"The past is a foreign country" -- opening phrase of The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley, 1953. I have long avoided researching my ancestors pre-1850 because I didn't want to battle with the records in this foreign land. My excuse was the *lack* of records, but really there are lots of records, but they are *different* records; not what I'm used to searching, and not with which I'm comfortable. Now that I'm digging into the family of my third great-grandfather, born about 1799, there is no avoiding this foreign country, beginning with tick marks and tax lists.  Clinch-Powell rivers basin, Tennessee portion : Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne, Grainger, Hancock, Hawkins, and Union counties, Tennessee [1] Putting Names to the Tick Marks In my work on my third-great-grandparents George Henry McBee and Martha Willis McBee, it is necessary to find each member of the family in every census to explore the history of this family. Anything less is not complete basic research

[1] Exhaustive Research   When researching a difficult ancestor do you ever wonder “have I checked EVERY source that might contain information about this person”? “What could I be missing?” I have good news for you. There is a checklist for that! There are many. If one does not suit your style of research, try another one. A quick Google search brought up 1,750,000,000 results. That is a bit much to deal with. Good Sources for Checklists The Mid-Continent Public Library has a simple one-page list that I have used. [ 2 ] The National Institute for Genealogy offers a similar two-page checklist in a slightly different format. [3] Family Tree Magazine also has a one-page checklist that is quite comprehensive, including wolf-scalp bounties. [4] It does not include a space for the ancestor’s name, and is a PDF so you would have to scan and save it to the ancestor’s file. Roots of Kinship offers a complex Excel-based checklist that is incredibly comprehensive, and useful if you want to s

Why Use Multiple Sites? The most effective research advice is to focus your efforts by asking a question, and creating a plan to find the information you need to answer that question. No one site has all the sources, information, matches, or cousins. I'm going to quote here from Wikipedia : The Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) is a guideline for establishing the reliability ("proof") of a genealogical conclusion with reasonable certainty. It is important within the genealogical community for clearly communicating the quality of research performed, such as by a professional genealogist. It is also useful for helping new genealogists understand what is needed to do high-quality research. It has five elements: reasonably exhaustive research; complete and accurate source citations; analysis and correlation of the collected information; resolution of any conflicting evidence; and a soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion.    - summarizing Board for Cert