The most useful genealogy habits are often simple: record the source, check the relationship, identify the photograph, and keep your research organized. I want a family history to show how its conclusions were reached, whether it contains ten people or several thousand.
These genealogy research do’s and don’ts are a practical review for beginners and experienced researchers. They can help you avoid repeating a search, copying an error, or losing the information behind a discovery.
1. Do Cite Your Sources
Keep the source with every name, date, place, and relationship you add to your family tree. A citation helps you find the record again and gives another researcher a way to check your conclusion. It is easier to record those details while you are looking at the source than to recover them months later.
Include enough information to identify the document, the relevant entry or page, and where you found it. Keep source notes with saved images as well as in your family tree. If two records disagree, preserve both references and explain the question in your notes. The disagreement may help you identify an error or distinguish two people with the same name.
2. Don’t Accept a Claim without Checking It
A family story, a published history, or an online hint can point you toward a useful record. It should also prompt you to ask where the information came from. A claim repeated on several websites may still trace back to one unsupported statement.
Even a record created close to an event can contain an error. Consider who supplied each detail and whether that person was likely to know it. A death certificate, for example, may provide information close to the death while relying on someone else’s memory for the deceased person’s birth. Compare relevant evidence and explain conflicts instead of trusting a source solely because it looks official.
3. Do Identify Your Family Photographs
Record the names of the people in a photograph, the place, the approximate date, and the event when you know them. Also note who identified the photograph and whether that person knew the subjects firsthand. An identification that is uncertain should stay uncertain in your notes.
Keep a labeled copy or a separate description with each image. For digital photographs, use clear file names and keep fuller identification details in a companion note or suitable metadata fields. Preserve the original file too. For old physical photographs, label a protective enclosure or keep an accompanying note instead of making an irreversible mark on the image. See this guide to labeling inherited photographs for related advice.
4. Don’t Copy an Online Tree as Proof
Another person’s family tree can help you identify a possible ancestor or a collection to search. It cannot establish a relationship simply because it contains the same name as your ancestor. Several copied trees do not become independent evidence by agreeing with each other.
Follow the tree’s source references and read the records yourself. Check the dates, locations, household members, and relationships. Credit the person who shared useful research, but document the evidence behind your own conclusions. If the records do not support a connection, keep it as a possibility in your research notes rather than adding it as a confirmed relationship.
5. Do Use a Filing System You Can Maintain
Keep your paper records and digital files in a system you can understand and use regularly. You might organize folders by family, person, place, or record type. There is no single arrangement that suits everyone. The useful system is the one that lets you locate a document and its source details without repeating the search.
Use consistent file names and avoid scattering copies across several unrelated folders. A name, record type, year, and place can make a file easier to identify. Keep a research log with searches, results, unanswered questions, and next steps. It should include searches that found nothing useful, so you know what you checked and where you may need to try again.
6. Don’t Rely on One Copy of Your Research
Back up your tree, research notes, record images, and photograph identifications regularly, especially after a substantial research session or a major correction. An online tree is useful, but it should not be the only place your work exists. Export or download your information where the service allows it.
Keep more than one copy in separate locations. A cloud backup and an external drive can serve different purposes, provided both are kept up to date. A GEDCOM export can preserve much of a tree’s data, but it does not necessarily include your attached images and documents. Save those separately, date your backups, and occasionally check that you can open the files you would need to restore.
Build Habits You Can Keep Using
You do not need to rebuild your whole system in one afternoon. Start with the next record you examine. Save its source details, write down what it tells you, and explain what still needs checking. Then make sure that record and your notes are backed up.
I would rather make steady progress with records I can explain than add names faster than I can verify them. These habits make it easier to return to a question, correct a mistake, and pass useful research to someone else.
Learn More
Why Citing Sources is Crucial in Genealogy and How to Do it Right
Record enough detail to return to the evidence behind your family tree.
Genealogy Notes: Why You Need Them and How to Take Them the Right Way
Keep a useful log of discoveries, searches, and next steps.
How To Check Your Family Tree For Errors
Review dates, timelines, sources, and family relationships.
Must-Have Tools for a New Genealogist
Choose tools that support careful, organized research.
