DIY Genealogy Report – Quick Tips to Kick-Start your DIY Genealogy Report

Compiling a DIY genealogy report will involve countless hours of researching facts about your ancestors, and then verifying them. While the majority of genealogical research is fascinating and fun, you will occasionally run into a dead end that seems to leave you helpless. These research tips will help you to overcome those barriers, even better; how to avoid them when compiling a DIY genealogy report.

DIY Genealogy Report Tip #1 – Share your Documents

It’s critical to the success of your DIY genealogy report that you confirm any data found on your ancestor before entering into your family tree. This will inevitably involve ordering copies of Birth, Death and Marriage Certificates from official sources, and then cross referencing them with your data. Occasionally after ordering a certificate you’ll discover that the person wasn’t your ancestor after all, and you’re left with a document that is of no value to your DIY genealogy report. Rather than trashing what could be a valuable document to another researcher, why not share what you’ve found in an online forum.

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An excellent website for this is BMD Certificate Exchange Site. Here you can post information on which unwanted documents you possess, while browsing those of other researchers. You never know, someone may have ordered the document you seek and is willing to share it. The website enables researchers to exchange BMD certificates and other miscellaneous documents which could provide the missing link in your DIY genealogy report.

You can also share valid documentation with other genealogists. It is possible that another researcher has already found your ancestor while doing research for their own DIY genealogy report, and likewise you may have found something of value to them. Collaboration among researchers has often helped all parties involved, so be generous with what you find during your DIY genealogy report, at the worst you’ll make a great friend of someone who shares your interests!

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DIY Genealogy Report Tip #2 – Use Hospital Records

Occasionally the data found on official documents may be wrong or indecipherable, placing us at an impasse in our DIY genealogy report. The British National Archives in partnership with the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine has provided genealogists with an option that may help to overcome such an event. At this Hospital Records Database, they have begun compiling a Hospital Records database that includes:

• Administrative Details of UK Hospitals
• Dates covered by their Clinical Records
• Links to other Hospital Databases

Records of individual patients can be consulted, although most will be over 100 years old due to privacy policies. If the civil registration documents you have found are ineligible or inaccurate however, it may be worth consulting hospital records during the compilation of your DIY genealogy report.

DIY Genealogy Report Tip #3 – Consult Business Records

If your ancestor was a business owner, you may be able to get around a dead end by consulting business records. Many National Archives of countries around the world also contain valuable records of businesses past and present. Although many older companies have evolved and may no longer go by the same name as they did years ago, their previous name will be listed in business archives. Such data could provide you with a clue that reveals at least where to look for your relative.

Searching ancestors can often seem like an exercise in futility, but you are only limited by your imagination during your DIY genealogy report. Think about your ancestor, what their likes were, whether or not they were politically active, what social organizations or clubs they were members of. The answers to any or all of these questions can enlighten you as to where to find the missing links in your DIY genealogy report.