That brings us to another problem you may have after all the work you put into researching your genealogy. How do you know that you have the right person? As we research our family tree, some individuals that we thought were related to us, turn out to be the wrong person. We determine this through careful research of all available documents and resources. Even the most experienced genealogists run into this situation from time to time. Sometimes it helps to group people we are researching into confirmed, potential, and not related files. This way we can keep things straight.

There will be times you thought you had the right person, only to find out that there was another person with the same name in the same location who was about the same age. This is why all available records for each person must be checked. To determine if you have the right ancestor, be sure all of the names match. Maybe they are not spelled exactly the same but they should be close unless there was a name change somewhere. Be sure the locations match. If they always lived in NY and the 1910 census shows a family with the same names in Alaska, then they probably are not the same people. The names, dates and events should all add up. Even in the 1700's most women did not have children at the age of 12, nor did they have children at 50. In most locations marriage before the age of 15 or 16 was very unlikely. An age gap between husband and wife of more than 35 years should be suspect. Always be ready to reexamine your research for possible errors. Be sure that you have the right people in your family tree. This will help avoid brick walls later on.