Trial and Error

I have had an Ancestry.com account for many years.  Let's just say that when I first made the account that I started all about it the wrong way.  I was very click happy and didnt care I just wanted to see how far back I could go and didnt pay attention to anything that I was doing or even glance at the records.   I also printed out family registers that were not even close to being on the right track.   Needless to say I threw myself way way off track.

I then went and started reading everything that I possibly could on what would turn out to be more than a hobby.  I bought a couple of books and then since I have downloaded every book possible on my Kindle and I still do.   I have read so many books on genealogy.   Do I think I know everything about it from reading these books, well that answer is a definite and resounding NO!!!!
I love to work on everything involving my family history.  I carry bags of files just about every time I leave the house so that I can work on it when I can.   I have since long ago threw away the registers I had printed out on not even the right family , and gotten rid of anything else I had printed or had from that era of so many wrong turns and mistakes.

I started *researching the right way* a little over a year ago.  When I say the right way, this time I took my time, started with myself and worked backwards, the way you are supposed to do it.  I went in search of information at my mom and dad's and searched thru info I could find in my own house.   Found where when they cleaned out my paternal grandfather's cousins house they found a whole entire box of clipped obits.  I located every funeral card I could find, I searched for copies of vital records, basically I looked for whatever I might find that would help me in my search.

During that time of being "click-happy" I would also use the ancestry.com member trees and think of them as genealogical gold....  Now I know different.  While I do not altogether ignore them, I do at least look at them to see if i might find any info on them that might lead me in right direction or if I know for a fact that their info is wrong Ill try to send them a message.  I mean if family or someone that knew my family knew something was wrong on my tree I would love it if they sent me a message.

I do hope anyone out there reading this now, that is doing it the same way I did when I first started please stop, take a breath and look at what you are doing.     If you are just out there clicking away and not paying attention, please stop, trash all you had and start from scratch.   If you know for a FACT, that something is right, you may not want to trash it but at least start over.  I would rather have 100 of the right, verified people in my tree, than 3,000 that are there that are not right.