Five Minute Finds: Favorite Genealogy Myths Debunked

Spend 5 minutes with Anne Gillespie Mitchell aka Ancestry Anne as she walks you through 6 genealogy myths and why they aren’t true. 1. Native American Ancest…

Google News Timeline is an ideal tool for family historians who want to further their genealogy research. Lisa Louise Cooke, host of the popular Genealogy Ge…
Video Rating: 4 / 5

13 thoughts on “Five Minute Finds: Favorite Genealogy Myths Debunked

  1. Very nicely done.

    I would say though that the family tree myth is that they are all accurate.
    I know so many people who think they’ve hit the jackpot and will simply
    add them to their own trees. The truth is just as the video says, that
    they can help you break down brick walls. I use the additional info (like
    a maiden name or married name) to help me in my searches. But I still
    independently verify everything. And at least once I’ve found my ancestor
    in someone else’s tree but it turned out their ancestor was someone else
    with the same name (which I shared of course).

    The Ellis Island name change myth is number one that I hear among fellow
    Jews. There were a few in my family too, which I have debunked.

    Some others I’ve seen:

    “All European Jewish records were destroyed in the Holocaust.” Not even
    close to true. The Nazis destroyed many current records at the end of the
    war (and cemeteries throughout) but otherwise were completely uptight about
    saving and creating records. Even the Torah scrolls they stole from
    synagogues were cataloged.

    “I’m descended from such and such famous Rabbi.” This is the Jewish
    equivalent of being descended from a Cherokee princess.

    “We were lucky; none of our family perished in the Holocaust.”
    Unfortunately, once you start researching extended family before the
    1930’s, you’ll often find that, most Jews in Central and Eastern Europe who
    did not immigrate far enough away did not survive (and virtually none
    survived with their families intact). For many of us, this includes some
    fairly close cousins.

    “My ancestors spoke Hebrew for their everyday language.” “My ancestors
    spoke Yiddish for their everyday language.” US Census forms and other
    documents often recorded the mother tongues of Jewish immigrants as
    “Hebrew” or even “Jewish.” Very often it was “Yiddish.” Hebrew was only
    used for religious purposes. Until the creation of Israel, it was not used
    regularly. Yiddish of course was very common. But a lot of immigrants
    didn’t speak it in their home countries. My grandmother, for example,
    reports that when her parents immigrated from what is now Belarus, they
    only spoke Russian but had to learn Yiddish to get along.

  2. Good to know. Although, I’ve come across more questionable family trees
    than accurate ones.

    So many people don’t know how to use them properly, and seem to click on
    everything they see before doing any research.

    Members should be forced to watch a tutorial on “family tree hints” before
    starting a tree. 

  3. this has changed since this aired…. I can not get the dates running
    across the top…. nothing called LABS….. so now just looks like regular
    news…. sure wish it worked for me

  4. I really enjoyed this video, extremely helpful and informative. Looking
    forward to the next one! Will really help with my genealogy research.

  5. Unfortunately Google closed down “Labs” and that included the News
    Timeline. For now you can still access historical newspapers from the
    Google News Archive. However, a little bird once told me that we may not
    have seen the last of timelines. Keep your fingers crossed!

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