- try to be thorough
- try to be accurate, or as much as possible
- try not to speculate any more than I have to.
- think rationally
- don't jump to conclusions
- consider all the possibilities
I like to know the reason for certain things ... like how do I KNOW this person married that person, how do I KNOW they had this many children and lived here, where did I get this date from, etc. If I don't know the exact date or location of something I'll put what I do know and where I got it from rather than guess. If I'm reasonably sure of something but not 100% I'll sometimes put a ? indicating that I could be wrong.
It annoys me to no end that so many other people do not do any of these things. I'll go on Ancestry to cross-reference some things from other people's trees and end up so annoyed and frustrated at their stupidity, it drives me crazy. Just today I saw a tree that had a John Gray married to 3 different women at the same time, kids from all of them with dates all over the place, resulting in over 50 children altogether (35 from one wife!), right up until the day he died. Now seriously people, how likely is that? I know they tended to have large families, but that's a bit ridiculous.
I know I'm not perfect, but I do try to be reasonable. I just wish other people would do the same. It would make researching so much more pleasant for everyone.
