Verifying Facts and Saving Documents

It came to my attention recently that all the research that I have done on Ancestry would disappear forever if (heaven forbid!) the website ever went down. On Ancestry, when I "save" a document to my family tree, it is merely linking the document to a person on my tree.  It does not save anything to my computer. I broke down and purchased Family Tree Maker, which syncs to Ancestry and supposedly saves everything to my computer, but I don't trust it completely.  I decided to systematically save every piece of evidence one by one from Ancestry to my personal computer. After two years or more of research, this is a massive undertaking!  The result, however is totally worth it.  I now have a folder of primary documents that are labelled in detail and easily organized. 

I started with my own profile and downloaded every supporting document. Each document is labelled:  YEAR_LastName_DocumentName_PlaceName.  For example, one might be called: 1859_Allen_USCensus_HancockIL.  At the same time, I create a fresh research log on paper for each person, giving the date, event, document, and conclusions. I am currently on my 3X great grandparents. 

This process is much more organized, and makes it easier to spot discrepancies and inconsistencies in my research.  I am not making any forward progress on building our family tree, but I am certainly shoring up the foundation.

Getting in deep

I broke down finally and bought the Family Tree Maker software.  I have wondered why people would need software when Ancestry does it all for you.  Yesterday I asked another serious genealogy researcher that question.  Her reasoning was... it puts your family records in your own hands in case the website goes down or they start charging exorbitant fees.  It makes it possible to continue working on the family tree even when internet is not available.  It keeps your information private until you are ready to post it on Ancestry, thus allowing you to do all the necessary verification first. I hadn't thought of any of that but it made sense.

The Family Tree Maker software downloaded all of my records from Ancestry, and automatically syncs with my online records. It gives a more comprehensive display of the information on one screen.  It can print out a large number of different reports which may come in handy.  Ancestry prints reports but is more limited.

I've found that the more ways you can look at your information, the easier it is to spot inconsistencies and inaccuracies.  Right away, I was able to see that one of my links was incorrect because I could see the birth and death dates for two generations on the same page. I have had trouble seeing the media and documents that are posted on Ancestry - that might be a major limitation, but I am still working through it.