When embarking on researching your family tree, especially if you own a computer, you may be forgiven for assuming that you can complete the task, without ever leaving your desk. Let's get that fallacy out of the way straight away.

Yes, you can glean lots of information from the Internet. However, much of the information found on your computer, whilst browsing the multitude of sites devoted to genealogy, needs to be checked against official records to make sure that it is correct.

There is absolutely no way that you want to get thousands of records in your family tree program, or your master log, without double checking.

Also, you will never be one hundred percent sure, that all your records are perfect. this is though, what you should strive for.

Just take for example the 1901 census. There are many mistakes in the translation of this census. It will take several more years to correct this. I understand that for economic reasons, much of the 1901 census work was undertaken outside the UK. This is fine, except that much of the British population, at the time of the 1901 census, could not read or write with any great proficiency. Therefore, would it not have been better to have the work done by those who speak English as their first language.

I digress. But you can see why it's so important to check your findings with  official records.

That said, the many and varied sites on the Internet are still worth researching, as they contain a vast amount of information. Use this information as your basis, so you have an idea of where to go to check the official records.

Elsewhere on this site you will find many links to sites that will help with your research. One of the main sites you need to look at is the site of 'The Church Of Jesus Christ Of The Latter Day Saints.' The LDS, have the worlds largest collection of records, for family historians.

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