Some Common Detours:

People's names changed too. Many people fleeing Europe in the 1800s changed their surnames. Often it was because the name translated better in English and was more American sounding. In the days of those immigrants, most of them made every effort to fit in and to blend into the American life. If their name was very foreign sounding or difficult to pronounce, they often made it shorter or translated it. Goldsmith might become Gold. Martinstern might be shortened to Martin. Some Gaelic people dropped the O' or Mac or Mc from their names. A lot depended on the choice of the immigrant and the expertise of the clerk.

There were many errors in spelling. At Castle Garden and later Ellis Island, as immigrants came through, the clerks often wrote down what they heard without getting the correct spelling. Gavin, for instance, sometimes became Garvin because that's how it sounded when spoken with an Irish brogue. Jacobsen might go down on the list as Jacobson. Many of the early immigrants did not speak or write English and the clerks had to guess at the spelling of what they heard. So when you are searching, use the soundex system rather than the exact name function on a search engine. The soundex search will get you all the names that are similar and often one of those is the one you want.

Often in older times, close friends were called aunt and uncle by the children of the family. It might take an older member of the family to tell you that you would never find Aunt Maggie Jones in the family tree. The Jones family lived next door and they were close friends, even godparents to the children, but not directly related.

Many times family members will supply you with pictures and information that would have taken hours to find any other way. Be sure and record what you found, where you found it and who gave you the information. If you are lucky enough to get pictures, it is helpful to have a scanner so that you can make an inexpensive copy and return the original. Put a notation lightly in pencil on the back of the picture, identifying who is in the picture and when it might have been taken. Great Aunt Ella Morgan and her husband Bill, Los Angeles, California circa 1895, obtained from Jane Morgan.

It is amazing how quickly you can forget who is who if you don't keep a record. Once you have a list of names with birth date or circa birthdates, locations and any other information you can garner, you are ready to begin a more formal search.

Note: Using Pictures as clues. Pictures, especially with clearly defined backgrounds can help you date a family.

The clothing worn in the picture should be carefully noted. The clothing, especially women's clothing, can help you to put the date into the right decade. An automobile in the background can bump you up into a different century, even a decade if you can recognize the automobile make and year. A street sign, prominent building or familiar home can give you the location. Children, if identified, can approximate a date. If you know that, it is Uncle Bill in the picture and he appears to be about six years old, and you know that he was 70 in 1970 then presto! you have a circa 1906 for dating the picture. Even without identifying the faces, you can get an idea of time and place by the background. If the picture is of a formal rite such as a wedding, you might already have the date in your bio binder. You will find that you have more circa dates than definite dates, especially at the beginning of your family search. It happens, often, that a circa date is as close as you will ever come.
What Records do I want? Whether you are doing a small, contained tree or an extensive genealogical family search, you want birth and death records, marriage records, military records, and family listings, that is, names in each separate family unit. You will find that families all over the world tend to use the same first name repeatedly through generations. Therefore, you want to be sure, if you have five different James Jones, that you know into which family each James belongs. We have several with the names James in our ancestors. It took a while to distinguish who was who since they are all found on the family tree a hundred or more years ago.