Starting From Zero

I have 1,800 people in my family tree.

About 5,500 events — births, marriages, deaths, census appearances, burials. Names going back generations. A file that looks substantial when you open it in RootsMagic.

Almost none of it is verified.

Almost all of it is a FamilySearch import. Someone, somewhere, added these names. Maybe they checked a source. Maybe they copied another tree. Maybe they guessed. I don’t know, because I didn’t check either. I imported the file, looked at the numbers, and felt like I had a family tree.

I don’t. I have a collection of hints with names attached.

What I’m actually starting with

• A RootsMagic file with 1,800 people and no audit trail.
• A MyHeritage subscription I haven’t used for original-record research.
• The same account is full of hints I haven’t examined.
• Five research log notes for myself and my four grandparents. All of them say the same thing: research not yet begun.

This is not a genealogy blog that picks up mid-story. This is a genealogy blog that starts at the actual beginning.

The plan

I’m following the Genealogical Proof Standard — five elements that together define what counts as a sound conclusion:

1. Reasonably exhaustive search.
2. Complete and accurate source citations.
3. Analysis and correlation of the evidence.
4. Resolution of any conflicting evidence.
5. A sound written conclusion.

If a fact can’t survive all five, it doesn’t go into my tree. And I’m working inside-out — from myself, to my parents, to my grandparents, outward. That means step one is not an ancestor in the 1700s. Step one is my own birth certificate.

The toolchain

• RootsMagic 11 — the database of record. Nothing enters here without a source.
• MyHeritage / FamilySearch — record search, not tree hints.
• A private research log — where the analysis happens. Sources get examined, conflicts get resolved, conclusions get written.
• A public wiki at wiki.koen.net — where verified findings get published with full citations.

The blog is where I write about the process. The wiki is where the results live.

Why this blog exists

Genealogy blogs tend to fall into two categories: “I solved a brick wall from 1823” and “here are my ancestor profiles.” I can’t write the first because I haven’t solved anything yet, and I won’t write the second because ancestor profiles without citations are just stories.

This blog exists to document the work itself — the methodology, the dead ends, the decisions, the corrections. If you’re starting from zero too, or if you’ve inherited an unsourced tree and want to know what it actually takes to verify it, that’s the readership I’m writing for.

The first real research post comes after I find my birth certificate.

Right now, that hasn’t happened. This is the starting gun.