What are the best family history websites?

[shortgilly]

Genealogical websites work a little like Facebook or Wikipedia. They are places where people can access a collection of information gathered from multiple places. Some things on the websites are user submitted, some are primary or secondary records, some are compilations based on computer generated algorithms that search for similarities and assume a certain degree of similarity is for the same person. Without knowing what websites or records you're working with, we really can't give you proper direction on how to resolve your particular issue, only a little general guidance.

The trick is to know what type of information you are looking at in each and every case and how to evaluate it. In genealogy, there's always a margin of error, because humans provide information and keep the records we work with. We'll often find multiple census records that suggest a person was born in 2 different years 2 years apart, for example. This is common because A) the birth year was estimated from age, B) someone else in the house gave the information, and/or C) people didn't keep track of birth dates as carefully in the past as they do now. But, a birth certificate is considered way more accurate than an un-sourced and un-cited user submitted tree, for example. Another trick is making sure you're looking at information for the same person, and not someone of the same name. How the information was collected, from whom, when, and how many opportunities there have been for human error (re-writing or re-telling) are critical for evaluating information.

A few hints for making good use of resources: Avoid user-submitted or prepared trees/pedigrees except where they have sources cited, and go to the sources. Indexes and transcriptions are better than trees but still likely to have more errors. Use these to get you to the original source. Try to find and work with original documents or images as exclusively as possible. Understanding how each type of record was collected and prepared and what that means is an invaluable tool for assessing the information.

I've also found that folks jump to websites first and have problems because they started in the middle of a process. First, lay a good foundation by following a basic research process:
1. Interview your living relatives.
2. Examine your documents and those of relatives that will allow it. (In steps 1 & 2 you'll want to get to a deceased ancestor or those born 70-100 years ago).
3. Prepare for research by learning about basic genealogy, genealogy specific to your known ancestors.
4. Organize your data. Free software is available.
5. Research one document at time for one generation at a time, one ancestor at a time.

In the U.K. I've found FreeBMD, FreeCen, FreeReg, GENUKI, Find My Past, and Family Search to be the most helpful.