| Dear Fellow Genealogist,
We genealogists love a good tree metaphor: “Family tree” diagrams help us visualize our descent from ancestors, and “branches” split off from that direct line. The imagery is apt in another way: Real trees don’t always grow straight and healthy, and neither do family trees.
As a sapling, a tree might have faced something that stunted its growth or made it bend in an unusual way. Or maybe it started to lean after enduring strong winds or contracting a disease.
Likewise, online family trees may have been planted in poor soil—or become sick from bad record analysis or errors in logic. We cover some symptoms of such “tree rot” in today’s featured article.
In other cases, a tree’s branches will become tangled up in themselves. That’s not unlike records that have conflicting details—find an action plan for resolving them in today’s premium article and a special live presentation at 3 pm ET.
Finally, you can’t fully understand a tree until you also learn about its environment. To help you study your ancestor’s "biome," we round out today’s newsletter with resources for researching house histories.
With dedication and careful work, we can save our family trees, no matter what state they’re in. As a famous bear once said: “Only you can prevent forest fires.”
Hopefully barking up the right family tree,
— Andrew, Editor of Family Tree Magazine
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