7 Checks Before Adding Someone to Your Family Tree
A familiar name is a starting point
You find a record with the name you have been searching for. The age looks close, the place sounds familiar, and an online tree already connects this person to your family. It is tempting to click Add and keep going.
Before you do, pause. A useful family tree records both your conclusions and the evidence behind them. A matching name gives you a candidate to investigate; it does not establish an identity or a family relationship.
These seven checks will help you decide whether a record belongs to your ancestor and whether a proposed family connection is supported. You can also use the companion Before You Add That Ancestor checklist during your next research session.
1 Check whether the dates fit
Put the known events in date order. Compare births, baptisms, marriages, census entries, children’s births, and deaths. Look for a life that makes sense as a whole.
An age that changes slightly between records does not automatically rule someone out. The person supplying the information may have estimated, misunderstood the question, or remembered incorrectly. A baptism date is also not necessarily a birth date.
However, a record placing someone alive after a well-established death needs investigation. So does a child born before a proposed parent could plausibly have had children. Record the conflict instead of changing a date simply to make the connection fit.
Try this: create a short timeline with four columns: date, place, event, and source. Mark estimated dates clearly.
2 Check whether the places connect
Look beyond a county or province name. Compare parishes, townships, villages, street addresses, and nearby communities. Two people can share a name and live surprisingly close together.
People moved, and administrative boundaries changed. A different place name may describe a genuine move, a neighbouring parish, or the same locality under another jurisdiction. Check a map and investigate the sequence rather than assuming either a match or a mismatch.
If your ancestor moved from England to Canada, look for records that connect the person before and after the move. A shared name and an approximate arrival year are useful leads, but the family group, birthplace, occupation, or other details should help bridge the gap.
3 Check the whole family
Compare spouses, children, siblings, and parents across records. Does the household develop in a sensible sequence? Do children’s names, ages, and birthplaces help connect one record to the next?
Be precise about the relationship you are trying to establish. Showing that two census entries describe the same adult does not, by itself, prove who that adult’s parents were. A shared surname in a household also does not establish that everyone is a biological relative.
If a spouse changes, investigate a death, separation, or later marriage rather than rejecting the record immediately. When available, read the relationship column and the full marriage or baptism entry, not just a search result.
4 Compare occupations and other identifying details
An occupation can help distinguish two people with the same name. A tailor appearing with the same spouse and children over several records may be easier to follow than a name alone.
Work could change with age, migration, or opportunity. A farm labourer might later become a farmer, and a person might have more than one trade. Treat an occupation as one piece of the identification, rather than a permanent label.
Addresses, signatures, religious affiliation, and military details may provide additional clues where records include them. Ask how each detail fits with the rest of the evidence.
5 Follow witnesses and neighbours
When the direct trail becomes uncertain, examine the people around your ancestor. Marriage witnesses, baptism sponsors, neighbours, business associates, and travelling companions may help connect records.
A recurring witness might be a relative, but could also be a friend or someone who regularly witnessed ceremonies. Look for that person in other records before deciding what the connection means.
Try this: write down two or three recurring names and investigate them separately. Their records may identify a shared address, a sibling’s marriage, or another link that your ancestor’s own records do not explain.
6 Find out where the information came from
An online tree can point you towards useful records. Follow its citations and examine what those records actually say. Several trees repeating the same claim may all depend on one unsupported entry.
Whenever possible, inspect the record image behind an index or transcription. Check the surrounding entries, column headings, and any marginal notes. If an image is unavailable, record that limitation and work with the best accessible source.
Choose one uncertain person in your tree this week. Use the companion checklist, identify the most important unanswered question, and decide which record could best help answer it. Careful progress on one relationship gives your later research a firmer foundation.
Ask who supplied each piece of information, when it was recorded, and how that person might have known it. One death record, for example, can contain information supplied at different levels of certainty: a recent death date and parents’ names recalled many decades after a birth.
Save enough detail to find the source again: the record collection, person, event date and place, page or entry number, archive or website, and a stable link or image reference where available. A citation helps you revisit your reasoning later.
7 Investigate contradictions before deciding
Write down both the supporting evidence and the details that do not fit. A birthplace discrepancy, a different spouse, or two overlapping households may expose a mistaken identity. It may also have an explanation that further research can test.
A useful question is: What other person could these records describe? Search for competing candidates instead of stopping with the first plausible result. Also distinguish an unsuccessful search from evidence that someone was absent: records may be missing, unindexed, or outside the collection you searched.
If you cannot explain a significant conflict, keep the connection tentative in your notes. Avoid merging people or presenting a parent-child link as established while the central question remains unresolved.
A fictional example Two men named William Carter
The following example is invented for teaching and does not describe a documented family.
You are tracing a William Carter who appears in an Ontario household with his wife Sarah and children Alice and George. Two English baptism entries look promising: one William has parents John and Mary; the other has parents Thomas and Elizabeth. Both births are close to the estimated year.
Choosing the closest birth year would leave the parentage uncertain. Instead, compare the Ontario family’s records with each English candidate. A marriage entry, a more specific birthplace, or a sibling’s records might help distinguish them. Trace the other William too: he may have remained in England while your candidate was already in Ontario.
These are research possibilities, not evidence that either baptism is correct. Until the records connect the Ontario William to one set of parents, keep both candidates in your research notes and leave his parentage unresolved.
Write down why you reached your conclusion
Before accepting a connection, write a brief explanation in your own words. Identify the question, cite the records that support your answer, explain meaningful discrepancies, and state any remaining uncertainty. If you cannot yet explain the connection, that is a useful sign that more work is needed.
The Board for Certification of Genealogists describes a broader framework called the Genealogical Proof Standard. It calls for sufficiently thorough research, accurate source documentation, careful comparison of evidence, resolution of conflicts, and a reasoned written conclusion. These seven checks are a beginner’s working aid; ticking every box does not by itself demonstrate that the standard has been met. [1]
Continue learning with a free course
If you would like a little guidance as you begin or revisit your family history, I invite you to explore my free course, Genealogy Foundations: Discover Your Family History and Ancestry. Take a look whenever you are ready for your next step.
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Further reading
[1] Board for Certification of Genealogists. Ethics and Standards, section on the Genealogical Proof Standard. https://bcgcertification.org/ethics-standards (accessed 2 November 2026).