enough that I started a new tree from scratch—which is the one I still use today.

If you’ve started to build a family tree and realized later on that some things just don’t seem right, you’re not alone. These aren’t colossal failures. They’re common misconceptions that many of us run into. I wanted to share three early missteps that changed the way I research, along with some context on how I learned to approach things differently. If you’ve made any of these too, you’re in good company.

1. Taking Other People’s Trees as Fact

When I started researching, I was thrilled to many find people with overlapping family trees on Ancestry. I actually copied most of my paternal side from my grandmother’s tree. It felt like a shortcut—why spend hours confirming relationships when the work seemed already done, especially if it came from a reputable source like Gramma?

What I didn’t understand at the time is that many of these trees were built using assumptions, copied from other public trees, or included sources that didn’t actually support the claims. While these trees can be useful clues, they should never be taken as gospel. Always ensure that the information you copy from other trees has been cited from a reliable source. I always remind myself that there was plenty that even Gramma didn’t know about!

If you’re newer to genealogy, I highly recommend reading my beginner’s guide to building a family tree which outlines the types of records you can use to confidently verify relationships.

2. Dismissing Records Because of Misspelled Names

This one hit especially close to home. With a last name like Macdonald, I’m used to seeing it misspelled as McDonald or even MacDonell. Today, I look passed spelling differences and ensure it’s (mostly) the same phonetically. But in my early research, I didn’t understand how much those small spelling differences could affect search results on sites like Ancestry or FamilySearch.

I assumed the search engines were smarter than they actually were. I’d run a search, see no results, and mistakenly believe the record didn’t exist.

Later, while working on a digitization project involving the Canadian Confederation Debates, I realized how many errors Optical Character Recognition (OCR) introduces—especially in older printed materials. A name like "Macdonald" could appear as "Mocdonak" in a transcription because of some splotchy ink and completely throw off a digital search.

Now I use wildcard searches, and I always scan through unindexed records manually when I know a record should be there. If this sounds familiar, you might find my post on what to do when you’ve hit a brick wall in your research helpful.

3. Assuming If It’s Not on Ancestry (or Another Genealogy Website), It Can’t Be Found

I definitely had blinders on early in my research journey. I’d search Ancestry or FamilySearch, come up empty-handed, and assume the record was lost to history.

What I didn’t yet know was how many amazing records are held in provincial, regional, or national archives—many of which haven’t been digitized or even indexed. Others might be tucked away in academic databases, genealogical society journals, or even privately scanned collections.

I found my 2nd-great-grandfather’s obituary (one of my favourite genealogical finds) in the local genealogical society’s archived newspaper collection available on their website, which is the only place where these records are digitally available. And it gets even better—the collection (like from many local archives) is free to access! Using records outside of major databases can sometimes give you the exact breakthrough you were looking for.

Final Thoughts

If you’re making any of these mistakes right now, you’re not alone. These are common slip-ups, and the good news is that once you’re aware of them, you can start to research smarter and more efficiently. The best genealogists I know have all had their fair share of early missteps—and they’re better researchers because of it. Some of the best learning comes from your own mistakes.

Still feeling stuck? I offer consultations and custom research services to help you tackle those lingering brick walls. Get in touch here and let’s chat!