Research using Family Origins by David Hawgood

This article gives some examples of ways Family Origins has aided my research. I have found that the 'problem report' identifies some places where I have made typing mistakes, some where I have made bad estimates, and some where information from family members just does not make sense. For each person entered in Family Origins, I can enter tasks 'To Do'. For each task I can specify the repository - library or record office - where it is to be done. I have found this helps my research; I am more organised, and less likely to forget odd small tasks that need doing at a particular record office.

Problem Report

The Potential Problem List is intended to discover typing errors. You can choose which checks to make, and what ages are used in checking.

Examples of checks are:

• Individuals without sex entered
• Age at death over 100
• Age at marriage under 15 or over 70
• Mother's age at person's birth under 15 or over 45

The report show some of the problems Family Origins reported in my Hawgood file. Cass, Sarah "Mother 12 years old when person was born". I was calculating birth years from age in census records - and got one ten years out!

Float, Elizabeth "Father 10 years old when father was born". I had entered guesses for birth year, just from the generation. When I found Elizabeth Float's christening in 1701 I still had her father down as born about 1690. Running the problem report when you have entered new research results will help keep your estimates compatible with the new information.

Hawgood, Phebe "Mother 53 years old when person was born". I had entered the birth as being the same year as the baptism - but in fact Phebe was baptised years after she was born. So I revised my estimate of birth year for Phebe.

Lilburn, Fred "71 years old when married". According to family records this is his third marriage - but I will check the facts at least from marriage indexes, maybe get a certificate.

Sapp, Sarah "Parents married after person's birth". The birth date comes from family information, the marriage date comes from my research - and they don't tie up! I will check the birth dates of this whole family.

Toplis, Richard "Sex is unknown". An easy one - I forgot to enter Richard as being a boy.

Sources and 'To Do' Lists

In Family Origins, as in many genealogy packages now, a fact can be linked to a source document, and has a citation, eg a page number within the source. And the source is linked to the depository where it can be obtained. This means that the details of the source and the repository only have to be entered once. As an example, my source for the death of Michael Cass is the death certificate. I give the source as the death certificate, the repository as the Family Records Centre, and the citation as the reference "Dec 1868 Lincoln 7a 274".

Anyone using my research can check my facts, as I am specifying how to obtain the document. I also put a text note "David Hawgood has this certificate". In this certificate the informant is "Sarah Richards of Bailgate". I don't know who she is, but have put her in my records with the source as the death certificate of Michael Cass.

Family Origins takes this process further. For a person you can specify research tasks "To Do", and link the task to the repository where the search is to be made. Then you can print a list of tasks sorted by repository, or just the tasks for one repository. The list shows task I have to do at Lincolnshire Archives, and at the Society of Genealogists. I found the burial of John Lilburn in the Lincolnshire FHS Burial Index and at Lincolnshire Archives I need to look at the parish register to see if there are other details.

In the 1881 census I found by good luck that Bennet Robinson's father was living with him age 74, born in Holton Beckering, Lincolnshire. From lists of parishes this is "Holton-cum-Beckering", and I need to search its parish register hoping to find David Robinson. By entering it in the "To Do" list, this makes sure that if I am going to Lincoln I will remember to do both these quick specific searches.

I have found that systematic use of the 'To Do' list has helped me greatly in my research,
try it yourself.