Dave started by saying he is a great fan of digitisation rather than having to travel to lots of different archives, however when reading anything online the context is important and it is always good practice to look at the whole page or even several of them.
The benefits to the Archives of putting their records online are many including no damage to original documents and a good revenue source.
To the User they include 24 hour access worldwide and, as said before, no need to travel.
To the Company, the more records they produce the more subscribers they gain.
DON’T BELIEVE THE HINTS
If you are using the likes of Ancestry, the Genealogist and FindMyPast don’t take the hints as definite, they are literally just a hint- this person might be your ancestor but equally they might not. Research is never easy, you need to learn to tease out the truth.
He then gave some examples using the analogy of the chicken and egg. Don’t jump to conclusions and if there seem to be 2 or 3 possibilities then you will need to kill off the wrong ones to be certain which is which.
One example given was Thomas Bennett, Lord of Little Warley in Essex. Lots of trees have him as dying in 1703, however an indenture of his son’s clearly shows him as deceased in 1685. There had been a gap in the Parish register so the only one appeared to be in 1703, however on browsing the register there was a very clear gap over several years. In fact a later Cleric commented on the fact.
It also helps to think Social Class, Occupation and naming patterns. Is it logical that this person is your ancestor??
Fully understand the Data set, is it complete or are there missing years or sections? Even when the website catalogue shows 100% it may not be, Dave cited one case in which 1 whole register was missing despite claims to the contrary. The 1598 Order regarding keeping Parish registers was not clear, some kept them from 1558 but many didn’t. Local Officials were left to their own devices and some were more conscientious than others. Even now some Vicars are still refusing to hand over the Registers in some cases. Perhaps the collection was 100% when first digitised but more records are now available. These are all the Gaps that Dave talks about – Mind out for them!!
Evidence based research is essential, in one case he quoted at the end of last year several thousand online Ancestry had a glaring error, a few weeks ago almost 4,000 more had the same mistake, Check everything and relish the challenge
Report by Sheila Harris - Speakers Secretary for Kent FHS