Quality or Quantity Genealogy? 3 Sibling Rules I Follow

If you have been doing family history research for any amount of time - that should be an answer that is easy to choose.

But you would be surprised at how many "genealogy types" take great pride in displaying their NUMBERS.

Some examples (NONE of these are mine by the way):

• "I" have traced my ancestry back to the 15th century
• "I" have 12,358 people in my family tree
• "I" have traced my ancestry back to Charlemagne, or the Mayflower, or Genghis Khan, or Adam

Well guess what? I don't care. Why? Because tracing one's family history is not a competition. If you want to make it so - go for it.

To me it is all about Quality. I would rather know that my great great grandfather was born in Kolmar (AKA Chodziesen and now Chodziez) on July 2, 1825 and was the first of any of my ancestors to come to America (in 1851 to San Francisco via the steamer ship "New Orleans") - and that he was a furniture dealer and had several stores on Broadway in Oakland, California and that he and his wife had 9 children, and only 5 girls lived to adulthood. And that he was a very early member of two B'nai B'rith organizations - one in Marysville and the other in Oakland. Etc Etc. It would be nice to know the names and BMD information about his parents and grandparents - but even if I did - how much more than that would I be able to find out? From 18th century newspapers in Germany/Prussia? I doubt it. Unless they were famous there is a one in a billion chance that I would know more than date information and how certain would that information be?

I make sure that I don't gum up my tree with a bunch of extraneous "stuff." And I don't seek additional names just to increase the numbers. I have attempted to discourage "research runaway" by establishing some pretty strict rules for myself regarding collateral lines and "sideways" research, not to mention what I call "downlines."

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These are my rules and I am in no way suggesting that anyone adopt them. But what you should do is consider setting up your own rules to guide you.

So in addition to all my direct line ancestors of course, I have what I call 3 levels - !st, 2nd, and 3rd for sibling research. How deep (both directions) or wide are explained below:

1st Level – Siblings of Parents (my Aunts and Uncles)

(Name them here and include names under each sub-category below)

• Spouses of parent’s siblings (my aunts and uncles by marriage)
• Siblings and siblings spouses of aunts and uncles by marriage
• Parents of aunts and uncles by marriage 
• Grandparents of aunts and uncles by marriage and their children and children's spouses
• Only one generation of downline of siblings of spouses of aunts and uncles by marriage
• Complete downline of all aunts and uncles (first cousins and their children, grandchildren,etc.)

2nd Level – Siblings of Grandparents (my Great Aunts and Great Uncles)

(Name them here and include names under each sub-category below)

• Spouses of grandparent’s siblings (my great aunts and uncles by marriage)
• Siblings and siblings spouses of great aunts and uncles by marriage
• Parents of great aunts and uncles by marriage
• No children or downlines from siblings of great aunts and uncles by marriage 
• Downline of great aunts and uncles children limited to two generations

3rd level – Siblings of Great Grandparents (my Great Great Aunts and Great Great Uncles)

(Name them here and include names under each sub-category below)

• Spouses of great grandparent’s siblings (my great great aunts and uncles by marriage)
• Parents of great great aunts and uncles by marriage
  
• No siblings of great great aunts and uncles by marriage
• Downline of great great aunts and uncles children limited to two generations

Now - there are certainly going to be exceptions, and those tend to be selected subjectively, depending on the situation. And this does not mean that some folks are not researched - the living might be found in order to provide clarity on some of the "selected" folks. But those living folks may not be added to my tree.


So there you have it - if you want to have a better chance at having a quality tree - one way is to limit the number of names that you include and the only way is to set and stick to your own rules.


By the way - I only have 820 names in my Family Tree - and unless someone starts having lots of babies - it won't get to a thousand any time soon. And there are just a small number who were born in the 1700s - and that's fine by me.

Quality not Quantity!