Words of Wisdom?

As president of the Prall Family Association, I am asked to contribute my "words of wisdom" [WOW] for each quarterly Prall Family Newsletter. Basically, I offer accolades for some of the articles, comment on some research, toss out an item about one of my Prall ancestors, that sort of thing.

I thought I'd try a few WOW on research techniques, things to look out for while researching, that sort of thing. Nothing profound, but hopefully useful.

(1) OK, the obvious first - CITE YOUR SOURCES. Without the citations, the information becomes useless to other researchers. You may know where you got it; let others know!

(2) Online family trees: Be they on Ancestry, FamilySearch, Wikitree, RootsWeb, a personal site, or elsewhere, use them with caution. Far too many trees are undocumented, or cite other undocumented trees as their sources. They may latch onto a person with that surname who fits the family tree chronologically, but is unrelated. Watch out for the 15 children who share 9 names. [2 Marys, 2 Freds, 2 Anns, 3 Samuels, etc.] That could be a red flag. [A child who dies young may have his/her named given to a sibling born after his/her death - that is common. 3 Marys born in 1779 is not.]

If the tree is documented, check the sources. Someone may have used a marriage record for a person with the correct name, but is off geographically [lived in Cincinnati, married in Atlanta, never left Ohio], or two people with the same name in the same county blended into one person [Kevin Riley, b. 1846, m. 1897 to Sally Simms, with 8 kids. That's a 51 year gap for Kevin, not to mention that last kid b. 1916 when KR was 70. What about that Riley who married Edith Burns in 1870 and the guy born in 1877? Who fits where the best?] Satisfy yourself that the tree you are using has the data correct.

In my own family, Jacob Crousore was shown with wife Anny Ice, Annie I. Ice or similar variations. That stood until I found Jacob's marriage in Clinton Co., OH to Ama Jemima Smith. Census records indexed her as Anna, Annie, etc. The 'm' in Ama consistently looked like an 'n.' Where 'Ice' came from, I don't know. I looked over Ice surnames, no Annie in the 1800s in OH or IN. 25 trees on Ancestry had Annie Ice as Jacob's wife. I notified several of the posters. 2-3 made the correction, one combined the names and the others let it ride.