4 Tips for Better Genealogy

Whether you are just starting, or are an accomplished genealogist, I would like your reaction to these four tips for better genealogy.

Applying these tips, even more than I did, would probably have helped me in my quest to find out about the Odaffer family.  Each tip is illustrated by where I used it and how it helped.

Tip 1 — Leave No Stone Unturned

I’m amazed that my 16-year-old son Eric agreed to go on a genealogy trip with me, and how well he resisted the inborn need a 16 year old has to rebel against adult imposed endeavors — except maybe at the very end of our trip.

Looking for signs of my great grandfather, David Odaffer, we ended up in an old cemetery near Circleville, Ohio.  Our well had run dry — no Odoerfer or Odaffer graves to be found. It was time to go home.

It was then that I spied a pile of old stones, out in a back corner of the cemetery.

“Come on,” implored Eric. “You’re not going to find anything back there.  Let’s get out of here.” I finally got Eric to help look through the pile of stones. On the bottom of the pile — literally the last stone — we found a dirty, barely legible piece of a broken gravestone.

We brushed it off, and with great excitement read “Ida May, daughter of D. and A. Odaffer, Died April 2, 1861.  Aged 1 yr, 9 mo, 2 days.” We had located David in Ohio!

I gave Eric a short speech on the value of thoroughness and persistence in genealogy, as well as in life — a lesson I’m sure he really only learned by himself when he got older.

Tip 2 — Call or Write Often

Over the years, whenever I was in a different city, I checked the phone book, sometimes finding an Odaffer, and gave them a call.

I had to work hard not to get hung up on, but it usually worked out.  And I often found out something new about the branches of the Odaffer family.

And I have written many letters to county clerks, church officials — you name it.  Sometimes it paid off too.

On a trip, I had stopped at the Church of the Latter Day Saints Genealogy Library in Salt Lake City, and was about ready to leave when someone on the staff told me that he would help me prepare a letter in German.

With his help, I wrote letters to three Lutheran churches in the area near Nuremberg, Germany, where I suspected some of Johann Wolfgang’s relatives might have lived.

Amazingly, I soon received a letter from Georg Odoerfer, a member of one of the churches, who became a contact in Germany and a good friend.

Georg gave me a lot of help, often translating from books written on Old (High) German, to gather information about the Odoerfer family.

There is no doubt that making the right calls and writing the right letters can really be helpful in finding out about your family.

Tip 3 — Don’t Believe all You Hear

I talked to an older relative in our family about my great grandfather David Odaffer.  She was old enough to have known David, and was a really valuable source as I delved into his life. Or so I thought.

She told me, “David came from a wealthy family in Ohio, and migrated to Illinois with $1000 sewn into his shirt.  His wife Amanda wanted him to buy a farm near Monticello, Illinois, but he fooled all of his money away on drink.”

Upon checking this out, I found that there is plenty of evidence that the “wealthy family” label wasn’t accurate, and an abstract in the County Court House in Monticello showed that David bought 69 acres of land — soon after he got here — from John Dove for $1,360.

So you have to verify — check and recheck — the verbal information you receive.  Sometimes people make the stories be the way they wanted them to be, not always reflecting the truth.  The relative didn’t like David, and that may have colored her story.

Tip 4 — Record, Then Record a Little More

Everybody needs an Al Field.  I had been working on the Odaffer family for several years before I met Al, who, being a relative, was also researching the family.

I had collected a lot of information about the family, probably more than anyone else.

And I knew that what I reported was true, since I had gotten it from very good records and sources.

But Al shocked me by demanding documentation, and in some cases, I didn’t have it.  Oh, I’d had it once, and thought I had written it down carefully.  But, lo and behold, my records just weren’t complete enough.  I would record some basic information, but not enough and in not enough detail.

Al simply opened my eyes to the fact that you have to have a very good recording system, and you have to religiously record, and then record some more.

I got better at recording what I found, but some of the original gaps are still there, and I regret that I didn’t meet Al earlier.  Thanks, Al.

So there are the four tips.  Use them if they merit, and look for more hints to come!